S. K. Misra (born 1932) is a retired Indian civil servant, social worker, writer and a former Principal Secretary to Chandra Sekhar, the 8th Prime Minister of India. He served as the principal secretary to three chief ministers of Haryana and is a former secretary at the ministries of

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

Civil Aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

and

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

. He is one of the founders of

Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai Motilal Nehru School of Sports is a boarding school located in Rai in Sonipat district of the Indian state of Haryana. It was founded in July 1973 by the Government of Haryana. The school is organized on the public school pattern. It is fully r ...

and the founder chairman of ''Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development''. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, in 2009, for his contributions to Indian civil service.

Biography

Born in the Indian state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

in 1932, Misra secured a master's degree from

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

and started his career as a member of faculty at his alma mater before joining the

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

in 1956. His civil service started with a posting at

Patiala and East Punjab States Union Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak'' (the 'Fortunate Castle') constructe ...

(PEPSU) and later he moved to Hisar as the Deputy Commissioner. When

Bansi Lal Bansi Lal Legha (26 August 1927 – 28 March 2006) was an Indian independence activist, senior Congress leader, former Chief Minister of Haryana, former Defence Minister of India, and the architect of modern Haryana. Bansi Lal was part of the ...

became the third chief minister of Haryana in 1968, Misra was appointed as his principal secretary and he held the post till 1975. When he moved to Union Government as the

Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

, Lal took Misra with him to continue as the principal secretary. His second tenure as the principal secretary was with Bhajan 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) and

Chaudhary Devi Lal Chaudhary Devi Lal (born Devi Dayal; 25 September 1915 – 6 April 2001) was an Indian statesman who served as 6th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1991 in the governments of V. P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar. Also popularly known as T ...

, who succeeded him as the chief minister also retained Misra as his principal secretary. It was during this period, he contributed to the setting up of

Punjab Agricultural University The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) is a public funded agricultural university located in Ludhiana district of Punjab. It is a state agricultural university in India. It was established in 1962 and is the nation's third-oldest agricultur ...

, in Ludhiana and Hisar as well as the National Institute of Fashion Technology. 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. After his retirement from civil service, Misra had a short spell with the

Union Public Service Commission The Union Public Service Commission ( ISO: ), commonly abbreviated as UPSC, is India's premier central recruitment agency for recruitment of all the Group 'A' officers under Government of India. It is responsible for appointments to and exam ...

and was later appointed as the director-general of ''Festival of India'', a series of cultural festivals held in France, USA, erstwhile

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and Japan. Concurrently, he was also associated with

Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a non-profit charitable organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. In 2007, the United Nations awarded INTACH a special consultative status with Unit ...

(INTACH), a cultural forum conceptualized by Indira Gandhi and founded by

Pupul Jayakar Pupul Jayakar (née Mehta; 11 September 1915 – 29 March 1997) was an Indian cultural activist and writer, best known for her work on the revival of traditional and village arts, handlooms, and handicrafts in post-independence India. Accor ...

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, and the organization is involved in rural development and education; they run a village school at Hariharpur, in the

Azamgarh district Azamgarh district is one of the three districts of Azamgarh division in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Etymology The district is named after its headquarters town, Azamgarh. Azam, a son of Vikramajit, founded the town in 1665. Vikramajit ...

, in collaboration with the Lutyens Trust, UK. His contributions have also been reported in the establishment of

, a co-educational institution under government of Haryana located in

Sonipat Sonipat is a city, municipal corporation and administrative headquarter in Sonipat district of Haryana state of India. It comes under the National Capital Region and is around from New Delhi. It is also around 214 km (128 miles) southwest o ...

. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of the

in 2009. 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 as

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

, M. F. Hussain, Prince Charles,

Sanjay Gandhi Sanjay Gandhi (14 December 1946 23 June 1980) was an Indian politician and the younger son of Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi. He was a member of parliament, Lok Sabha and the Nehru–Gandhi family. During his lifetime, he was widely expected ...

and

Ebrahim Alkazi Ebrahim Alkazi (18 October 1925 – 4 August 2020) was an Indian theatre director and drama teacher. A rigid disciplinarian, he instilled in his acting students an awe and reverence that they still carry with them, with several of them havin ...

Biography

See also

References

Further reading