Famous IAS Officers List

Millions of aspirants Apply For UPSC Exam every year. It is considered one of the toughest competitive exams in the nation. Out of lakhs of applications, only 180 candidates are selected to join the civil services. It is like a national dream to serve the country as a Civil Servant. The main roles of IAS Officers include framing policies, maintaining order and law, advising the ministries, regulating the implemented policies, and many more.

This article enlisted the famous IAS officers list of 22 civil servants in the country who, apart from the usual duties they bear, have a history of doing great work for the betterment of society.

Top IAS Officers in India

Armstrong Pame

Armstrong Pame, an IAS officer originally from Manipur is also known as the “Miracle Man” for building a 100 km road that connects Manipur to Nagaland and Assam in the Tamenglong district. The road is also known as People’s road as it was built 100% with local people’s support without any help from government machinery. It helped the residents a lot in terms of connectivity and accessibility to healthcare and educational facilities.

Aruna Sundarajan

Ms. Sundararajan, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the Kerala Cadre and a member of the 1982 batch, is one of the nation’s most senior public workers. Ms. Sundararajan has more than three decades of expertise in a range of senior positions within the Central and State Governments, particularly in the domains of IT/Telecom, Investment Promotion, and Economic and Development Administration.

Ms. Sundararajan played a key role in Kerala’s IT department’s establishment in 1998. She had conceptualized and led the Akshaya project, which was originally initiated in the rural area of Malappuram, Kerala, India, and later expanded throughout the entire state, as the state’s first IT Secretary. Over 1 million people received basic computer skills training as part of Akshaya, the largest project of its type. One of the biggest known Internet Protocol (IP) based rural wireless networks in the world was also sparked by Akshaya. Akshaya is regarded as one of the most innovative and digitally transformative ventures worldwide, both domestically and internationally.

Smita Sabharwal

The “People’s Officer” is another name for IAS Smita Sabharwal. She has received numerous honors for her outstanding performance as an IAS officer, and IAS aspirants from all across the nation look up to her as an inspiration.

She ranked fourth in the 2000 UPSC exam and was the top candidate for the IAS. Smita is the daughter of former Army Colonel PK Das and Purabi Das. Smita made sure she played for an hour every day in addition to her six hours of study each day. She also used newspapers and magazines to keep up with everyday news.

She introduced the “Fund your City” program. She initiated it while serving as the Municipal Commissioner in Warangal.

Under this scheme, a huge number of public utilities such as footbridges, traffic junctions, parks, and bus stops were built through Public-Private Partnerships.

Many people have applauded her for her work as the District Collector in Karimnagar and Medak. In 2011, she became the district’s administrator. She made a significant impact on the fields of health and education there. Wider roads, well-planned traffic intersections, bus stations, restrooms, and other public amenities were added to Karimnagar Town with the help of public representatives.

She also made history by being the first female IAS officer appointed to the Chief Minister’s Office.

She currently serves as Telangana’s chief minister’s secretary. She is also Secretary for the Mission Bhagiratha and Rural Water Supply Departments.

IAS Ashok Khemka

An official in the Indian civil service is named Ashok Khemka. He is a 1991 batch officer in the Indian Administrative Service. Since he revealed wrongdoing in the agencies he was assigned to, the state governments have relocated him 54 times as of October 2021. After another retired IAS officer, Pradeep Kasni, who was transferred 71 times in 35 years, Ashok Khemka is the second-most transferred bureaucrat in Haryana.

Together with Sanjiv Chaturvedi, he received the S.R. Jindal Prize in 2011 for their “Crusade against Corruption” activities, which came with a cash award of 10 Lakhs. Additionally, in 2009, he was given the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust Commendation for Public Works.

Durga Shakti Nagpal

Durga Shakti Nagpal, an IAS bold enough to serve her country whenever and however needed, was born on June 25, 1985, in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. She is regarded as an inspiration for women across the country.

In June 2011, shortly after passing the UPSC, this fearless Indian administrative officer started serving the nation in the Punjab cadre. During her fourteen-month stay there as a trainee IAS officer, she pulled off a land scam in Mohali. The tenacious IAS Durga Shakti Nagpal was just getting started.

She was appointed the sub-divisional magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh; before that, she served as the SDM of Sadar in Noida.

