Bengaluru: Karnataka state government now has a new principal secretary with the appointment of L K Atheeq in the department of personnel and administrative reforms (DPAR).

Having worked as the senior advisor to the executive director of the World Bank in Washington DC for three years, Atheeq also has the experience of serving the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), New Delhi for five years, joining first as director and going on to become joint secretrary to former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Hailing from an agricultural family of Pavagada in Tumakuru, L K Atheeq began his administrative career as assistant commissioner of Mangaluru and is married into a Mangalurean family. He has also served as the deputy commissioner of Mandya and Hassan and as project director of Sarva Shikshana Abhiyan in Karnataka, before being posted to the PMO.

After his term in the World Bank ended, Atheeq was posted as secretary to the Karnataka government, DPAR, and has now been promoted as the principal secretary in the same department with effect from January 1.