Dr. Adarsh Kishore
Finance Secretary & Secretary (Expenditure), Government of India

Dr. Adarsh Kishore belongs to the 1969 Batch of Indian Administrative Service, Rajasthan Cadre.

He holds a Master's Degree in Political Science and a Doctorate (Ph.D) in Political Economy. He has several published articles and two books on economic issues -- 'Land, State and Poverty' and 'Economic Reforms: State Market Synergy' (a book based on his post-doctoral research work at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University) -- to his credit.

Dr. Kishore has had an outstanding record throughout his career, spanning over 37 years. He has held many important assignments during this period and is presently one of the senior most serving Secretaries to the Government of India.

He was Collector and District Magistrate in three districts of Rajasthan for eight years consecutively. Thereafter, he headed Departments like Industry, Relief & Rehabilitation, Housing, Public Works, Food etc. in the State Government.

He served as Secretary to Chief Minister of Rajasthan (with two Chief Ministers) during 1981-85 and again as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister of Rajasthan during 1999-2000.

During his stint as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Steel, Government of India (1987-1992), Dr. Kishore was responsible for initiating several programmes for modernization of steel industry in India.

Dr. Kishore was Principal Secretary (Finance) in Rajasthan for about 6 years continuously (from 1993-1999). During this period he has had wide and varied experience in dealing with all aspects of Finance such as Excise, Commercial Taxes, Expenditure and Revenue etc. He had earned a professional reputation for innovative, bold and effective contribution to the State Finances, particularly by substantially stepping up the planned expenditure in the State. He was instrumental in rationalizing public expenditure and in introducing self-imposed ceilings on borrowings and guarantees by the State Government in an effort to bring in fiscal discipline. An MOU was also evolved between the State Government and the Ministry of Finance, Government of India during April 1999, scheduling a reform process in the State.

His handling of the State Finances was followed by a discernible change contributed by his work as Additional Secretary in charge of external finance in the Department of Economic Affairs (for 2 years and 8 months from October, 2000 to June, 2003) in the equation of Government of India with multilateral institutions like the World Bank, the IMF and the ADB alongwith some major bilateral organizations like DFID of UK etc. He worked as Government of India's interface with the World Bank, the IMF, the IFC, the ADB and the IFAD during this period. He was also Deputy to the Conference of G-20.

As Secretary to Government of India, Dr. Kishore has served in Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation and Ministry of Heavy Industry & Public Enterprises. He is currently the Finance Secretary and Secretary (Expenditure) in the Ministry of Finance.

Apart from his significant contribution in the preparation of the recent Union Budget for the year 2006-07, where he coordinated the entire preparatory work and led the team of the Ministry of Finance in assisting the Finance Minister, Dr. Kishore is now involved in closely monitoring the successful implementation of the budget announcements and expenditure management of the Government of India with a view to achieving fiscal prudential norms and targets under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

He has widely travelled through out the world and has been trained in major national and international institutions of management.