She gained notoriety after leading a significant campaign in Greater Noida against corrupt practices and unlawful sand mining. She was subsequently suspended by the government of Uttar Pradesh for apparently tearing down an illegitimate mosque wall in a village near Greater Noida. This action was met with fierce protest because it was thought to be supported by tenuous justifications. Her suspension was being called for to be overturned by several political parties, organizations of Indian bureaucrats, and the general people on social media.

Her suspension was lifted in 2013 by the U.P. government.

IAS Vinod Rai

Vinod Rai, a former IAS official who served as India’s 11th Comptroller and Auditor General, was born on May 23, 1948. He began serving on 7 January 2008 and did so through 22 May 2013. He is currently the chairman of the UN Panel of External Auditors, a member of the Railway Kaya Kalp Council, and an Honorary Advisor to the Indian Railways.

Rai was appointed as the Indian Banking Board’s chairperson. Rai was appointed as the acting president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India on January 30, 2017, by the Supreme Court of India (BCCI). He was chosen by the Keralan government to lead the advisory panel of the Kerala Infrastructure and Investment Board (KIIFB).

B. Chandrakala

B. Chandrakala, also known as Bhukhya Chandarakala Niru, is an IAS officer in Uttar Pradesh for the Indian government. She has been an IAS official since 2008.

Chandrakala, unfortunately, failed his first three tries at the UPSC Exam. However, she was successful in passing the IAS examination on her fourth attempt, earning an all-India rank of 409 in 2007. Public administration and geography were her elective classes.

She put into practice all of the government’s welfare programs for panchayats, the environment, animal husbandry, social welfare, and tree planting. She has moved around even though her diligence and talent have helped her succeed in fresh ways everywhere she has gone. From 2009 to 2012, she was employed in Allahabad as an SDM and CDO. She is a social networking superstar who uses it extensively.

She was chosen in 2012 to serve as the Hamirpur District Magistrate, and on June 8, 2014, she was transferred to Mathura. She thereby became Mathura’s second female district magistrate.

In 2017, the NDA administration appointed her as the director of the Swachch Bharat Mission under the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. She had previously served as a district magistrate for the benefit of the general people.

She has directed her officers to resolve all issues as soon as possible. She has built over 20,000 toilets as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission in 242 villages.

She was appointed deputy secretary in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation as part of the Swatch Bharat Mission due to her excellent work.

Santha Sheela Nair

Santha Sheela Nair, a former IAS official, is a member of the 1973 cohort. Her work speaks volumes from close to 50 decades of her devotion to the nation. She was appointed as the first woman district collector of Trichy and retired as a secretary to the Government of India. After retiring, she was also asked to work in the Chief Minister’s office and as the Vice Chairman of the State Planning Commission.

As a result of her efforts to plant 1 million trees in Trichy and coordinate a significant tree-planting initiative while serving as the Commissioner of Chennai Corporation, the majority of the trees are still standing tall. She served as the model for many such activities around the area and the pulse polio campaign in Tamil Nadu during the international year of the disabled. She received recognition for her dedicated contributions to specially challenged individuals after assisting around 2 lakh children in receiving their polio drops and thousands of youngsters who were impacted by the disease in receiving Calipers. She also started the Trichy Spastic Society, which supports 300 kids with cerebral palsy.

When the state had a tsunami emergency in Nagapatinam in 2004, she was assigned as a special officer. She gave it her all to help relocate many households to temporary housing, restore and renovate the area, and dispose of more than 10,000 bodies.

She advocated for sustainability while working as the Secretary of Municipal Administration, which is demonstrated by her work putting rainwater harvesting into practice in Tamilnadu. It was the first state in the nation to implement legislation making it a legal requirement in building codes and making it mandatory. This had a significant impact on Tamil Nadu’s water management.

Krishna Gopal Tiwari

On Friday, Krishna Gopal Tiwari visited Varanasi to express his gratitude to Kashi Vishwanath, the patron deity of this revered city, for assisting him in passing the 2008 civil services exams. For despite having sight impairments, he succeeded on his third try.

Krishna, 27, the son of a farmer named Swami Nath Tiwari of the Ambedkar Nagar district, has finished his training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy in Dehradun and will begin serving as an IAS officer in Madhya Pradesh on February 8.

Krishna had to battle his disability in addition to the typical financial struggles of someone from a relatively impoverished household, forcing him to write his papers with the assistance of two scribes. Krishna, an economics graduate, claimed that learning that he had finally succeeded in getting into the civil services was the best moment of his life. His overall ranking was 142, but among those who had some sort of physical impairment, he was first.

