Shri Ateesh Kumar Singh is a senior Indian civil servant and a 1994-batch Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer who currently serves as Additional Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. He joined DPIIT on deputation after serving as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, bringing extensive experience across transport, infrastructure, MSME policy, industrial development and government programmes. DPIIT’s current work-allocation order assigns him responsibility for Logistics, Internal Trade and e-Commerce (ITeC), and Startup India, placing him at the centre of several of the government’s most important initiatives for strengthening India’s domestic commerce and supply-chain ecosystem.
In his present role, Shri Singh is particularly focused on making India’s logistics and internal-trade systems more efficient, integrated and technology-enabled. His portfolio encompasses logistics policy and coordination, internal trade and e-commerce, as well as the Startup India programme, giving him a wide-ranging mandate that connects physical infrastructure with digital commerce and entrepreneurship. His work is closely aligned with the government’s broader objective of reducing logistics friction, improving ease of doing business, strengthening domestic supply chains and creating an environment in which Indian enterprises can scale more efficiently. DPIIT’s official directory confirms his present responsibilities and identifies him as Additional Secretary for Logistics, Internal Trade and e-Commerce and Startup India.
A major theme of Shri Singh’s professional approach is the integration of infrastructure, technology and policy. His current logistics mandate places him close to the implementation of initiatives such as PM Gati Shakti and the National Logistics Policy, which seek to improve multimodal connectivity, reduce logistics costs and create greater coordination between different modes of transport and government departments. His perspective has also emphasised the importance of strengthening India’s logistics ecosystem as a foundation for industrial competitiveness and export growth. A recent profile described his current work as spanning PM Gati Shakti, Startup India, logistics integration, MSME reforms and digital commerce initiatives.
His earlier tenure in the Ministry of MSME further strengthened his understanding of the challenges faced by India’s small and medium-sized enterprises. In September 2025, while serving as Joint Secretary, MSME, he urged industry to contribute actively to government datasets and provide specific inputs to help build greater resilience among MSMEs amid economic, technological and geopolitical disruptions. His emphasis on stronger government-industry collaboration and data-driven policymaking illustrates a leadership philosophy centred on using institutional knowledge and stakeholder participation to improve policy outcomes.
Startup development is another important dimension of his current mandate. In June 2026, Shri Singh addressed a Startup India engagement programme in Jaipur, highlighting the importance of stronger Centre-State collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship in shaping India’s next phase of economic development. He emphasised Rajasthan’s potential contribution to India’s innovation story while discussing the evolution of Startup India over its first decade and the priorities for its next phase. He has also been involved in the government’s evolving startup-financing architecture; the 2026 notification for Startup India Fund of Funds 2.0 was issued under his authority as Additional Secretary, DPIIT.
His public policy engagement extends to sustainability and climate-aligned investment. At the ASSOCHAM Green Investment & Sustainability Conclave in February 2026, Shri Singh called for stronger private-sector participation and greater innovation in climate finance, linking capital formation and sustainability with India’s broader economic-growth agenda. This reflects the breadth of his current responsibilities, which increasingly require balancing industrial growth with resilience, sustainability and technological transformation.
With more than three decades of public-service experience, Shri Ateesh Kumar Singh brings to DPIIT a distinctive combination of transport-sector knowledge, MSME policy experience and current responsibility for logistics, e-commerce and startup development. His present mission is closely connected to building a more integrated and competitive Indian economy—one in which efficient logistics, seamless internal trade, digital commerce, entrepreneurship and stronger public-private collaboration reinforce one another. His leadership is therefore particularly significant to India’s ambition of lowering the cost of doing business, strengthening domestic supply chains and enabling Indian enterprises to compete more effectively in national and global markets.
