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Mr. P. Bala Kiran IAS has joined as the new Director of Kerala Tourism. He succeeds Mr. U. V. Jose IAS, who was appointed recently as the District Collector of Kozhikode.
Prior to this he served as the Director of Kerala State IT Mission, District Collector Kannur and Director of Panchayat Department. He is a recipient of National Award for Best Electoral Practices of Election Commission of India from Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, Hon'ble President of India, for the ‘Innovative Measures’ implemented in Kannur during the Assembly Elections in 2016. He is also a recipient of National Award for his ‘Barrier-Free Kannur’ project from Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, for his contributions towards ensuring a barrier-free environment in the district and thereby making it accessible to the differently-abled sections of the society. He has also won the ‘Best District Collector of Kerala’ Award in 2016 from Hon'ble Chief Minister of Kerala for his outstanding work as District Collector of Kannur.
Before joining IAS, he worked as Missile Scientist in DRDO, Hyderabad, for four years and was selected for IPS (Punjab Cadre) in 2007. A 2008 batch Indian Administrative Service officer hailing from Hyderabad, Mr. Bala Kiran started his civil service career as Assistant Collector of Kozhikode and then took over as Sub-Collector of Thiruvalla and Kasaragod. He is an alumnus of IIT Madras and an M.Tech holder in Computer Science and Engineering.