India, June 2 -- The Centre has appointed senior IAS officer Prashant Sitaram Lokhande as the new Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education and Indian Information Service officer Varun Bhardwaj as its Secretary, as the board grapples with a widening controversy over its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system and the awarding of a key contract to a private company.

The appointments come days after the transfer of former CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta amid growing scrutiny of the digital evaluation process introduced this year.

Lokhande, a 2001-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, was serving as Additional Secretary in the Union Home Ministry before his appointment.

He succeeds Rahul Singh, who has been posted as Add...