Prime Minister's Office (India)

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) (IAST: Pradhānamantrī Kāryālaya) consists of the immediate staff of the Prime Minister of India, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the Prime Minister. The PMO is headed by the Principal Secretary, currently Pramod Kumar Mishra. The PMO was originally called the Prime Minister's Secretariat until 1977, when it was renamed during the Morarji Desai ministry.

Prime Minister's Office
Pradhānamantrī Kāryālaya

Secretariat Building, South Block
Agency overview
Formed1977 (1977)
JurisdictionGovernment of India
HeadquartersSouth Block, Secretariat Building, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India
Annual budget₹44.13 crore (US$5.5 million)[1](2017–18 est.)[lower-alpha 1]
Minister responsible
Deputy Minister responsible
Agency executives
Child agencies
Websitewww.pmindia.gov.in

It is part of the Government of India located in the South Block of the Secretariat Building.

The Prime Minister's Official Website is available in 11 Indian languages namely Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Meitei (Manipuri), Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu in addition to English and Hindi, out of the 22 official languages of the Indian Republic.[2]

History

During the tenure of Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister, the then Prime Minister's Secretariat was headed by a Joint Secretary until his death.[3] The post of Principal Secretary to Prime Minister was created during the tenure of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister.[3] The Principal Secretary to PM is the head of the Prime Minister's Office.

Function

The PMO provides secretarial assistance to the Prime Minister. It is headed by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. The PMO includes the anti-corruption unit and the public wing dealing with grievances. The office houses the Prime Minister and few selected officers of Indian Civil Service who work with him to manage and coordinate government and his office. The Prime Minister through his office coordinates with all ministers in the central union cabinet, minister of independent charges and governors and ministers of state government. The PMO is located at the South Block of the Secretariat Building.

The subject-matter of files required to be submitted to the Prime Minister depends on whether he is holding direct charge of the Ministry or whether there is a Cabinet Minister or Minister of State (Independent Charge) in charge of the Ministry. In the case of the latter, most matters are dealt with by the Cabinet Minister / Minister of State-in-charge. Only important policy issues, which the Minister concerned feels should be submitted to the Prime Minister for orders or information, are received in the PMO.

In cases where the Prime Minister is the Minister-in-charge, all matters requiring Ministerial approval not delegated to the Minister of State/Deputy Minister, if any, are submitted for orders. The Prime Minister has traditionally been the Minister-in-charge of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and the Departments of Space and Atomic Energy.

Some of the important matters that require the Prime Minister's personal attention include the following:

  1. Important defence-related issues;
  2. Decorations, both civilian and defence, where Presidential approval is required;
  3. All important policy issues;
  4. Proposals for appointment of Indian Heads of Missions abroad and requests for grant of agreement for foreign Heads of Missions posted to India;
  5. All important decisions relating to the Cabinet Secretariat;
  6. Appointments to State Administrative Tribunals and the Central Administrative Tribunal, UPSC, Election Commission, Appointment of members of statutory/constitutional Committees, Commissions attached to various Ministries;
  7. All policy matters relating to the administration of the Indian Administrative Service and other Civil Services and administrative reforms;
  8. Special Packages announced by the Prime Minister for States are monitored in the PMO and periodical reports submitted to Prime Minister; and

Parliament Questions

Parliament Questions relating to the Ministries and Departments of which Prime Minister is the Minister-in-charge are answered by a Minister of State nominated for the purpose or by Prime Minister himself.

PM's Funds

The Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) and the National Defence Fund (NDF) are operated directly from the PMO. The Prime Minister's National Relief Fund was established in January 1948 as Trust, by then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, with public contributions to assist displaced persons from Pakistan, due to partition of India. In the year 2013-2014, the Fund received donations worth ₹377.04 crore (equivalent to ₹602 crore or US$75 million in 2023).[4]

The Office

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) located in South Block, overlooking the grandeur of Rashtrapati Bhawan. Though in the 1990s I.K. Gujral and some of his predecessors, used Prime Minister's Residence (PMR) spread over a 10-acre complex as office.[5] It is sandwiched between the cabinet secretariat on one side and the ministries of external affairs and defence on the other. The 20-room PMO is equipped to provide both infrastructural and manpower support to the nation's chief executive. Hi-tech accessories and sophisticated communication devices were installed to monitor domestic and international developments.

