Shri Apurva Chandra belongs to the 1988 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Maharashtra Cadre. A Civil Engineer, Shri Chandra obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering and Masters in Structural Engineering from IIT Delhi. He has long experience of dealing with issues relating to industries while working in Government of Maharashtra and Government of India.

Shri Chandra has spent more than seven years in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in the Government of India. He has been involved in framing policies with regard to fuel supplies to industries, supply logistics, transportation, storage & distribution of fuel products etc. He was directly associated with Natural Gas transportation infrastructure, setting up of city gas distribution companies, LNG import terminals and allocation of gas to industries. Shri Chandra has served on the Board of Directors of Maharatna PSU, GAIL (India) Ltd. and Petronet LNG Ltd.

Shri Chandra has worked for over four years between 2013 and 2017 as Principal Secretary (Industries) in the Government of Maharashtra. Maharashtra led the country in attracting FDI and other investments over the period. Shri Chandra was instrumental for a slew of new policies like Electronic Policy, Retail policy, Single Window Policy to attract new Investments. The first smart industrial township under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) has been operationalised at Aurangabad in Maharashtra under the leadership of Shri Chandra. More than 70 clusters for MSMEs have been operationalised to make available modern technology through common facility centres. Leading industrial players like General Electric, General Motors, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Fiat Chrysler, Mahindra, Posco, Emerson, LG, Haier etc. have invested in Maharashtra during Mr. Chandra's tenure.

Shri Apurva Chandra joined as Director General (Acquisition) in Ministry of Defence w.e.f. 01.12.2017 with the mandate of strengthening the Indian Armed Forces by expediting the acquisition process. Several major contracts like S-400 missile system, Multi Role Helicopters, Assault Rifles, Naval ships, T-90 tanks etc. were signed during the period. He chaired the Committee to draft the new Defence Acquisition Procedure. The DAP 2020 has come into effect from 1stOctober 2020 and will go a long way in promoting AtmaNirbhar Bharat while expediting the procurements for the Armed Forces.

Shri Apurva Chandra took over as Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment w.e.f. 01.10.2020 with the mandate to implement the Labour Codes passed by the Parliament in September, 2020 expeditiously. Under his guidance rules have been framed for all four Labour Codes after extensive consultations with all stakeholders. The Atmanibhar Bharat RozgarYojana has been launched to provide employment opportunities to 78.5 lakh workers in the formal sector with a budget of Rs. 23,000 crores. He chaired the Governing Body of the ILO and guided the discussions to provide relief to workers affected by the Covid pandemic. With his initiatives a scheme was launched to provide pension to families of workers who lost their lives during Covid. He continues to work on reducing the compliance burden and digitizing the interface of the department with the public.