Odisha’s P.K. Mishra re-appointed Addl Principal Secretary to PM

New Delhi: Odisha-born bureaucrat Pramod Kumar Mishra was yesterday re-appointed as the Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Mishra with effect from May 31. His appointment will be co-terminus with the term of the PM or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

During the term of his office, he will be assigned the rank of “Cabinet Minister in the Table of Precedence”.

Mishra is known as most trusted bureaucrat close to Modi. Mishra has also been given the charge as Ex-Officio Mission Director of the ambitious National Mission for Clean Ganga. He served as Principal Secretary to Modi between 2001 and 2004 during his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat.

It was during this period that Mishra played a pivotal role in the metamorphosis of Modi from an RSS pracharak to the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He is known for assisting the then Gujarat Chief Minister while the latter made his way into the complex world of the bureaucracy and public administration.

Mishra was later handpicked by Modi and appointed as Chairman of the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission for a five-year term just after a day of his retirement in 2008.

In his four-decade-long career as an administrator, Mishra has held various key positions at the Centre and in the Gujarat government.

As Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture between December 1, 2006 and August 31, 2008 under Sharad Pawar, he was credited with the implementation of the National Agriculture Development Programme and the National Food Security Mission.

It was during his tenure in the Ministry of Agriculture that the production of food grains reached record levels and there was a substantial increase in the agricultural GDP. He later served as Member Secretary in the National Capital Region Planning Board and Secretary of the National Disaster Management Authority.

(With IANS inputs)