PK MISHRA NAMED NEW PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO PM
Pramod Kumar Mishra was appointed principal secretary to PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday, making him the most powerful bureaucrat in country.
NEW DELHI: Pramod Kumar Mishra was appointed principal secretary to PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday, making him the most powerful bureaucrat in the country and giving final shape to the contours of the Prime Minister’s Office in the second Modi government.
Mishra was additional principal secretary in the first Modi government and continued in that post after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s return to power. In June, he was given the rank of a cabinet minister.
Also on Wednesday, former cabinet secretary P K Sinha was appointed principal adviser to the PM; he was last month named an officer on special duty (OSD) in the PMO.
Mishra replaces Nripendra Misra who served as principal secretary to Modi until August 30. Interestingly, even as additional principal secretary, Mishra would report directly to the PM in matters pertaining to the appointments committee of the cabinet which oversees key appointments. “There is now a single No. 2 to the PM in the PMO,” said a senior government officer requesting anonymity.
According to a statement issued by the government, Mishra has “varied experience in the management of programmes relating to agriculture, disaster management, power sector, infrastructure financing, and regulatory issues”.
Before he was additional principal secretary at the PMO, Mishra has also served as secretary, agriculture and cooperation, and chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The Gujarat-cadre IAS officer is an alum of the prestigious Delhi School of Economics. He also has a PHD in Economics and Development Studies from the University of Sussex. Despite repeated attempts, Mishra could not be reached for a comment.
As principal adviser, Sinha will have the rank of a secretary in the government . The Up-cadre IAS officer was a secretary in the ministry of power and shipping and a special secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas before he became cabinet secretary. The post of principal adviser is a new one.
The other officers in Prime Minister Modi’s team include the secretary to the Prime Minister, Bhaskar Khulbe, who now handles appointments, Gopal Bagley, a diplomat by training who oversees the ministry of external affairs and Tarun Bajaj , AK Sharma, Arvind Shrivastava, Brajendra Navnit, V Sheshadri, Shrikar Keshav Pardeshi and Debashree Mukherjee who look after other ministries.