Subrahmanyam Vijay Kumar

S Vijay Kumar aka Subrahmanyam Vijay Kumar (born 30 September 1953) is a member of the IAS or Indian Administrative Service, and till recently was Secretary of India's Rural Development Ministry. 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 and background
S Vijay Kumar was born in New Delhi, India on 30 September 1953. He is the son of prominent Indian strategic affairs analyst, commentator, and civil servant and Convener of the National Security Advisory Board K Subrahmanyam. S Vijay Kumar is also the brother of historian Dr Sanjay Subrahmanyam and of India’s Foreign Secretary , Dr S Jaishankar. He is a graduate of St Stephen’s College at the University of Delhi, and has a Master’s degree in mathematics.
Early career
Joining the elite Indian Administrative Service in 1976, S Vijay Kumar served his initial years in the Himalayan province of Himachal Pradesh and was the District Magistrate in Mandi and in Kullu Districts.
Joint Secretary Rajya Sabha
After Mr Krishan Kant was elected Vice President of India, S Vijay Kumar joined Vice President of India and Chairman Krishan Kant's Secretariat as Joint Secretary of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, from 1998 to 2002. S Vijay Kumar is widely respected in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for the many innovations that he led and encouraged, including development of Reporting and Translation systems, databases for Parliament Questions and Answers, Debates and Committee Reports etc.
Executing the Prime Minister's rural roads programme
Between 2002 and 2005, S Vijay Kumar was appointed Director-General, National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA)and tasked with conceptualising and implementing the newly launched ambitious Prime Minister’s Rural Roads programme (called PMGSY, or the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana) in the Ministry of Rural Development, one of the key initiatives of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA Government.PMGSY marked a paradigm shift, because hitherto rural roads was considered to be a "State " subject in India's federal governance system, and its federal funding was justified for the "poverty-reduction" effect. The programme set management and quality assurance benchmarks which remain the gold standard for Central Programmes even today.
Principal Secretary to the Government of Himachal Pradesh
On his return from deputation, rather surprisingly for a person not seen as part of the "establishment", S Vijay Kumar was appointed as the Principal Secretary of the Home Department of the Government of Himachal Pradesh, responsible for policing and law and order, prosecution and prison administration for the Province. During the period 2005 to 2008,despite opposition from within segments of the bureaucracy and political establishment, S Vijay Kumar oversaw deep reforms in the policing and prosecution systems. He drafted the Himachal Pradesh Police Act, based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission and the Supreme Court judgement in the Prakash Singh case.
India’s Mining Secretary 2009-2011
In 2008, S Vijay Kumar was brought to the Central Government to head a High Powered Committee set up at the instance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to restructure and revamp India’s respected but obsolete Geological Survey organisation, so as to enable it to meet the challenges expected from the forthcoming announcement of the National Mineral Policy. As Additional Secretary and then Secretary of the Ministry of Mines of the Ministry from 2008 to end 2011, S Vijay Kumar oversaw the restructuring of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) into a modern survey organisation. He also envisioned the new overarching legislation for the sector, the , which controversially , envisaged major transfer of mining revenues to local populations for their development. The provision was deeply resisted by mining industry and generated a long debate in the country, but similar provisions formed a basis of the Amendment Act of 2015 when the NDA Government came to power.
India’s Rural Development Secretary 2012-2013
In 2012 , S Vijay Kumar was called back by the Central Government to the Ministry of Rural Development as the Secretary of the Ministry at a time when the flagship programme of the UPA Government, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (popularly known as NREGA), which was strongly backed by the National Advisory Council of the UPA Government, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, needed to be included in the system of direct Benefit Transfer(DBT).
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 area of natural resource management including water, land, forests and minerals. He continues with his writings on public policy and frequently appears at public forums to advise on policy matters. His recent public stance on the changes in the mining legislation have been critical of of some of the provisions, on the ground that the strategy is likely to disincentivise exploration on the one hand , and creating sub-optimal conditions for mining by inhibiting M&A and increasing risks to mining companies by making auctions as the sole mode of allocation of mineral concessions. TERI is widely respected in India and abroad for the wide range of its scientific activities, covering sustainable development, climate change, and energy and resource use efficiency etc.S.Vijay Kumar has also been appointed a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel in June 2015 for a period of 3 years.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.

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