Tapan Kumar Pradhan

Tapan Kumar Pradhan studied at Utkal University, Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar College and XIM University. The recorded working language is Odia. Employment is recorded with Fakir Mohan College, Government of Odisha and Reserve Bank of India. Positions recorded include university teacher and general manager. Distinctions recorded are Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award, Jibanananda Das Award and All India Poetry Prize.

Pradhan studied at Laxmisagar Highschool, BJB College and Utkal University. He also studied briefly at University of Hyderabad, TISS and IIT Kanpur where he discontinued. His father Arakshit Pradhan was an engineer under Government of Odisha but left job in protest against rampant corruption in Government projects. After Arakshit Pradhan left for Himalayas, the family was brought up by his wife Kumudini Pradhan.

Pradhan's works encompass both secular and spiritual literature. His poems, essays, sketches and short stories have been published in the journals Indian Literature, Journal of Poetry Society, The Statesman, Times of India and The Samaja. His book “Kalahandi” has been included in literature syllabus of several colleges and universities. He has also co-authored, edited and commented on the spiritual works of German Christian poet Antony Theodore and mystic Kashmiri poet Lalitha Iyer showing the underlying unity of all world religions. His skillful translation of Urdu poetry helped Munawwar Rana's ghazals reach global audience.

In 2009, Pradhan petitioned the Central Information Commission of India to increase transparency in the Performance Appraisal System in RBI. Pradhan was first person in RBI and public sector employee to obtain his PAR report through RTI Act. As against CIC's view that PAR was "confidential personal information", Pradhan contended that PAR is the appraisal committee's impersonal evaluation of the public service rendered by public servants in their impersonal capacity in a public organisation; and hence there was nothing "personal" about PAR. Following his petition, RBI began disclosing PAR reports to all employees before moving over to a more objective method of appraisal called Performance Management System. In the words of Smt Usha Thorat, the ex-Deputy Governor of RBI, Pradhan makes "ingenious use of the RTI Act" to redress individual grievances.

Under UGC Fellowship, Pradhan was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 2001 for his dissertation on Structural and Economic Dimensions of Communal Conflict. He has researched the Kandh-Pana conflict in Kandhamal district, Hindu-Muslim relations in Bhadrak and Harijan-Savarna caste dynamics at Brahmabarada in Jajpur district of Odisha. He taught Sociology at Fakir Mohan University, Balasore, before joining Reserve Bank of India in 1999 as a Grade-B officer. In 2014, Pradhan left RBI to join Government of Odisha as Director and Additional Secretary in Finance Department. He established transparent score-based ranking of banks on Financial Inclusion parameters for awarding of Government business.

In 2001 Pradhan married Suvashree, a trained Odishi dancer. The couple have a son and a daughter.

• Psalms of Love (2021) • I Am Your Baby, Mother (2020) • Songs of Lust and Love (2020) • Jesus Christ in Love (2019) • Songs of Sadness (2019)

• Kalahandi (2007):- from Odia କଳାହାଣ୍ଡି by author • Ghazals (2022):- from Urdu غزلیں by Munawwar Rana

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• Pradhan's Landmark RTI Queries