BRIEF RESUME – RAHUL BHATNAGAR, I.A.S.

Shri Rahul Bhatnagar, after his early education from St. Columba’s School, New Delhi did his post-graduation in Physics from St. Stephens College and Delhi University. He also has a post-graduate degree in Economics. He joined the Reserve Bank of India in 1981. Thereafter, he joined the Indian Administrative Service (Uttar Pradesh Cadre) in 1983 and held a number of assignments both at the Centre and in the State of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) during his long administrative career spread over 03 decades.

After completing his district assignments as District Magistrate of Shahjahanpur and Gorakhpur in U.P., Shri Rahul Bhatnagar held several important positions in the State Government. At the senior level in the State Government, he held the position of Principal Secretary (Sugarcane Development and Sugar Industries). During his tenure, not only were 33 new sugar mills set up in U.P. but much to the relief and benefit of farmers, all accumulated arrears of sugarcane dues of sugarcane farmers from sugar mills were cleared. As Principal Secretary (Finance) and Finance Commissioner U.P., he was responsible for the preparation and presentation of 03 Budgets of Government of U.P., which is the largest Budget amongst all the States of India. He also held the positions of Investment and Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC), U.P., Principal Resident Commissioner of U.P. in Delhi and Chairman, Greater NOIDA. He was Chief Secretary of U.P. during the period 2016 and 2017.

In Government of India, Shri Bhatnagar held the position of Director in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance where he represented the country in negotiations with the World Bank and IMF and was closely involved in policy formulation for Foreign Investment, both Foreign Direct Investment and Foreign Portfolio Investment. He was also Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. During his tenure as Joint Secretary in Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, he formulated and implemented a major Scheme for the Preparation of Indian team for Commonwealth Games-2010 which proved to be a game changer and brought in a record number of medals for India in these Games with India finishing at second position in medals tally for the first and only time.

After his tenure as Chief Secretary of India’s largest State of Uttar Pradesh, he was appointed as Sports Secretary in Government of India in October, 2017. As Sports Secretary, he spearheaded the country’s flagship programme for sports promotion and development ‘Khelo India’. During his tenure as Secretary (Sports), India registered its best ever performance in Commonwealth Games- 2018, Asian Games-2018, Para Asian Games-2018 and Youth Olympic Games- 2018.

Shri Rahul Bhatnagar is now Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Government of India. As Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj his mandate is rural development and the promotion and strengthening of local self government in rural areas of the country through more than 2.5 lakh Village Panchayats and more than 30 lakh elected representatives in Panchayats.