Lav Agarwal, the 48-year-old Joint Secretary at Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, has been addressing the press conferences on the country's COVID-19 response for more than 40 days. A 1996 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, Agarwal studied mechanical engineering at IIT Delhi. He cracked the civil services exam in 1996 with an all-India rank of 21.