An officer and a gentleman

BACKSTAGE

The year 2007 must have been one of the most challenging periods in Commerce Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai's 35-year tenure as a civil servant. In the first few months he was busy steering the controversial Special Economic Zones policy through choppy waters, while the latter half has been spent on formulating relief measures for the exporting community which has been hit hard by the appreciating rupee. Since this includes employment-intensive sectors like textiles, handicrafts and leather, the problem has a political fallout as well.

If this was not enough, Pillai is also the chief negotiator of a slew of Free Trade Agreements which India is negotiating with the 10-member Asean bloc, European Union, Japan, South Korea as well as Thailand. Other responsibilities of this 1972-batch Kerala cadre officer include safeguarding the trade interests of the country in the Doha Round of trade liberalisation talks which have entered a make-or-break phase.

Pillai and his team of officers at Udyog Bhavan have been constantly bargaining with their colleagues in the department of revenue (often referred to as the place where the buck stops). While he has been able to squeeze out some concessions for exporters, the revenue department is yet to accept some others. Unfazed, Pillai and team are going to the Union Cabinet to push for it.

As a person, Pillai is known to call a spade a spade. He has gone on record saying that the rupee-hit merchandise exports from India may not cross $140 billion in the 2007-08 fiscal even as Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has been insisting that the export target of $160 billion was still achievable.

Naturally, he is a favourite with the industry. But his admirers also include people from his department and even the media. People close to him describe him as a true gentleman and a stickler for rules, who gives in his best to help out sort problems.

In August this year, when Pakistani Commerce Secretary Syed Asif Shah was leaving India after a round of successful talks on Indo-Pakistan trade, he did not forget to mention Pillai's name: "This time things were different from the previous round of talks. Pillai ensured that things moved from the Indian side."

His colleagues will tell you that even while handling the most complex of situations, Pillai is calm and stays focused on the core issues. Once, as a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers on SEZs was about to conclude without any substantive results, he was quick enough to get some important pending proposals on the policy cleared from Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee who heads the group.

As a special secretary in the commerce ministry, Pillai was involved in the formulation of the Special Economic Zones Act of 2005, which has been mired in controversy of various shades. Ask him and he will tell you that some of them, especially those related to revenue leakage, are genuine concerns.

But at the same time, he will also point out the significance of the policy to the economic scene in India "" in the first 20 months since the SEZ Act was notified, more than 50,000 people have been employed in the zones, most of which are still not fully operational, he says.

As a career civil servant, he has handled posts in the defence and home ministries. He was also the principal secretary to the then Kerala Chief Minister A K Anthony, who is currently the defence minister. Perhaps this is the reason for the recent rumours in Delhi's power corridors about Pillai being transferred to the department of defence as the secretary.