Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Here at Naveen Niwas, corporate titan Santrupt Misra joined Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ahead of the twin elections in Odisha. Since taking an early retirement from the Aditya Birla Group, the conglomerate where he worked for almost 27 years, on December 28, Misra has been the talk of the town. “He left an important corporate job to help us in our good work,” Naveen added, extending his welcome to him at the celebration. We shall determine where he will stand. Present were senior party leaders Pranab Prakash Das, Pratap Deb, Snehangini Chhuria, and 5t Chairman V K Pandian.
Speaking to the media later, Misra said that he would take up any work assigned to him by the BJD leadership and abide by party discipline. He further said that he decided to join BJD after being inspired by the ideology, personality and people-oriented work of party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. “I was truly inspired by the manner in which CM Naveen Patnaik has taken the state forward to new heights in growth and has been ruling for last 25 years on the basis of fundamental principles and by bringing spiritualism in the administration,” he said.
He further that he will work for the people of Odisha and strengthen the party with support of other senior party leaders. “After working many years outside the country, I had wished to return to Odisha and serve people here,” he added. A native of Puri, Misra was the Global Director of Human Resources as well as Group Director of Birla Carbon and Director of Chemicals. According to reports, he was instrumental in shaping employee policies in the Aditya Birla Group and had also mentored the next generation of Birla scions—Aryaman Vikram Birla and Ananya Birla. It is said that Kumar Birla relied on Misra, who joined the Aditya Birla Group in 1996 as vice president of HR from Hindustan Unilever (HUL).
For more than twenty years, Misra has served on the boards of publicly traded corporations, unlisted enterprises, and not-for-profit organizations in India and abroad as both an executive and non-executive director. He holds directorships in a number of listed Aditya Birla Group firms, including Grasim, Aditya Birla Capital Ltd., and Birla Carbon Thailand. According to Misra’s LinkedIn profile, he completed his PhD in public administration and his master’s degree in politics at Utkal University in Bhubaneswar.
