On September 30, the day Amit Khare retired from the civil companies, he had a customer: his former boss within the Education Ministry, Smriti Irani, now the Minister of Women and Child Development, who had dropped by at his workplace in Shastri Bhawan to want him luck.

It was a uncommon gesture from the minister.

As Secretary in control of two essential ministries, Education and Information & Broadcasting, Khare was identified to have been the quintessential bureaucrat — clear-headed and cautious, adept at “reading the mind of his bosses” and reaching the “desired outcome”, qualities that made him indispensable to his ministers, throughout political regimes.

So final week, when Khare was appointed advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi (along with Bhaskar Khulbe), many noticed it as a logical profession trajectory for a bureaucrat who has helmed no less than two of essentially the most high-profile authorities insurance policies in current instances — the National Education Policy, 2020; and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, or the IT Rules.

A 1985-batch IAS officer from the Jharkhand cadre, Khare had two stints on the Centre — from August 2008 to April 2015, and later from June 2018 till his retirement final month. In between, he was Principal Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary (Finance & Planning) in Jharkhand.

A BSc graduate from St Stephen’s College, Khare holds a post-graduate diploma from IIM Ahmedabad. His spouse Nidhi Khare is Additional Secretary within the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. They have two youngsters.

During his first stint on the Centre, as joint secretary on the HRD Ministry (because the Education Ministry was then known as), Khare loved the boldness of his UPA-2 ministers Kapil Sibal and Pallam Raju, in addition to the NDA’s Smriti Irani.

Following a short stint within the Chemicals & Fertilisers Ministry, he was repatriated again to his mother or father cadre state, Jharkhand.

Khare first shot into prominence within the Nineteen Nineties, when, as District Commissioner of Chaibasa in undivided Bihar, he was instrumental in unearthing the fodder rip-off by which RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was convicted.

Rakesh Asthana, who as a CBI SP probed the case until 2002 and is now Delhi Commissioner of Police, instructed The Sunday Express, “Khare was DC of Chaibasa when the scam was first detected by then Finance Secretary of Bihar, who ordered all district commissioners to investigate. Mr Khare took the lead and was the first to raid the Animal Husbandry Department in Chaibasa, detect irregularities and get an FIR registered. He withstood all the pressure. The documentary evidence he collected was extremely crucial.”

Sources mentioned when the trial started, Khare even deposed earlier than the court docket.

Shunted out after the rip-off and posted as Managing Director of the Bihar State Leather Corporation for nearly a 12 months, Khare instructed The Sunday Express: “It was a defunct body that couldn’t even pay salaries.”

The status he gained then, of a “doer”, however stayed with him. “He always delivers what is expected of him,” says a former colleague, on the “secret” of Khare’s profession longevity.

Speaking at Khare’s farewell perform, his final boss within the Education Ministry, Dharmendra Pradhan, sources mentioned, recalled his first assembly with Khare about six years in the past, when he was Principal Secretary (Finance) in Jharkhand.

“At that time, Pradhan was Petroleum Minister and was trying to execute the Ujjwala Yojana. He recalled how he was struck by Khare’s willingness to arrange for funds to implement the programme in Jharkhand, given that finance secretaries are almost always reluctant to loosen the state’s purse strings,” mentioned an officer current on the perform.

His critics say this very “bureaucratic quality” — of being somebody who acquired the job performed for ministers, versus somebody who would argue on deserves or stand his floor — has been Khare’s greatest energy, and disadvantage. Asked about this, Khare says, “If I were always on the right side of the boss, I would not have exposed the fodder scam. I was a collector appointed by Lalu Prasad, the powerful CM of the state.”

Critics additionally level to his “cautious approach” in direction of probably controversial points. Ironically for somebody who is thought to be taciturn, Khare was the person in control of devising a communication technique for each the NEP and the IT Rules.

While Khare didn’t creator the brand new IT Rules, he performed a key position in coordinating with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which dealt with the technical facets of the IT Rules.

“When you have a rule which is going to be administered by two ministries, there has to be coordination, synthesis and logic. That coordination — talking at secretary- and minister-level — was done by Khare,” mentioned an officer within the I&B Ministry.

Similarly, the officer mentioned, when the allocation of enterprise guidelines was modified final 12 months — to deliver all on-line content material below the ministry — Khare spoke to his counterparts in different ministries to clarify that I&B has the area understanding for a way content material ought to be regulated, whether or not on-line or offline.

Even when the NEP was being launched, although a lot of the groundwork had been ready by his predecessor R Subrahmanyam, Khare ensured that the communication coverage was in place for “the right narrative”, a colleague mentioned.

Khare’s colleagues additionally credit score his rise within the present regime to his stint because the I&B Secretary, a job that noticed him changing into one in every of Prime Minister Modi’s trusted individuals for all communications methods. “He doesn’t speak much during meetings. However… it was evident (from what he said) that he had direct knowledge of what the PM wants,” mentioned a senior officer a part of conferences with Khare.

“The I&B role gave him relatively better access to the PMO. He seems to have made a solid impression during this time,” mentioned a bureaucrat at the moment serving as Secretary within the Union authorities.

His success on this position will be gauged by the truth that he was known as again to the I&B Ministry inside six months of changing into the Higher Education Secretary in late 2019 and maintained its extra cost virtually until his superannuation. During this time, he was additionally tasked with the federal government’s communication technique for the pandemic.

Closer to his retirement, bureaucratic circles have been abuzz with rumours of Khare getting posted within the PMO. While he dismissed such hypothesis, Khare’s speech at his farewell on September 30 supplied a broad indication of his future position. “He said in his speech that he is superannuating, not retiring. Maybe he always knew there was something waiting for him,” mentioned an officer. —With Krishn Kaushik & Deeptiman Tiwary.