Odisha’s Guruprasad Mohapatra assumes charge as DPIIT Secretary

New Delhi: Senior bureaucrat Guruprasad Mohapatra, who hails from Odisha, on Thursday assumed charge as the Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Prior to taking over as DPIIT Secretary, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1986 batch served as the Chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Set up in 1995, the DPIIT was reconstituted in 2000 with the merger of the Department of Industrial Development.

The DPIIT, which was earlier called the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, was renamed as DPIIT in January 2019.

The 1986 batch Gujarat cadre officer served as commissioner of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for over three years and was appointed Joint secretary in Union Ministry of Commerce after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. After about two years of his tenure as Joint secretary, he was appointed the chairman of AAI.

Mohapatra also served the Joint MD of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), Special Commissioner (Enforcement) of Sales Tax department and Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and as the Commissioner of Transport during his stint in Gujarat.

The Odia bureaucrat holds an M.A. in Political Science and M. Phil in Diplomacy (International Relation) and an M.B.A.