Odia IAS officer Pramod Kumar Mishra takes over as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister

A native of Sambalpur district in Odisha, he replaced senior bureaucrat Nripendra Misra, who stepped down on August 30.
Pramod Kumar Mishra appointed as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister of India. (Photo| EPS)
Pramod Kumar Mishra appointed as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister of India. (Photo| EPS)

BHUBANESWAR: Senior Gujarat cadre IAS officer Pramod Kumar Mishra on Wednesday took charge as the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is the first Odia to be appointed as the Principal Secretary to the PM.

A native of Sambalpur district in Odisha, he replaced senior bureaucrat Nripendra Misra, who stepped down on August 30.

Earlier, Mishra was Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and also held posts like Secretary Agriculture and Cooperation and Chairman of State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

A 1972 batch IAS officer, Mishra has varied work experience in the management of programmes relating to agriculture, disaster management, power sector, infrastructure financing, and regulatory issues besides policy formulation and programme/project management.

As the Secretary of Agriculture and Cooperation, he was actively involved in path-breaking national initiatives including the National Agriculture Development Programme (RKVY) and the National Food Security Mission (NFSM).

As Additional Principal Secretary to the PM during 2014-19, Mishra had introduced innovation and transformative changes in human resource management, particularly appointments to senior positions.

His international experience includes research and academic work for over four years at the Institute of Development Studies (UK), negotiation and execution of ADB and World Bank projects, member of the Governing Board of the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Recently, he was conferred with the United Nations SASAKAWA Award 2019, the most prestigious international award in disaster management.

Mishra holds a PhD in Economics/Development Studies from the University of Sussex, MA in Development Economics at the University of Sussex and also MA in Economics with a first class at the Delhi School of Economics. He graduated from GM College (Sambalpur University) in 1970 in first class with distinction in Economics. He was the only one to get a first-class in Economics among all the universities of Odisha.

He has several national and international publications to his credit. He edited the Development and Operation of Agricultural Insurance Schemes in Asia, Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo, Japan in 1999.

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