S. Vijay Kumar

Subrahmanyam Vijay Kumar also known as S. Vijay Kumar(born 30 September 1953) is a member of the Indian Administrative Service who served as the Secretary of India's Ministry of Rural Development from 2012 to 2013. Before that he was the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Mines. He is currently Distinguished Fellow in The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, India.
Early life
S Vijay Kumar was born in New Delhi, India on 30 September 1953. He is the son of strategic affairs analyst and journalist K. Subrahmanyam. S Vijay Kumar is the brother of UCLA historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam and of India's Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar. He is a graduate of St. Stephen's College, Delhi at the University of Delhi, and has a master's degree in mathematics. Joining the Indian Administrative Service in 1976, S Vijay Kumar served his initial years in the Himalayan province of Himachal Pradesh.
His daughter is a famous architect practicing in Mumbai, Smita Vijaykumar
Career
Executing the Prime Minister's rural roads programme
Between 2002 and 2005, S Vijay Kumar was the Director-General, National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA) and tasked with conceptualising and implementing the newly launched Prime Minister's Rural Roads programme (called Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)) in the Ministry of Rural Development.
India’s Mining Secretary 2009-2011
In 2008, S Vijay Kumar was brought to the Central Government to head a High Powered Committee to restructure the Geological Survey of India. As Additional Secretary and then Secretary of the Ministry of Mines he also envisioned the new legislation for the sector, the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Bill 2011. He was a member of the inter-departmental high-level Committee on Allocation of Natural Resources (2011), and the Planning Commission Committee to develop the National Manufacturing Plan (2011).
India’s Rural Development Secretary 2012-2013
In 2012, S Vijay Kumar came back to the Ministry of Rural Development as the Secretary of the Ministry to manage the inclusion of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (popularly known as NREGA) in the system of Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT).He strongly advocated, using public forums including national television, the need to supplement livelihood generation programmes with robust infrastructure and social safety nets.
Distinguished Fellow in The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
After taking retirement from the IAS in September 2013, S.Vijay Kumar joined The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a not-for-profit NGO in New Delhi, in November 2013 as Distinguished Fellow for the areas of sustainable development and natural resource management. He has published TERI Discussion Papers on important issues of public policy related to water, environment, minerals etc. and frequently appears at public forums on policy matters related to mining and minerals. He chaired the High-Level Committee appointed by the Ministry of Rural Development in 2017 at the instance of the Supreme Court of India, to prepare guidelines/rules for accreditation of VOs/NGOs.
Member, United Nations Environment’s International Resource Panel
S.Vijay Kumar has been appointed a member of the United Nations Environment Programme's International Resource Panel in June 2015.The International Resource Panel (IRP) considers issues relating to governance of resources and poverty and prepares science -based policy related reports on natural resource management, resource use efficiency and environmental impacts of resource use. S.Vijay Kumar is one of the contributing authors to the recent IRP report on Mineral Governance.
Leader, Food and Land Use (FOLU) Coalition in India
S.Vijay Kumar leads the Food and Land Use Coalition(FOLU) in India, consisting of five institutions: The Energy and Resources Institute(TERI),The World Resources Institute (WRI-India), The Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network (RRAN) and IIM Ahmedabad

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