Nripendra Misra will be the Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), which results in heading PMO. The former Prinicpal Secratary was Pulok Chatterji during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tenure.

The functional role of the PMO is to provide secretarial assistance to the prime minister. The office of the prime minister has few select officers of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) who work with him. Their role is to manage and coordinate government and help his office.

Misra's roots stem from the civil services as he joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1967. His other educational qualifications include: a masters' degree from John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (Public Administration), and another masters' degree from Allahabad University (Political Science & Public Administration, and Chemistry).

Misra is extremely experienced in government office as in the past he has served in multiple important positions. He has taken on many roles: Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI); Secretary, Department of Telecommunications & Chairman Telecom Commission, Government of India; Secretary, Department of Fertilizers, Government of India; Special Secretary/Additional Secretary, World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ministry of Commerce, Government of India; Minister (Economic), Embassy of India, USA; Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India; and district level and other senior assignments in the state government of Uttar Pradesh.

As the former telecom secretary, he gave his deposition before the CBI on the delay in granting new licenses to Aircel in 2004-05 that sealed Dayanidhi Maran's fate in the 2G spectrum scam. He defended his actions by making a statement to the CBI that he had no role in the matter of the delay of licenses and he merely complied with the minister's orders relating to scrutiny of Aircel applications by sending them to the relevant departmental sections. While leaving office, he directed his officials to place the matter before his successor, as and when the scrutiny sought by the minister is over.

He was also vocal when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in Delhi. He said the AAP should shun its populism, and criticised them for lacking long term vision.

Besides national qualifications, he also holds international credentials as he has served as consultant in World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Funds for Agricultural Development and the Government of Nepal.