Brief Profile

Doctoral degree holder (Ph. D) in Geophysics from the Osmania University, Hyderabad after obtaining M.Tech from Osmania University and a Masters degree holder in Business Administration (MBA) from Delhi. Trained Life Coach in the area of Mastering Life’s Energies.

Having a career span of 22 years in development sector with a spectrum of working experience with United Nations, Donor agencies, National and Provincial Government Departments, Academic Universities, and NGOs, I gradually evolved into a rural development specialist with focus on water and agriculture. While working with Government of India I had setup 80 national research projects in drinking water sector. While working with Government of Netherlands for eight years in Land and Water division, was in the forefront of the process of evolving the water sector policy in various states in India. I had a key role in bringing out the Water Vision 2020 document of Andhra Pradesh state. Had formulated a number of development projects and mobilised grant funds for various states including Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamilnadu, etc. in the specific areas of agriculture, irrigation – minor and major, rural development, watershed management, salinity and drainage, dryland agriculture, groundwater development and management, hydrology, green environment, urban lakes, etc. Main focus has always been capacity building of various stakeholders in the sector. He was instrumental in sponsoring 200+ scientists of various agricultural universities in the country for training abroad in The Netherlands and other countries and 300+ engineers of irrigation and groundwater departments of various states in The Netherlands. He has several scientific and popular articles to his credit and recently brought out two important books on India’s Water Resources and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

I travelled widely around the world representing India’s case in a number of international fora such as World Water Forums and a number of Inter-governmental conferences and meetings mainly bringing the Indian experiences to the world platform. I had facilitated participation of farmers in various international meetings and exchange visits with other country farmers. I represented FAO at various international fora such as ICARRD, Brazil and WWF, World Water Week, Sweden, etc. Member on various committees setup by National & State governments for steering various bilateral development & FAO projects. Active member of various professional bodies such as International Coaching Federation, USA; AGID, Brazil; IGU, Hyderabad; AEG, Hyderabad; INPIM, New Delhi etc.

While at United Nations I contributed sigficantly to the normative work of FAO in area of Irrigation Modernization and was instrumental in refining the MASSCOTE methodology and bringing out latest FAO publication No.63. I am a key resource person for introducing the new modernization methodology and training irrigation engineers in China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, Kazakistan and other Central Asian countries. One of my project APFAMGS was in the finalists for Kyoto World Water Prize in 2006 and is independently assessed by The World Bank as the only groundwater initiative in the world which proved that GW management is possible. The same is quoted in World Development Report 2010. The Economist, London researched independetly and published an artice in May 2010 issue. http://www.economist.com/node/16136354 and http://drpsraostravel.blogspot.com/2011/09/economists-visit-to-my-flagship-project.html 

Being a strong supporter of participatory approaches in natural resource management, had provided unstinted support and inspiration for successful field implementation of various innovative initiatives in agriculture and water sectors.