Former Punjab-cadre IAS officer is new Principal Secy to PM

Nair has also been an active member of the CRRID, an organisation that does research in social issues where he has worked with Dr Manmohan Singh, who was president of the organisation.

A Malayali who speaks fluent Punjabi, albeit with an accent, Nair also writes and reads the Gurmukhi script. He had served as chief secretary of Punjab in the mid-’90s, and is known to be the unofficial adviser to most IAS officers of the Punjab cadre. Nair was called to the PMO in the morning, soon after which he assumed duties and called his wife, the first person he broke the news to. He was present at the first Cabinet meeting of the Manmohan Singh government today morning.

Till late in the evening, Mrs Nair was still waiting for him to return to celebrate in private: ‘‘He told me that he had been asked to take over, but I haven’t met him as he is not back from office.’’

Even though bureaucratic circles had been speculating for the past three days over Nair’s appointment, he had refused to confirm if there was any move to appoint him Prinicipal Secretary even yesterday. A quintessential bureaucrat, he brushed the speculation aside and was happier discussing social issues, state of the economy and the paradox of the growing pool of poor people in the country.

‘‘It is the job of the media to focus on serious issues in the country rather than hyping small items in news,’’ Nair told this correspondent.

The new Principal Secretary is a deeply religious man, also involved in several religious associations in the Capital, a voracious reader and known to be good-humoured.

Nair was secretary in the PMO in 1997-98, after which he moved to the Planning Commission. He has also served in Punjab as managing director of Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation, as industry secretary and in the Union ministry of Environment.