1. On 29th April 2015, the Government of Japan announced the foreign recipients of the 2015 Spring Imperial Decorations. Among the 85 foreign recipients is Mr. TKA Nair, Former Advisor to Prime Minister, who received The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star.

The Order with Certificate was conferred on Mr. Nair on 8th May today by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Presentation Ceremony held at the Imperial Palace. After the Ceremony, Mr. Nair was granted an audience with His Majesty the Emperor.

2. This Order was bestowed on Mr. Nair for his contribution to the enhancement of relations and the promotion of friendship between Japan and India.

3. Mr. Nair’s personal history and accomplishments are as follows:

He was born in 1939 in the state of Kerala, India and joined Indian Administrative Service in 1963 as Punjab Cadre. He was Advisor to Prime Minister of India from March 2011 to May 2014, following the long tenure of Principal Secretary to Prime Minister of India from May 2004. He was also the Chairman of Public Enterprises Selection Board, Government of India, from 1999 to 2004 and Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, from 1995 to 1996.

Working under former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as his Principal Secretary and later as Advisor, he has contributed to further developing Japan-India bilateral relations. The framework of annual summit meetings has been introduced between our two countries since 2005, and Mr. Nair helped to realize this framework. Annual summit meetings are the driving force to extend cooperation between Japan and India in a wide variety of areas such as political and economic affairs as well as security and science and technology.

Mr. Nair played an important role particularly in the area of trade, commerce and infrastructure development. He has been involved in such flagship projects of Japan-India cooperation as Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor. He has conducted periodical monitoring on their progress for further development in association with the Embassy of Japan, related Ministries of Government of India, the State Governments concerned and other stakeholders. He has also played an important role in solving the problems that Japanese companies faced when they established their business in India.　　

In addition, Mr. Nair facilitated the conclusion of the negotiations on Japan-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). He also strongly promoted Japan-India cooperation toward Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur (IIITDM-J) and Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H), and helped them to become the centres of excellence for academic and educational exchanges between our two nations.