According to sources, Joshi, who will replace Dilip Rath, whose tenure gets over on December 1, will take over charge soon.

Her appointment as the dairy board’s interim chairman effectively ends long-drawn speculations on Rath getting another extension.

Rath, who was serving as managing director (MD) of NDDB and later had held the additional charge of the post of chairman since August 1, 2016 had assumed the chairman’s post for the first term on December 1, 2016.

Later, the appointments committee of the cabinet had approved re-nomination of Rath as NDDB chairman for a further period of two years with effect from December 1, 2018.

Rath, also a former IAS officer, had taken premature retirement from the service to join NDDB as MD in 2011.

His appointment as chairman in 2016 had come in the backdrop of NDDB’s former chairman T Nanda Kumar stepping down as chairman.

It is worth mentioning here that speculations are still rife on who will take over as regular chairman of NDDB.

“The process for appointment of regular chairman has started,” said a source close to the development.

Some prominent names from Gujarat’s dairy sector are doing rounds since quite some time.

But NDDB’s chairmanship which was being held by dairy professionals started shifting towards IAS officers since 2014.

Interestingly, NDDB’s founding chairman and Father of India’s White Revolution late Dr Verghese Kurien had never missed an opportunity to criticise IAS officers and bureaucracy as his dislike for ‘babudom’ was quite known.

Kumar, a retired IAS officer, had quit half-way before his five-year term was to end in March 2019 citing ‘personal reasons’.

He was appointed as the chairman of NDDB on March 3, 2014.