Pratap Kishen Kaul (3 July 1929 – 2 March 2007) was an Indian Civil Servant and held several important and sensitive posts in the Government of India. He was from the 1951 batch of the Indian Administrative Service and served as the Cabinet Secretary, Government of India from 1985 to 1986. He was also the Indian Ambassador to the United States from 1986 to 1989.
Personal life
Kaul was a postgraduate in economics from the University of Allahabad, and went on to earn a master's degree in public administration at Harvard University.
He died of cancer on 2 March 2007 in New Delhi aged 77. He is survived by his wife Usha, three daughters, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Career
Civil services
He was from the 1951 batch of the IAS and was assigned to the Uttar Pradesh cadre where he served for 14 years before moving to the government of India. He served in various capacities in New Delhi and was Deputy Secretary, Director, and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Company Affairs. He was also Commissioner and Secretary of, the Industries department in the Government of Uttar Pradesh from 1973 to 1975. He was secretary of three important ministries and held the posts of commerce secretary, defense secretary, and finance secretary of the government of India. He served as cabinet secretary of India from 1985-1986. He also served as alternate governor to International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
He was the Indian Ambassador to the United States from 1986 to 1989. In 2005, he was appointed a head of a high-powered committee to review the functioning of Central Government Health Service (CGHS) by the government of India.
He was also a member of the Space Commission and the Atomic Energy Commission of India. He retired as cabinet secretary.