PM Modi's Principal Secretary PK Mishra, NSA Ajit Doval get 5-year extension

New Delhi: 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 with the prime minister's term. Doval, a retired IPS officer of Kerala cadre, has served as NSA since 2014 when Modi became prime minister.

Amit Khare, former secretary, Higher Education, who belongs to the Bihar/Jharkhand cadre, has worked as Advisor to the PM since October 2021. The 1985-batch IAS officer has been given a two-year extension with the rank and scale of secretary.

Tarun Kapoor, a retired IAS officer of 1987 batch, will also continue as Advisor to PM for another two years in the rank and pay of secretary. The former petroleum secretary has served as Advisor to PM since May 2022.

These extensions are part of Modi's plan to complete the tasks begun in his second term and initiate new programmes and projects. A roadmap for the first 100 days of the government is being chalked out.

Doval's continuation as NSA is significant with the Jammu and Kashmir elections likely to take place in September. The Centre is also expected to look afresh at ways of dealing with the crisis in Manipur which had claimed 200 lives and left over 60,000 homeless. There has also been a spurt in terror activities in the last few weeks.