Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi new Election Commissioner

Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi, who retired only a week ago as Civil Aviation Secretary, was on Tuesday appointed as an Election Commissioner.

President Pranab Mukherjee made the appointment filling a vacancy caused by the elevation of V S Sampath as Chief Election Commissioner after S Y Quraishi demitted office.

H S Brahma is the other Election Commissioner.

Zaidi will be in office till the year 2017.

Zaidi, a 1976 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, retired as Civil Aviation Secretary on July 31.

Prior to that, he had served as director general of civil aviation and as the permanent representative of India to the council of international civil aviation organization from 2005-08. He also served earlier as chairman in airport authority of India.

A Masters in Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Zaidi has been a Mason Fellow for Public Policy at Harvard Institute for

International Development. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Finance from Indian Institute of Finance and holds doctorate in Bio-Chemistry.