Important officers in the PMO
Senior officials in the Office of the Prime Minister of India[6]
Name[7]DesignationRank
Pramod Kumar Mishra, IASPrincipal SecretaryCabinet Minister[8]
Ajit Kumar Doval, IPS, KC[9]National Security Adviser Cabinet Minister[10]
Rajiv Gauba, IAS[11] Cabinet secretary of India Cabinet Secretary[12]
Tarun Bajaj, IAS Additional Secretary Additional Secretary to Government of India
Arvind Kumar Sharma, IAS Additional Secretary Additional Secretary to Government of India
Vivek Kumar, IFS[13][14]Private SecretaryJoint Secretary to Government of India
Hardik Satishchandra Shah, IAS[15]Private Secretary to PMJoint Secretary to Government of India

Organisation
Agencies under the Prime Minister of India.

Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)
Main article: Department of Atomic Energy

Department of Space
Main article: Department of Space

The Department of Space manages the following agencies and institutes:[16]

Project Monitoring Group
Main article: Performance Management Division

In June 2013, a cell within the Cabinet Secretariat called the Project Monitoring Group was created to track stalled investment projects, both in the public and private sectors and to remove the implementation bottlenecks in these projects on a fast-track basis.[18] An online portal open to the public was created where projects worth over ₹1,000 crore (US$130 million) were to be tracked.[18]

The Project Monitoring Group was moved to the Prime Minister's Office in 2014.[19][20]

Notes
  1. Budgets of child agencies like Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Space (DoS), Performance Management Division (PMD) and National Security Council are not included.

References
  1. "Ministry of Home Affairs - Cabinet Secretariat" (PDF). Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  2. "PMINDIA Multilingual Website now available in 13 languages Assamese and Manipuri versions of Prime Minister's Official Website launched". pib.gov.in. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  3. Handbook Of Public Relations in India. Allied Publishers. 1968. ISBN 9788170233343.
  4. PM National Relief Fund PMO.
  5. Prabhu Chawla (8 September 1997). "Race Course Road: PMO Shifts to PMR". India Today. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  6. "List of Officers (PMO)". Prime Minister of India. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  7. "List of Officers" (PDF). PMO. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  8. "Nripendra Mishra - Executive Record Sheet". Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  9. "डोवाल बने राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार" [Doval becomes National Security Advisor] (in Hindi). BBC. 31 May 2014. Archived from the original on 8 January 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2014. ...अजित कुमार डोवाल को प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी का राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार...
  10. Roche, Elizabeth (3 June 2019). "Ajit Doval to stay as NSA, gets cabinet rank with 5-year term". mint. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  11. "Floods as glacier breaks off in Uttarakhand, 16 labourers rescued, 7 bodies found but 125 still missing". Tribune. 8 February 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  12. "Dr. Pramod Kumar Misra - Executive Record Sheet". Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  13. PTI (20 July 2014). "Sanjeev Kumar Singla appointed as PM's private secretary". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  14. "Sanjeev Kumar Singla appointed private secretary to PM Narendra Modi". Live Mint. New Delhi: HT Media Ltd. 20 July 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  15. "Hardik Satishchandra Shah appointed Private Secretary to PM Modi". Tribune India. 30 July 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  16. "DoS structure". Department of Space, Government of India. Archived from the original on 27 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  17. "NEC – North Eastern Council". Necouncil.nic.in. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  18. "Prime Minister sets up a Project Monitoring Group to Track Large Investment Projects". Press Information Bureau of India. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  19. Makkar, Sahil (28 December 2014). "Monitoring group under PMO to push 225 pending big-ticket projects worth Rs 13 lakh cr". Business Standard. New Delhi. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  20. Nair, Rupam Jain; Das, Krishna N. (18 December 2014). Chalmers, John; Birsel, Robert (eds.). "India's Modi moves in to speed up $300 billion stuck projects". Reuters. New Delhi. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  • Official website (in English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, and Punjabi)
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