TNI Bureau: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Principal Secretary Pramod Kumar Mishra was conferred Honorary Doctorate Degree by President Droupadi Murmu.
President Murmu conferred the honorary DLitt degree on Mishra during the 53rd convocation of Utkal University in Bhubaneswar this evening.
Mrutyunjaya Mohapatra, the Director General (DG) of India Meteorological Department (IMD), and Satish Pai, the Managing Director of Hindalco Industries, were also conferred with the Honorary Doctorate in the presence of several dignitaries including Odisha Governor Raghubar Das.
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.
Mishra 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 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.
Mishra has a Ph.D in Economics/Development Studies from the University of Sussex, M.A. in Development Economics at the University of Sussex as also M.A. in Economics with a first class at the Delhi School of Economics and 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.