1. T K A Nair (Advisor to PM):
T K A Nair used to be the Principal Secretary to the PM before Pulok Chaterji replaced him. Today, he is the advisor to PM with a Minister of State rank.
Born in Kerala, Nair is an IAS officer of 1963 batch and served as Chief Secretary of Punjab. Nair became secratary in PMO and served two Prime Minsiters in this role - I K Gujral and A B Vajpayee. He went on to became the Principal Secretary to the PM when Manmohan Singh took over the reins of power.
Once upon a time, Nair along with M K Narayanan, the then National Security Advisor (NSA), used to be so powerful in the PMO that David Mulford, the then American ambassador, had described them as 'Keralite mafia' in the PMO, as revealed by Wikileaks cables.
It is said that even today if the PM trusts anybody the most then it is T K A Nair who he knows since the time he served in Punjab as an IAS officer. Manmohan Singh spends hours with Nair even today when Nair is no longer the Principal Secretary.
It is believed that Manmohan Singh was not willing to replace Nair with Pulok Chaterjee as Principal Secretary but Gandhi family had her way because they wanted someone close to the family in the PMO.
Nair lose some of the sheen after some of the appointments recommended by him boomeranged. Nair's one recommendation that went horribly wrong was that of Vinod Rai, a Kerala cadre IAS officer, who was made the CAG. Vinod proved to be the nemesis to the UPA govt as he exposed scam after scam from 2G to CWG to coalgate.
