S. K. Misra | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1932 Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Occupation | Civil servant |
| Known for | Indian Administrative Service |
| Awards | Padma Bhushan G-Files awards |
S. K. Misra (born 1932) is a retired Indian civil servant, social worker, writer and a former Principal Secretary toChandra Sekhar, the 8th Prime Minister of India.[1] He served as the principal secretary to three chief ministers of Haryana and is a former secretary at the ministries ofTourism,Civil Aviation andAgriculture.[2] He is one of the founders ofMotilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai and the founder chairman ofIndian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development.[3] The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of thePadma Bhushan, in 2009, for his contributions to Indian civil service.[4]
Born in the Indian state ofUttar Pradesh in 1932, Misra secured a master's degree fromAllahabad University and started his career as a member of faculty at his alma mater before joining theIndian Administrative Service in 1956.[5] His civil service started with a posting atPatiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) and later he moved toHisar as the Deputy Commissioner. WhenBansi Lal became the third chief minister of Haryana in 1968, Misra was appointed as his principal secretary and he held the post till 1975.[6] When he moved to Union Government as theMinister of Defence, Lal took Misra with him to continue as the principal secretary.[2] His second tenure as the principal secretary was withBhajan Lal who was the chief minister of the state from 1979 to 1985. His association with Bansi Lal continued during the Lal's second term as the chief minister (1985–87) andChaudhary Devi Lal, who succeeded him as the chief minister also retained Misra as his principal secretary.[5] It was during this period, he contributed to the setting up ofPunjab Agricultural University, in Ludhiana and Hisar[7] as well as theNational Institute of Fashion Technology.[8] While Misra was holding the post,Chandra Sekhar who became the prime minister of India in 1990, offered him the post as the principal secretary and he superannuated from civil service holding the post.[9]
After his retirement from civil service, Misra had a short spell with theUnion Public Service Commission and was later appointed as the director-general ofFestival of India, a series of cultural festivals held in France, USA, erstwhileSoviet Union and Japan.[9] Concurrently, he was also associated withIndian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), a cultural forum conceptualized byIndira Gandhi and founded byPupul Jayakar in 1984 and served the organization as its vice chairman for 10 years and as the chairman for the next 6 years. He disassociated with INTACH in 2010 to found a new organization in 2011, under the name, The Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development,[10] and the organization is involved in rural development and education; they run a village school atHariharpur, in theAzamgarh district ofUttar Pradesh,[11] in collaboration with the Lutyens Trust, UK.[12] His contributions have also been reported in the establishment ofMotilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai, a co-educational institution under government of Haryana located inSonipat .[3] The Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of thePadma Bhushan in 2009.[4]
Misra has recorded his experiences during the civil service years in a book,Flying in High Winds, published in 2016, which has details of his tenure as the principal secretary at the state and the centre as well as has his meetings with such notable people asJawaharlal Nehru,M. F. Hussain,Prince Charles,Sanjay Gandhi andEbrahim Alkazi.[13]
