Archana Dutta has been appointed new press secretary of President of India Pratibha Patil [Images]. She will take over from S M Khan, who served as the press secretary to former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

An officer of the 1983 batch of the Indian Information Service, Archana Dutta has worked in various capacities. Before joining as OSD to the President she was posted as Deputy Director General (media and communication) at the Press Information Bureau.

She had also worked as an OSD to the governor of Karnataka from 2003 to 2005 and served as information officer in Kolkata, and in the directorate of field publicity in Lucknow from 1991-93. She headed the song and dance division in Karnataka before taking over as additional principal information officer.

There were five contenders for the post of which three were women -- all of them from the IIS.