Union Government appointed Pulok Chatterji as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister

The Union government on 28 July 2011 appointed IAS officer Pulok Chatterji as principal secretary to the prime minister. Chatterji succeeded T K A Nair who served as Manmohan Singh's principal secretary for more than seven years.

The change of guard was initiated at a time when it was being strongly felt in Congress that PMO was not sensitive to the party's concerns. Chatterji, who was part of the PMO in UPA-I, is expected to provide a link between the Congress and the Congress party.

Pulok Chatterji is a 1974-batch officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre. He will take up his new assignment in October 2011 upon expiry of his term as executive director in the World Bank. He was integral part of the district administration in Sultanpur and Rae Bareli. He moved to the PMO as deputy secretary when Rajiv Gandhi took over as PM in 1985. After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, Chatterji joined the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and subsequently worked with Sonia Gandhi when she became leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. In 2004, when UPA came to power, he returned to PMO as joint secretary before being promoted as secretary.

T K A Nair, a retired IAS officer, will stay in the PMO as adviser to the PM and continue in the rank of minister of state. Nair had earlier served as principal secretary to I K Gujral.