Telangana: New CS Pradeep Chandra comes from a family of IAS officers

Hyderabad: The grand welcome accorded to TS’ new Chief Secretary K. Pradeep Chandra by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, his entire Cabinet, officials and Secretariat staff on Wednesday is a sign of the confidence everyone has in him. Normally, IAS officers who have more than 2-3 years of service left are appointed CS, but Mr Chandra is set to retire on December 30 this year.

However, Mr Rao went ahead with appointing him CS, confident that he would secure an extension of at least six months from the Centre. In fact, there are reports that Mr Rao has already secured an assurance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.

Mr Chandra played a crucial role in managing the finances of newly-formed state as finance secretary, in devising the new industrial policy “TS-iPASS” as industries secretary, which helped the new state vault to the No. 1 position in the latest Ease of Doing Business  rankings announced by the Centre recently.

Mr Chandra comes from a family of IAS officers. His father K. Chandraiah had served as Hyderabad collector before retirement while his sister Ratna Prabha is IAS officer of Karnataka cadre.

Mr Chandra is the son-in-law of retired IAS officer Kaki Madahava Rao, who served as CS in undivided AP. He has held top posts in the bureaucracy since formation of Telangana state, from Special secretary, revenue and CCLA a few months ago, followed by in-charge HMDA commissioner in 2015.

Welcoming the new CS, Mr Rao praised his patience, “Pradeep Chandra met me tens of times to discuss the new industrial policy. I used to suggest several changes and ask him to redraft policy again and again. He dis so patiently. He drafted TS-iPASS which is acclaimed the world over as the best industrial policy with zero-graft. Later, his services were utilised in finance department. He played a key role in preparing the first full-fledged budget of Telangana striking a balance between welfare and development programmes.”