Senior Indian Information Service officer Sheyphali B Sharan on Monday assumed charge as the principal director general of the Press Information Bureau and the spokesperson of the government.

A 1990-batch officer, Sharan is the fifth woman officer to head the PIB after Neelam Kapur, Deepak Sandhu, Shakuntala Mahawal and N J Krishna.

Sharan succeeds Manish Desai, who superannuated as principal director general of PIB. Sharan had earlier served as the spokesperson of the Election Commission and the Finance Ministry.