Sanjeev Chopra


Dr. Sanjeev Chopra is an IAS officer of the 1985 batch. Originally from Kapurthala, Punjab, he has served in multiple capacities with the central and state governments in India. He is also a primary patron and honorary consultant to a premier literary festival, the Valley of Words International Literary Festival, held annually in Dehradun, India. He writes extensively in various publications on public policy, development interventions, agribusiness, and rural economy. He is currently the Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. Immediately prior to this, he was the Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of West Bengal, in charge of Industry, Commerce and Enterprises Department and Director General of ATI, Kolkata.

Early Life and Family

He joined the Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, where he made his mark as a public speaker, debater and organizer of cultural and literary activities. While editing the college magazine, The Beas, he also published his first book of poems Ecstasy in 1978,and wrote regularly for youth magazines, besides conducting programs at the local radio station. He topped the English Honours examination of the Guru Nanak Dev

Career

Fellowships and Higher Education

He was the nominee of the Government of West Bengal to the second National management Programme at MDI, Gurugram in 1989-90. In 1998, he won the Robert S McNamara fellowship of the World Bank to work on Agribusiness co-operation in South Asia.He was awarded the Hubert H Humphrey fellowship in 1999-2000 at the Cornell University, and was also a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution during the Fellowship year.

Journalism

Dr Chopra joined the Times of India  as a Trainee Journalist in March 1982  , and was seconded to the Times of India News Service, and later to The Economic Times where he was responsible for the Sunday Section and book reviews, He also wrote on Human rights, farmers and student movements.  Although he left journalism for the IAS which he cleared in the first attempt in 1985, he has continued to write articles on governance and development interventions in all the leading newspapers ( Times of India, Economic Times, Financial Express, Millennium Post, Garhwal Post, India First, EPW, Mainstream, Encounter, Statesman and Huffington Post.

Career as an IAS

Training Period

He was trained at the LBSNAA  where he was actively engaged in the SOCA as also in the organization of cultural programs. Later he joined Puruliya district as an Assistant Magistrate.

Initial Postings in the IAS

He took over as the SDM of Kalimpong, narrowly escaped assassination attempts, but retained his conviction and belief in  the Rule of Law. His thoughts during the period are captured in an essay ‘law and Order Administration with special reference to terrorism, which was published by the IIPA, and is now included in At the Crossroads  : Development  Discourses in India.
As ADM of Cooch Behar, he was involved with the preparation of the documentation on the Teen Bigha corridor which was finally ‘leased in perpetuity’ to Bangladesh. He was then appointed as the CEO of Himalayan Milk Union Limited at Matigara in Darjeeling. This gave him an excellent exposure to co-operative policy as well as livelihoods, development interventions and the  entire value chain of milk production – from cattle feed and fodder to processing and marketing of milk. He was DM Murshidabad.

Postings in Government of India

From 1995 to 2001, he was a senior deputy director at LBSNAA and the VC of the CCRD. He initiated the SAARC consultations on co-operative policy and livelihoods, and was invited to speak on the co-operative credit structure in India at the  ICA ILO  conference at Johannesburg. From 2010 to 2015, he was  with the Ministry of Agriculture  as the Mission Director for the Missions on Horticulture, Micro Irrigation besides the mentor director to the NCCD. He was also responsible for international cooperation in agriculture and coordinating India’s strategic direction for FAO, IFAD, WFP and, G20 and the World Economic Forum. Currently, he heads the apex training institution for civil services training - LBSNAA.

Postings in Government of Uttarakhand

From 2002 to 2007, he was on deputation  to the newly formed state of Uttarakhand, and was Secretary for RD, Panchayats, Co-operatives, Horticulture  from January  2002-august 2003. From September 2003 to January 2007, he was secretary to departments of  Industrial Development.

Postings in GoWB

Dr Chopra was the Additional Chief Secretary to the Industries, Commerce departments  and the Director General of the ATI. He was also the ACS to the Agriculture Department from 2016 to 2018. Earlier from 2007 to 2010, he was the Principal Secretary to Agriculture.

Writing and Literary Festivals

The Valley of Words International Literary Festival, a unique literary festival held annually in Dehradun, was conceptualised under Chopra's leadership. Discussing the theme of the festival, he said:
Our endeavour has been to encourage all forms of creative expressions — from poetry to puppets, photography to philately, dance, theatre, music. In fact, the word is not just a word. It symbolises the evolution of humankind. In many ways, the word is subliminal and a city which does not give a central place to the arts cannot be lively, vibrant, aesthetic and inviting.

He also contributed to the .

The Maps of India project

He is working on the Maps of India project wherein he is looking at  the interstate boundaries in post independent India. This includes looking at the  integration of princely states into the Indian Union,  linguistic reorganization of states, integration  of territories under French and Portuguese possession, the merger of Sikkim besides issues relating to state capitals.

Books

  1. Ecstasy published in 1978, as the then-editor of the Lyallpur Khalsa College Magazine, The Beas
  2. Ghatal Year Book published by the Information & Cultural Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal; the first attempt to capture the entire gamut of socio economic and cultural activities in an administrative sub division in India.
  3. Management System for District Administrators published by National Management Program, MDI. Gurgaon as a monogram
  4. Co-operatives : Policy Issues for the SAARC Region
  5. Creating the Space
  6. Co-operatives: From Control to Regulation
  7. Ten Thousand Crores: A Personal Memoir of Industrialisation in Uttarakhand

    Articles