Early life and education

Praveen Kumar is from Hazaribag in Jharkhand

Jharkhand

Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...

. He received undergraduate and postgraduate degress in Metallurgy from IIT Kanpur. He also received M. Phil degree in Social Science from Punjab University. He is from the 1987 batch of Indian Administrative Officer. He is married to Anitha Praveenkumar.

Career

He began his IAS career in Tamil Nadu. He started as Assistant Collector in Training in Salem district

Salem District

Salem District is a district of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The city of Salem is the district headquarters. Other major towns in the district are Mettur, Omalur and Attur...

 in 1988. During 1989-1991, he worked in Thanjavur district

Thanjavur District

Thanjavur District is one of the 32 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. Its headquarters is Thanjavur.-Geography:...

 as Sub-Collector, Settlement Officer and Additional Collector .

He worked as Joint Resident Commissioner in the Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi from 1992-1994 and Controller of Examinations of the Tamil Nadu Public Services Commission in 1994-1996. He became Villupuram district Collector in 1996. In 1997, he became Additional Secretary in the Industries Department in Tamil Nadu.

In 2001, he went to work for the Union government. He was appointed as the Director in the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy of the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development.

In 2007, he returned to Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

 to serve in the State government as Special Secretary in the Finance department. He became Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu in 2010.

2011 Tamil Nadu election

He was widely commended for conducting the 2011 Tamil Nadu election

Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election, 2011

The fourteenth legislative assembly election was held on 13 April 2011 to elect members from 234 constituencies in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Results were released on 13 May 2011...

 in a free and fair manner. Incidences of milk abhishekam to his poster in Avaniapuram in Madurai

Madurai

Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...

was reported after the elections results were declared.