THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Arun Balachandran, former IT fellow to the chief minister, had an astonishing rise to become the trusted lieutenant of former IT secretary M Sivasankar in a span of three years. His disgraceful exit came after his name was linked to the gold smuggling case. It came to light that he had helped the CM’s former secretary to book a flat on rent for Swapna Suresh, second accused in the case.
The chief secretary, whose probe into the service rule violations of Sivasankar that led to the latter’s suspension on Thursday, is also probing how Arun was appointed to the key post in the IT department. Among the four IT fellows appointed in September 2017, Arun remained the most visible face in the international IT events organised by the department, hobnobbing with the who is who of the industry and ensuring his place on the dais.
The press statements often carried his quotes along with those of Sivasankar and his visiting card bore the state government emblem. After coordinating the trips of delegations from the state to various parts of the US and Europe, he had also started representing the industry in international events in the UAE.
“Arun is good at networking and his connections extend beyond the IT sector. He often spoke on behalf of the IT secretary in meetings held at Technopark,” said a startup entrepreneur. According to him, some of the major IT events were shifted to Kochi on Arun’s advice. #Future and Kochi Design Week were some of the major events organised last year. After completing BTech, Arun started his career as a junior business analyst in UST Global where he had worked till 2008.
Later, he became an entrepreneur by starting media and startup incubation services with a focus on luxury branding and NRIs. A postgraduate course from IIM Kozhikode earned him a place in the first batch of IT Fellows in 2017 with an annual package of Rs 22 lakh.
The post was created for the promotion of the state as a major IT investment destination based on the recommendation of the high-power IT committee (HPIC) headed by Infosys co-founder S D Shibulal.
Over a year later, the post was abolished, but Arun had been retained as the director of marketing and operations of High Power Digital Advisory Committee (HDPAC) for 13 months from July 2019 till Wednesday when he was removed for his alleged links with the accused in the gold smuggling case.