Mayankodu Kelath Narayanan
19th Governor of West Bengal
In office 24 January 2010 – 30 June 2014
Chief Minister	Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Mamata Banerjee
Preceded by	Devanand Konwar (additional charge)
Succeeded by	D. Y. Patil (additional charge)
3rd National Security Advisor of India
In office 3 January 2005 – 23 January 2010
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	J. N. Dixit
Succeeded by	Shivshankar Menon
Director of Intelligence Bureau
In office January 1991 - February 1992
In office April 1987 – December 1989
Personal details
Born	(1934-03-10) 10 March 1934 (age 90) Ottapalam, Madras Presidency, British India
Spouse	Padmini Narayanan
Children	2
Alma mater	Loyola College, Chennai
Awards	Padma Shri (1992)

Mayankodu Kelath Narayanan (born 10 March 1934) is a former Indian Police Service officer. He was National Security Advisor of India from 2005 to 2010, assuming the role after the demise of his predecessor Jyotindra Nath Dixit in January 2005.^[1] Subsequently, he served as 19th Governor of West Bengal from 2010 to 2014.^[2] The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1992.^[3]

Early life

M K Narayanan hails from Kelath family at Ottapalam, Palakkad, a district of the state Kerala.^[4]

Narayanan did schooling from Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School.^[5] He completed his graduation from Loyola College, Chennai. He is married to Padmini Narayanan and the couple has a son, Vijay, and a daughter, Meena. Their son-in-law Ajit Nambiar is Chairman and Managing Director of BPL Ltd.^[6]

Career

M. K. Narayanan joined the Indian Police Service in 1955 and passed out with the highest marks. After a brief stint as Sub-Divisional Police Officer in the erstwhile State of Madras, he went on deputation to the Intelligence Bureau in February 1959. The rest of his service career was spent under the Government of India, mainly in the Intelligence Bureau, in which he dealt with a whole range of issues concerning internal and national security.

He headed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) from 1987 to 1990, before heading the Joint Intelligence Committee for a year. He became Chief (a four-star rank, equivalent to an Army general) of the IB again in 1991, before retiring in 1992. He was then appointed Special Adviser (a non-Civil Service appointment) for Internal Security to the Prime Minister of India beginning in May 2004.^[7] He was Indian National Security Adviser with the rank of Minister of State from 2005 to 2010. He played a significant role in the negotiation of the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement. He took over as Governor of West Bengal from Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who had a few disagreements with the then CPI(M)-ruled state on critical issues like violence in Nandigram and Singur.