Siraj Hussain

Mr. Siraj Hussain joined the IAS in 1979 and was allotted Uttar Pradesh Cadre. He served the State Govt of Uttar Pradesh in various capacities including District Magistrate, Managing Director of UP State Industrial Development Corporation, UP State Agro Industries Corporation and Registrar co-operative Societies. He was also posted as Secretary, Education and Secretary to Chief Minister. In the Union Government, he has worked as Deputy Managing Director, National Cooperative Development Corporation; Joint Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution; Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Food Corporation of India, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Secretary Indian Council of Agriculture Research. He has served as Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Food Processing and Ministry of Agriculture. Several new schemes of Govt including PM Crop Insurance Scheme, e-National Agricultural Market and Price Stabilisation Fund etc. were formulated under his supervision. After superannuation from the IAS in January 2016, he joined ICRIER as Visiting Senior Fellow. He has been researching and writing on various aspects of Indian Agriculture. His term with ICRIER ended in April 2022. In 2016, he was awarded Doctorate in Philosophy (honoris causa) by Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Andhra Pradesh in recognition of his contributions for advancement of Agriculture. He has written about 280 opinion pieces in several important publications including Bloomberg Quint, Business Today, Business World, DNA, Down to Earth, Economic Times, Financial Express, Hindu Business Line, Indian Express, India Cable, Mint, Newsclick, Tribune, Money Control, Rajasthan Patrika, and the Wire. He has a regular monthly column in the Print. Mr. Hussain was an independent director on the board of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited from September 2017 to September 2020. He is also the Chairman of Board of Directors of National e-Repository Limited, a subsidiary of NCDEX. Mr. Hussain is also an advisor to FICCI for Food Processing Sector. In October 2021, he promoted Arcus Policy Research Private Limited with Shweta Saini who is an economist. He has published several research papers on agriculture and allied sectors.