PM Modi's Principal Secretary PK Mishra, NSA Ajit Doval get 5-year extension
Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued with the trend of giving primacy to continuity and experience, granting a five-year extension to Principal Secretary to PM, PK Mishra, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday. Two Advisors to PM — Amit Khare and Tarun Kapoor — have been re-appointed for another two years.
Modi had reposed faith in his core team of Union ministers when he formed his Council of Ministers for the third consecutive term. The crucial Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has remained unchanged with Amit Shah (Home), Rajnath Singh (Defence), Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance) and S Jaishankar (External Affairs) continuing in the same role. Senior ministers like Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Virendra Kumar, Ashwini Vaishnaw and others have been given the same portfolio.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the appointment of PK Mishra, IAS (retired), as Principal Secretary to the prime minister, with effect from June 10 and his term will be co-terminus with the term of the PM or until further orders. He has been assigned the rank of Cabinet Minister.
PK Mishra, a Gujarat cadre officer of the 1972 batch, has been close to Modi since he was chief minister. He moved to the PMO in 2014 as Additional Principal Secretary to the PM and was elevated to principal secretary to PM in August 2019 when Nripendra Mishra moved out. He has also served as Agriculture Secretary at the Centre from 2006-08.
The ACC has also given NSA Doval another five-year term co-terminus
