Mandeep K Bhandari Appointed New CBSE Chairperson

The central government has nominated Mr. Mandeep K Bhandari, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre batch of the 2001, as the new chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). This appointment has been completed via an order of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on September 25th 2026. The IAS officer has been appointed as the chairman of the CBSE in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to the Union Government, with the post temporarily upgraded for the appointment.

Important Points of the Appointment

This appointment is a senior-level administrative appointment in the education sector. The important points are,

Particular	Details
Officer	Mandeep K Bhandari
Associated Service	Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
IAS batch	2001
Cadre	AGMUT
New post	Chairperson, CBSE
Rank and pay	Additional Secretary to the Union Government
Appointed by	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet

The Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories cadre is part of the cadre structure of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories cadre. It is a joint cadre of the Union Government.

CBSE Chairman and Recent Administrative Reforms

The appointment of Bhandari comes after a number of administrative reforms that have taken place in CBSE in 2026. It has been reported that the government had transferred CBSE chairman Rahul Singh and had initiated an inquiry for procurement regarding the OSM system of the board.

Later, the government had appointed Lokhande Prashant Sitaram as the CBSE chairman in June 2026. Now, the appointment of Bhandari is yet another reform in the administration of the board.

The OSM system refers to the digital evaluation of answer papers of candidates. As per the report, the government had constituted a one-man committee, which was chaired by S. Radha Chauhan, who was the Chairman of the Capacity Building Commission.

What is CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education)?

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is a national level educational institution that conducts school education exams and affiliations of schools in India as well as overseas.

The current institutional composition of the CBSE has been developed in the course of many years. It is known that the history of the Board goes back to the development of secondary education boards in the 20th century. In 1929 a joint Board for Rajputana, Central India and Gwalior was formed.

The Government of India named the Board with its current title Central Board of Secondary Education in 1952. Later the Board was reconstructed on July 1, 1962 when Delhi Board of Higher Secondary Education joined it and the office moved to New Delhi.

Role of CBSE

Apart from organizing board exams, there are certain important functions of CBSE which include the following,

Organization of exams for secondary and senior secondary levels.
Affiliation to deserving schools.
Development and revision of curricular content.
Adoption of policies related to examination procedures.
Encouraging academic and teacher training programs.
Adopting educational reforms in line with national education policy.
Organization of exams and other academic services for affiliated schools in India and abroad.

The Board’s current official website includes some important functions like examinations, academics, affiliation, training, skill education and other administrative functions.