Shri MN Vidyashankar Principal Secretary e-Governance, Karnataka

Mr MN Vidyashankar Chief Election Officer Karnataka , meeting representatives of Praja, a citizens organisation of Bangalore

The above photo downloaded from the internet represents the way of working of Mr Vidyashankar whch is of being extremely accessible  to both citizens and private sector, understanding their point of view and incorporating their suggestions after due evaluation.

In the past decade, Mr Vidyashankar has served the State Government of Karnataka in some important positions namely Chairman BWSSB, Commissioner BDA, Secretary Medical Education, , Principal Secretary IT BT & ST , Chief Electoral Officer and Principal Secretary e-Governance. In all these positions besides running the regular routine operations of the departments with a high degree of efficiency, he has kept the citizens interests paramount and introduced numerous IT based innovations.

2nd line leadership for successful implementation of e-Governance Projects

In most cases the media highlights the contribution of e-Gov champions at the Secretary or Principal Secretary e-Governance like Shri Rajeev Chawla, Shri MN Vidyashankar. However these officers would be the first to pass on the credit to the team supporting them.   Karnataka Government has been fortunate to have hard working and dedicated 2nd line leadership in the e-Governance department which has led to successful implementation of many e-Governance projects in the State. Some of these notable officers are

Shri DS Ravindran an officer from the Indian Forests Service,  is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer  of the Centre for e-Governance in the Department of e-Governance. Over the past 3 years he has been responsible for implementing some of the most important e-Governance programs to name a few like the Karnataka State Wide Area Network, e-Procurement, Nemmadi. Prior to his working in the e-Governance Department, Shri DS Ravindran has served in a variety of roles in the Forest department of Karnataka. He has a Phd from University of Wales and was awarded a Gold Medal by IIM Bangalore for topping the Masters program in Public Policy.

Ms. J Sathyawathi an officer of the Karnataka Administrative Service was appointed the first Deputy Secretary of the e-Governance Department of Karnataka which was established in 2004.

Dr. Rajendra Kumar's website

Dr. Rajendra Kumar an IAS officer of Tamil Nadu Cadre and currently serving as Director in National  E-Governance Division in DIT has a neat and attractive personal website. It is extremely creditable that Senior officers like Dr. Rajendra Kumar are creating their own websites as they in turn will push their Departments to publish user friendly and informative web sites.

With his extensive administrative experience coupled with a distinguished academic record, without doubt Dr. Rajendra Kumar will contribute to furthering the e-Governance agenda of the country   

Sri Kumar IPS Former DGP Karnataka appointed Commissioner CVC

Sri Kumar appointed Commissioner CVC - Article in Deccan Herald

Mr. Sri Kumar  former DGP of Karnataka has been appointed as Commissioner in the Central Vigilance Commission of India. Mr. Sri Kumar was the Managing Director of Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation http://www.ksphc.org/ for a number of years and introduced numerous e-Governance programs to enable transparency in the organisation. Among the noteworthy programs introduced were e-procurement, project management and complete transparency of works executed under KSPHC. Any person can check the website http://www.ksphc.org/ and ascertain the status of any work under implementation.

Mr. Sri Kumar, both as MD of KSPHC and later as DGP of Karnataka,  remained extremely accessible to all alike and was always open to new ideas, innovations and new ways of thinking.

Given the credentials of Mr. Sri Kumar , the Government is commended for making such a well deserved appointment to  the critical position in the Central Vigilance Commission.  He will continue to safeguard the interests of the citizens of India in his new position

A detailed profile of Mr. Sri Kumar is provided in the CVC website Mr. Sri Kumar's profile in CVC website

Brief Career Profile of Shri S.R. Rao IAS Additional Secretary DIT Government of India

Mr. S.R. Rao is a member of the prestigious Indian Administrative Service having joined the service in 1978. In a distinguished career of over 32 years, he has served in several assignments like District Administration, Rural Development, Urban Development, Ports, Primary Health Service Delivery, and Nuclear Energy. He has taken charge of the current assignment as Additional Secretary Department of Information technology in November 2008. Prior to this assignment he served as Principal Secretary Municipal Administration in the State Government of Gujarat.

Mr. S.R. Rao is best known for the transformation of the City of Surat after the infamous attack of plague in the city in 1994. He took several bold and innovative steps for improvement of the infrastructure of the city and Surat for a long time was known as a model city. For this effort Mr. S.R. Rao was awarded “Padma Shri” a civilian honour of the Government of India and Eisenhower fellow and several other similar honours by National and International organisations.

Mr. S.R. Rao did his post graduation in Applied Sociology from Andhra University and followed it during his Government service with an M.A in Rural Development from the University of East Anglia(UK).

Mr. S.R. Rao is about 56 years of age

Below is a link featuring an interview of Shri Rao published in the outlook magazine in November 97 post his clean up of Surat

Interview with Shri S.R. Rao in outlook magazine

Given the popularity of the Post,  a few updates are provided 

• SR Rao, a 1978 batch Gujarat cadre IAS, presently additional secretary in the department of information technology has been appointed as additional secretary in department of telecommunications as of 1st February 2011
• Shri SR Rao was part of the hand picked team of the Cabinet Secretary to take over part responsibility for management of Common Wealth games. He was made responsible for the modernization of Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium and ensuring that the events in the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium happen without a glitch
• SR Rao conducts probe on Tata-VSNL deal (News of 25th March 2011)
  Telecom department’s additional secretary and 1978 batch Gujarat cadre IAS, SR Rao will be conducting an inquiry into Tata-VSNL land deal after telecom minister Kapil Sibal raised concerns over the disinvestment of VSNL in 2002 and the way de-merger of 773.13 acres of surplus land of VSNL was handled.
  A double MA in social work and rural development (UK), SR Rao is still known for his stint as Municipal Commissioner to a traumatized, plague-hit Surat city. He is credited with cleaning up the city and placing it back into normalcy.