T. K. A. Nair Biography 
Thottuvelil Krishna Pillai Ayyappan Nair, shortly called T. K. A. Nair is a civil servant who served as Adviser to the former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh during his second term as PM. He had the rank of Minister of State. He belongs to Indian Administrative Service 1963 batch from Punjab Cadre. He has earlier served as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh. He also served as Secretary in the PM’s Office during the terms of I. K. Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. A Member of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode and Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development at present, he formerly served as Chairman of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation.
Ayyappan Nair hails from Pathanamthitta district, Kerala. Ayroor on the banks of the Pampa river is his native village. His father worked in forest department. He was named Ayyappankutty by the then Raja of Pandalam. He completed graduation from St. Thomas College, Kozhencherry and later worked as History professor in the same college. He also worked at Brunnen College, Thalassery before he entered Indian civil service. He belonged to 1963 batch. Chief Secretary of Punjab; Principal Secretary, Forests and Environment, and Secretary to the then Prime Ministers I.K. Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee are the major positions held by him, before he was appointed as Adviser to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. He was Singh’s first choice as his chief aide and he was selected based on his reputation.
Nair is a humble man who has all the power but chooses not to flaunt it. He is happy in the shady of his boss. A workaholic person, he gets into office at 9 a.m. and works till late into the night. As the key adviser of PM, he virtually ran the PMO. He executed the plans and vision of PM who trusted him implicitly. Nair took initiative to allot 110 hectors of forest land for the development of a base camp for Sabarimala pilgrims at Nilackal.
Published: N/A
Updated: June 19, 2016
