Mayankote Kelath Narayanan (Malayalam: മായങ്കോട് കേളത്ത് നാരായണന്‍) was born in New Delhi in 1934, commonly referred to as M.K. Narayanan, is the current Governor of Indian state West Bengal.

He had his early education in Delhi and Shimla before he went to Madras for his High School and University education. He is an alumnus of the Loyala College, Madras, and holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Madras.

Narayanan joined the Indian Police Service in 1955 and passed out as the best all-round officer of his batch. 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 during which he dealt with a whole range of issues concerning internal and national security. Narayanan was Director of the Intelligence Bureau from 1987 to 1992 and also served as the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Government of India. He superannuated in 1992.

Narayanan was awarded the prestigious national award – Padma Shri – in 1992 for his services to the country.

He remained closely connected with security-related matters even after his retirement. He was a Member of the Task Force on revamping the Intelligence System set up after the Kargil Committee Report in 2000. Apart from this, he was frequently consulted on security matters and was a Member on several expert panels, specially in the area of counter terrorism and counter intelligence.

Shri Narayanan was appointed by the UPA Government in May 2004 as the Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India. In January 2005, he assumed charge as the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India. As the National Security Advisor, his responsibilities included advising the Prime Minister on foreign policy and defence matters, national security issues, including internal security and intelligence, and nuclear and space matters. He also led India in institutionalized security and strategic dialogues with several countries including Brazil, France, Japan, Sri Lanka, Germany, Russia, UK and the USA. He was also the Prime Minister’s Special Representative for boundary talks with China.

He Narayanan took over as the Governor of the State of West Bengal on January 24, 2010.

Shri Narayanan’s family includes Smt. Padmini Narayanan, his wife, and two children both of whom are married.

This photograph was taken at the Valedictory session of the 100th Indian Science Congress held at the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences pavilion, Salt Lake city, Kolkata.