 He was also Minister of Finance and Planning during the Chief Ministership of Bhavana Venkatram and Vijaya Bhaskara Reddi.Rao was appointed as Governor of the union territory of Pondicherry on 2 September 1983 and he continued in that post until June 1984.On 17 June 1984 he assumed the office of the Governor of Sikkim, and then succeeded Air Chief Marshal I. H. Latif, as the Governor of Maharashtra, on 30 May 1985.