IIS officer Sitanshu Ranjan Kar takes over as PIB DG

Indian Information Services (IIS) officer Sitanshu Ranjan Kar today took over as the director general of the PIB, an official release said.

The 1983-batch officer succeeded Frank Noronha, who superannuated yesterday, and is the 27th principal spokesperson of the Government of India.

In a career spanning nearly 35 years, Kar has worked in key positions in various media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

After attending the 'Foundation Course' at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie and the 'Orientation course' at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Kar joined the News Services Division of the All India Radio (AIR) and after a short stint there moved to Doordarshan News, where he spent nearly 17 years.

In 1988, he became the first Indian to win the prestigious Visnews Fellowship of London and he travelled throughout Europe and North America to experience cutting-edge technologies being used in television news production by leading broadcasters, the release said.

Kar had joined the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in 2003.

He has anchored the publicity of several key ministries, namely the Environment and Forests, Rural Development, HRD, Science and Technology, Atomic Energy and Space ministries, before joining the Directorate of Public Relations, Ministry of Defence, as its principal spokesperson in August 2005.

Kar has the distinction of being the longest serving spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence. He has served the ministry for over a decade at a stretch.

In December 2015, he was appointed as the director general of the AIR's News Services Division.

Kar graduated in humanities from the BJB College, Bhubaneswar, and earned his post-graduate degree in political science and M Phil in Chinese and Japanese Studies from the Delhi University.