Bhubaneswar: President Droupadi Murmu today conferred the honorary D Litt on the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Pramod Kumar Mishra at the Convocation of Utkal University here.
The President conferred the honorary degree on Humanity & Social Science on the Odisha-born Senior Bureaucrat for his exceptional contribution for the country, in presence of Governor Raghubar Das.
A 1972-batch retired IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, Dr.Mishra had taken charge as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2019.
Dr Mishra has varied work experience in the management of programmes relating to agriculture, disaster management, power sector, infrastructure financing, and regulatory issues and has an outstanding career profile comprising research, publications, policy formulation and programme/project management.
He has vast experience in policy making and administration and has handled major assignments such as Additional Pr. Secretary to the Prime Minister; Secretary, Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of India; Chairman, State Electricity Regulatory Commission and in the area of Disaster management. As Secretary Agriculture & Cooperation, he was actively involved in path-breaking national initiatives such as the National Agriculture Development Programme (RKVY) and the National Food Security Mission (NFSM).
As Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister during 2014-19 Dr Mishra is credited with introducing 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) and participation as expert/resource person in several international conferences.
He was conferred with the United Nations SASAKAWA Award 2019, the most prestigious international award in disaster management.
He has a Ph.D in Economics/Development Studies from the University of Sussex, UK. He completed his M.A. degree in Development Economics at the University of Sussex in 1990, when his academic performance was rated outstanding by the university. Mishra also did his M.A. in Economics with a first class at the Delhi School of Economics in 1972.
The Principal Secretary did his B.A. Hons. (Economics) with a first class and distinction in other subjects from G.M. College (Sambalpur University) in 1970. He was the only one to get a first class in Economics among all the universities of Odisha.