New Delhi: Mugdha Sinha, IAS, a senior bureaucrat of the 1999 batch from the Rajasthan cadre, has been appointed as the Managing Director of the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). Her appointment comes with the rank and pay scale of an Additional Secretary to the Government of India, according to an official announcement.

Prior to this new role, Sinha served as the Director General of Tourism in the Ministry of Tourism, a post that also carried the responsibilities of an Additional Secretary. Her empanelment to this senior rank was approved in May last year. Earlier, she played a pivotal role as the Joint Secretary heading the GLAM Division in the Ministry of Culture, where she conceptualised and successfully executed three major national events — the International Museum Expo (IME), the Festival of Libraries (FOL), and the India Art, Architecture & Design Biennale (IAADB).

Sinha’s career has been marked by significant contributions to the fields of culture and science & technology, both at the national level and in her home state of Rajasthan. She notably served as the Director General of Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK), Jaipur, during the pandemic period. Under her leadership, innovative initiatives were introduced — most notably, Astro Night Sky Tourism, a first-of-its-kind tourism model that gained rapid popularity in Rajasthan and sparked similar projects in other states. This effort was instrumental in the eventual designation of Hanle in Ladakh as India’s first Dark Sky Reserve.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, she also launched a crowdsourced digital platform to create a comprehensive artist database. This initiative facilitated performance-linked financial assistance to artists, allowing them to sustain their work and livelihoods with dignity through a time of crisis.

Mugdha Sinha’s appointment as MD of ITDC is expected to infuse new vision and dynamism into India’s tourism infrastructure and promotion efforts, given her rich experience across cultural, scientific, and administrative sectors.