Chennai: Senior bureaucrat moves into pivotal post

Chennai: Dr Neeraj Mittal has joined the Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau as its Executive Vice-Chairman, taking charge on Friday in place of another senior IAS officer V Arun Roy, who was holding additional charge. The Bureau, which is one of the oldest IPAs in India, is the nodal agency for investment promotion and single window facilitation in the State.

It will continue to have N Muruganandam, a 1991 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, and Principal Secretary, Industries Department, as its Chairman, according to a release from its director, Dr. K.P.Karthikeyan.

A graduate of the IIT-Kanpur with a B.Tech in electrical engineering, Dr. Neeraj Mittal also holds an MBA from Cranfield Univerity in U.K. and Ph.D. in Economics/MIS from Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, USA.  Prior to this he had worked as Senior Advisor at office of ED World Bank, Washington DC handling multilateral development at IBRD/IDA/IFC for the constituency and Ease of Doing Business for India; and before that, Joint Secretary (Marketing) in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas when he rolled out world’s largest Cash Transfer Program in LPG “PaHaL”.

All that would mean that the Bureau has got a hugely talented and experienced IAS officer at a pivotal position to guide its critical operations at a time when Tamil Nadu needs mega-sized investments in projects on multiple platforms. Dr Mittal has wide exposure in Tamil Nadu as he held various positions including Collector, Coimbatore, Joint Commissioner-Transport and Tsunami Rehabilitation, and Executive Director ELCOT.

“He brings with him rich experience and expertise to use technology to improve efficiency, convenience, participation and transparency. This new team of officers will continue the efforts of improving the investment climate in the State”, said Karthikeyan in his release.