He claimed that he had a slight sight issue when he was younger. Due to his inability to afford treatment, nevertheless. It got to the point where his only choice was to use magnifying glasses. When he took the civil services examination nine years ago, he had only 25% visibility and used scribes to write out his answers. He mostly taught himself because he could not afford tutoring, with a little assistance from his buddies who were also aspiring to the civil services.

His greatest difficulty throughout the written exams was producing economics answers with diagrams as the primary visual component. It was challenging to explain to the writers, he claimed. I created the schematics using wires, and the scribes reproduced them onto the answer sheet.

Rajni Sekhri Sibal

Rajni Sekhri Sibel is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. She has held various posts in the government, including that of secretary of the government of India and additional secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs. Sibal holds a postgraduate degree in psychology and economics. She also has a Diploma in French. In addition to her civil service career, Sibal has written six books, including Are You Prepared For a Natural Disaster?

Her new book, Women of Influence: Ten Extraordinary IAS Careers, provides a glimpse into the lives of ten women IAS officers who’ve risen through the ranks to make a difference in the public sector. The book focuses on the challenges and successes faced by women in the civil service. Sibal has been an IAS officer for 37 years and has seen firsthand the pressures of being a woman in a male-dominated profession.

Sibal was an IAS officer in Haryana when the JBT scam was uncovered. She brought the case before the Supreme Court, which led to the conviction of Chautala and other officials. In a previous career, Sibal worked as the director of primary education. Sibal’s predecessor, RP Chander, was shown the door shortly before the selection of the candidates.

U Sagayam Declares His Assets Publicly

The IAS officer U. Sagayam was the first IAS officer to declare his assets publicly. He was a Vice-Chairman of Science City in Chennai and an officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre of the Indian Administrative Service. His career spanned two decades and included service in the Central Secretariat Service. Sagayam resigned from the Central Secretariat Service in 1998 after serving in New Delhi for seven months. He later took up the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission examination and was appointed as a Deputy Collector in the state. He was later promoted to the Indian Administrative Service and became a Collector in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu.

He was born on March 22, 1963, in Perunchunai, Pudukottai district. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in law and a Master’s in social work from Loyola College. In his 30-year career, he was transferred 25 times. Many times, he was offered bribes, which he did not accept. His office door displayed a sign stating “Reject Bribes.” He was then transferred to Madurai, where he held important positions.

He hoped that his action would convey a message of integrity in public administration. He also hoped that his action would strengthen the democratic process. Some IAS officers have said they don’t feel the need to disclose their assets because they are already working for the government.

D Subbarao

Duvvuri Subbarao, a retired IAS officer and central banker from India, was born on August 11, 1949. He served as Dr. Manmohan Singh’s prime minister and was the 22nd governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He served as a distinguished visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore and the University of Pennsylvania after leaving RBI.

Subbarao is an Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer. He is from the 1972 batch. He was chosen to serve as the RBI’s 22nd Governor, beginning on September 5, 2008, and continuing through September 4, 2013, with an extension in 2011. Subbarao received an appointment to the Andhra Pradesh cadre of the IAS after winning the Civil Services Examination in 1972.

At the beginning of his career, Subbarao worked in Andhra Pradesh’s field. When he served as Collector of the Khammam District in Andhra Pradesh in 1979, he established a strong reputation for diligently and methodically carrying out the land transfer regulation, which entailed primarily returning land that tribal households had lost as a result of debt to them by the provisions of the protective legislation.

From 1999 to 2004, he served as a chief economist for the World Bank, where part of his duties included promoting reforms to public spending in developing nations. He oversaw the main World Bank study on decentralization in East Asia as well.

Top 5 Youngest IAS Officer

Roman Saini

IAS Officer Roman Saini is an inspiring example of a man who strives to share his achievements with the common man. Roman Saini, who was 22 years old, completed the UPSC Civil Services test, one of India’s most difficult exams. He previously said, “I was doing my MBBS and was assigned in Haryana’s Dayalpur village,” when asked why he decided to become an IAS officer. I observed how folks were denied access to necessities. I decided to serve my country at that time. Roman, a 22-year-old collector who was one of the newest IAS officers, was assigned to Madhya Pradesh.

A lot of candidates hope to pass the UPSC exam. They enlist the aid of several coaching organizations to do this. Such online learning resources are abundant for UPSC candidates. The education app Unacademy is one such platform. This platform was co-founded by Roman Saini IAS.

