NDTV India senior editor and prime time anchor Pankaj Pachauri will be shortly joining the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) as Communications Adviser to the Prime Minister, sources said. The government order, announcing the appointment, is likely to come on Thursday.
On Wednesday, he informally interacted with PMO officials.
Mr. Pachauri (48), who has worked both as a print and broadcast journalist for well over two decades, is expected to strengthen the media and communications set-up in the PMO. Sources told The Hindu that he will “communicate” with the entire range of media journalists, from print to TV, and across languages.
Mr. Pachauri started out with the Patriot, and then moved to the Sunday Observer, India Today, the BBC World Service and most recently, NDTV India.
Currently, Harish Khare is the Media Adviser to the Prime Minister. K. Muthukumar, an Indian Information Officer designated Officer on Special Duty to the PM, and former NDTV journalist Binoy Job report to Mr Khare, who has Secretary-level status.
It is not yet known whether Mr. Pachauri's job will be pegged at Joint Secretary or Additional Secretary level.
The move to improve the PMO's interface with the public through the media comes in the wake of the beating the government – and especially Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – has taken in the wake of a host of financial scandals and the advent of Team Anna in the United Progressive Alliance's second term.
