Amar Patnaik

He graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi at the Delhi University in 1987 after initial schooling in the Demonstration Multipurpose School, Bhubaneswar and the Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar College, Bhubaneswar. He completed a master's degree in finance and systems from the Xavier’s Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar and a bachelor's degree in law from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. He further pursued a master's degree in Public Management from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He was offered the British Chevening Gurukul Scholarship for Excellence at the London School of Economics by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government in 2013. In 2015, he completed an advanced management development programme from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2015.

He also completed an inter-disciplinary doctorate from the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar under the Xavier University, Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar.

His thesis was published as a book by Palgrave Macmillan titled “Institutional Change and Power Asymmetries in the context of Rural India” in 2016.[6] His book explains how to bring about institutional change and foster new institutional structures (institution building) by resolving power inequities in a rural ecosystem in India, and advocates the identification of an appropriate institutional champion to make this happen.

His current research interests include institutional perspectives in developmental interventions and public policy, transparency and accountability, public finance reforms, urban sector governance, energy security, environment and sustainability issues.

Amar Patnaik joined the Indian Civil Services in 1990 under its Indian Audit and Accounts Services.[7] He served as the Principal Accountant General (PAG) in Odisha, Kerala and West Bengal under the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

In his early career he was part of audit teams that led investigations into the Fodder Scam in Bihar and the Letter of Credit Scam in Assam.[8] Under his leadership, many irregularities in Odisha including government land allotment were highlighted. He had also conducted audits of electricity distribution companies and brought to notice issues in revenue collection during the Odisha Olympic Association.[7] He was also the Director of the Agricultural Marketing and Co-operatives Department of Odisha, India, where he designed sustainable livelihood models for farmers through efficient and effective marketing of their produce.[9]

As Kerala's PAG, he oversaw several audits in state's taxation and licensing processes. He highlighted several malpractices that enabled the highest ever tax evasion in the state.[10] His report brought to notice several shortcomings of the state government such as laxity in pulling in more traders within the tax net, wrong self-assessment by businesses, purchase suppression, sales suppression, and misclassification of commodities, application of incorrect rate of tax, part of turnover escaping assessment, and incorrect exemption.[10] His other reports in the state highlighted irregularities in bar licensing, non compliance with the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008, and deficiencies in management of finance and inadmissible expenditure from the State Disaster Response Fund.[11]

Patnaik was noted for his work ethic and his diligence was often praised in the media even by political personalities.[12]

In addition to detailed financial audits and value-for-money evaluations of government programmes in sectors like health service delivery, water supply, consumer protection, poverty reduction and more recently on public-private partnership models for development of hydropower and minor ports and environmental protection, he has also conducted international audits of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome and in Kabul, Afghanistan and of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in Darfur, Sudan. He also completed a performance audit of the UN’s spending on information and communication technology services across peacekeeping operations around the globe in October – November 2014.[9]

Amar Patnaik in India's Parliament premises

Amar Patnaik joined the Biju Janta Dal, a regional party in the state of Odisha in August 2018 and was inducted by the Chief Minister and Party president Naveen Patnaik. He was also made Head of the Party's IT cell upon joining the party.[13]

In the April and May 2019 general and the Odisha state elections, as Head of the IT cell, his work was noted for using improved data driven election strategy, evidence based review of party's MLA candidates, and the use of augmented reality and hologram projections.[14] He also drove party's social media strategy and strategized on coining political slogans such as “Naveen mo’ paribara, shankha mo’ chinha” (Naveen is my family member, the conch shell is my symbol) that were effective in the election.[14]

In June 2019, Patnaik was nominated by the party as the state representative and Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament.[15] In his first year in the Parliament, he was appointed member to parliamentary committees on,

• Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance
• Joint Parliamentary Committee on Personal Data Protection Bill
• Committee on Sub-ordinate Legislation, Rajya Sabha
• and an Ad-hoc member of the Committee of the Rajya Sabha to study the alarming issue of pornography on social media and its effect on children and society as a whole

In the Parliament, he has raised several key issues including budget allocation to health, right to information, infrastructure, railways, law and order, finance, transgenders and women safety.[16] Patnaik was also an early voice in the parliament on the threat of covid before the imposition of the national lockdown in India.

Patnaik views his role in politics as extension of his policy career in bureacracy and has been known for a systems reform approach even in political systems as head of the IT cell.[17] He has frequently written on data protection and views personal data privacy as a fundamental right[18] and has opined for an independent data protection body in India especially with regard to the imminent onset of artificial intelligence.[19][20]

He has written about mistrust in Indian communities arising due to asymmetries in economic and social power.[21] He developed a power-asymmetry-based framework in which he argued that a champion with the right attributes and the 'ability’ to 'convene' people over a social issue can only succeed if he/she can resolve or reduce the deep-rooted societal power asymmetries within that community.[22]