Tina Dabi

Tina Dabi is the first Dalit IAS officer and the first woman to secure the top rank in a civil service examination. She is an alumna of Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College. She is also the first Dalit to qualify for the UPSC examination.

Amrutesh Aurangabadker

Amrutesh Aurangabadkar, a 22-year-old Pune resident, passed the 2011 UPSC Examination on his first try. He scored the highest in Maharashtra and placed tenth on the Civil Services Exam. Although he made up his decision in the 12th grade, the actual planning didn’t start until the third year of graduation. He chose Sociology and Philosophy as his elective subjects. He didn’t have to put in much effort because he already had a diploma and was a graduate of economics. Although societal themes were discussed in sociology, his attention was constantly on the most recent events.

S Susree Krishnamurthy

IAS Officer S Susree Krishnamurthy was born in Kerala, India. She is the daughter of Sunil Kumar, a former Assistant Commandant in the CRPF, and Sreekala, who is a teacher. She has excelled in her studies and was the topper of the CBSE 10th and 12th examinations. In addition, she completed her BA in English from Kerala University.

Youngest IAS Officer – Ansar Shaikh

In a single attempt, Ansar Shaikh cleared the UPSC examination and became the country’s youngest IAS officer. He is a 21-year-old from Maharashtra. He was born to an autorickshaw driver father and a field worker mother. He has a younger brother, Anees, who dropped out of school in standard seven to help his family. He later worked in the family garage and was a great help to Ansar Shaikh during his preparation for the UPSC examination.

Shaikh studied at Fergusson College in Pune, graduating with a 73% in Political Science. A college professor encouraged him to study for the UPSC examination. He devoted nine months to studying for the prelims and 100 days to prepare for the mains. He studied for up to 14 hours a day and took the UPSC personality test as part of his preparation.

While his family struggled to make ends meet, Ansar stayed bright and pursued his dream. He got a 91% grade in his X board exams, earned his degree in political science from Ferguson College, Pune, and attended a private IAS coaching class. The tuition fees were enormous, but his family couldn’t afford to give up.

Ansar Shaikh is the youngest IAS officer in India. He cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination on his first attempt, at the age of 21. He achieved 321st rank and currently works as an officer on special duty in West Bengal.

IAS Officers Whose Amazing Initiatives Made 2019 Better

Raj Yadav

The IAS Officer Raj Yadav from the batch 2013 has carved a niche for himself in the Indian civil service. He has been posted in various departments during his career, including secretariat administration. He credits his parents’ encouragement and support for his success. He was educated in his village and then at the Army School in Lucknow. In addition, he is an accomplished cricketer.

Fighting Malnutrition With IAS Officer Shashanka Ala

In Mizoram, a woman, IAS Officer Shashanka Ala, has made a remarkable difference in fighting malnutrition. She has partnered with local schools to help them grow their food and use the produce for mid-day meals. The initiative has resulted in a 50 percent reduction in malnutrition among school children.

Sandeep Nanduri Launched a Cafe Run by Differently Abled Person

IAS Sandeep Nanduri opened a cafe where people with disabilities solely run. Twelve individuals with disabilities manage the busy Sandeep Nanduri Café Able. As soon as you step inside, get ready to be overcome by the smells of delectable food and enchanted by the prompt service provided by these courteous and perpetually cheerful people.

Asheesh Singh Assisted With The Cleanup Of 100 Acres Of Land.

In a unique feat of environmental conservation, IAS officer Asheesh Singh has cleared more than 13 lakh tons of garbage from 100 acres of land in the city of Indore. The area was a dumping ground for years, resulting in toxic fumes and frequent fires. But Asheesh Singh stepped in and fast-tracked the entire process. His team managed to clear the waste in six months, without incurring additional costs.

Jitendra Kumar Soni Provided Free Footwear to Children

Young IAS officer Jitendra Kumar Soni has started a unique scheme to provide free footwear to children. The Charan Paduka Abhiyan (Charitable Footwear Scheme) aims to provide free shoes to nearly 25,000 school children by Republic Day. This is a wonderful initiative that has helped many children in need.

Conclusion

Many famous and best IAS officer in India have made their mark in different fields. Some of them have become writers, poets, or activists. They also have helped the country in different ways. The government welcomes 180 IAS officers to work in the civil service a year. Nearly every candidate declares their desire to be chosen and serve the nation and its citizens through the Indian Administrative Service.

FAQs