Indian-American IT czar Gopal Khanna, the first ever Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Minnesota, would be stepping down on December 15 following a five-year stint as part of which he helped the state save over USD 200 million during tough economic crisis.

Announcing this, Minnesota Governor Tim Powlenty described Khanna as a nationally recognised visionary with a tireless commitment and passion for good government.

"Gopal has led our efforts to manage information technology as an enterprise programme and leveraged public-private partnerships to make government more efficient, effective, and citizen-centric," he said in a statement.

Khanna was appointed Minnesota's first State CIO by Governor Pawlenty in 2005. He advises the Governor on strategies to further his agenda for internal reform and transformation to better serve the citizens of Minnesota; and oversees the statewide IT planning, budgeting and programme execution.

"Thanks to Governor Pawlenty's vision for better government and the bipartisan support of the legislature, we now have a 10-year State IT Master Plan and a high-performing central IT agency that manages the state's IT assets. This will be the foundation to continue our efforts to restructure the operations of government," Khanna said.

In addition to saving the state over USD 200 million over five years by standardising and consolidating hardware and software acquisition, Khanna initiated a nation-leading Cyber Security programme and an iGov plan that uses an array of shared services solutions that decrease costs in state government.

Khanna serves as Chair of the Commission on Service Innovation, a first-in-the-nation initiative that will recommend restructuring and further improvements to the overall delivery of government services.

He also serves on the enrolment workgroup of the federal Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy and Standards Committee.

Khanna earlier served as the president of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) for 2008-2009.

Prior to assuming his position in Pawlenty's Cabinet, Khanna served in the administration of President George W Bush from June 2002 through August 2005, where he held several senior policy positions, including CIO and CFO of the Peace Corps and CFO of the Executive Office of the President/Office of Administration.

Khanna is a recipient of the prestigious Federal 100 Award for being a change agent in federal government.

He was cited by Government Technology as one of the 2009 doers, dreamers and drivers for his work and leadership in state government, and by Information Week as one of "The Government CIO 50" in the United States.

In April 2010, Khanna was listed by Twin Cities Business in '200 Minnesotans You Should Know'.