The Centre on Wednesday appointed former Indian Administrative Service officer Pramod Kumar Mishra the new principal secretary to Narendra Modi, and former Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha to the post of principal advisor to the prime minister.

Both the appointments were effective from September 11 and will be co-terminus with the term of the prime minister or until further orders, a order by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said.

Mishra will replace Nripendra Misra, who had stepped down on August 30 from the job at the Prime Minister’s Office. Mishra was previously the additional principal secretary to the prime minister, and has held major posts like secretary in the Agriculture and Cooperation department and chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The government in a press release stated that he has managed programmes across different sectors, including agriculture, disaster management, infrastructure and power. He has also been involved in schemes like the National Agriculture Development Programme and the National Food Security Mission.

In May, Mishra was conferred a prestigious United Nations award for disaster risk reduction. His association with the prime minister dates back to October 2001, when the latter took over as Gujarat chief minister and Mishra was appointed his principal secretary.

Sinha was appointed as the officer on special duty in the Prime Minister’s Office after Misra stepped down.

He was earlier appointed cabinet secretary, which is the top post in the country’s bureaucracy, in May 2015, for a fixed two-year term. Sinha, a 1977-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has earlier served as the power secretary. He has also worked in several other important positions in the Union government.

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