President’s Profile

Mr. Desh Deepak Verma, a retired officer of 1978 batch of IAS, has been a dedicated, hard working and innovative officer of U.P. Cadre who, in his career, has performed brilliantly both at the State and at the Central level. He retired from the Government after reaching its highest as Secretary, Govt of India in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Post his retirement, recognizing his merit, he was rewarded with two successive post-retirement assignments, firstly as Chairman of U.P. Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC), an autonomous quasi-judicial body, and subsequently on the coveted position of Secretary General, Rajya Sabha, both in the rank and status of Cabinet Secretary, and both for a period of 4 years each. He is presently nominated by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India as President of All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), Gorakhpur.
An experienced multi-disciplinary professional with a demonstrated history of working with the Governments, non- Government sector, industries and public utilities, Mr Verma had occupied top crucial positions at the State level in UP Government as Principal Secretary in the key Departments of Commercial Taxes, Registration, Transport, Cooperatives and Tourism. He has also been District Magistrate of four important districts namely, Almora, Aligarh, Bareilly & Agra and Divisional Commissioner of Allahabad and Lucknow divisions in UP. During his tenures as District Magistrate and Commissioner, he extensively worked with civil society and has led several campaigns in the field of adult literacy, women empowerment, public health, family planning, mental health, art and culture, afforestation and urban development. He also worked as Secretary, Red Cross Society, UP in 1997-98 and started the ‘Angadaan programme’, a first in the country. As Commissioner Lucknow, he was decorated during the Republic Day parade for outstanding contribution to the settlement of more than 20 years old Shia-Sunni dispute in Lucknow.
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He has managed some of the largest public sector undertakings of the State like UP State Road Transport Corporation and UP State Tourism Corporation. As Chairman, UPERC, he was instrumental in bringing down the power purchase costs and bringing some path breaking Regulations in the conventional and solar energy sector. He was instrumental in brining country’s first Minigrid & Microgrid regulations in 2016 in UP. He also brought Demand side Management regulation in the country for the state of UP.
At the Government of India level, he was given the most prestigious assignments like Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests; Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; Director General, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Secretary to Govt. of India, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. His tenure in all these organizations is known for the innovative measures taken by him. He is accredited for writing the draft of the Biodiversity Bill which is now an Act. As DG,SAI, he closely supervised the preparations for London Olympic in 2012 in which India won a record number of medals, highest till then and double that of 2008 Olympic.
At the international level, Mr. Verma has the distinction of representing India in several UN Conventions, like Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety etc. He was unanimously elected as Vice President of the Bureau of UN Convention of Biological Diversity in the year 2002 and then as Head of Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMC). In these capacities, he chaired several international meetings of UN Conventions at Hague (2002), Montreal (2003), Grenada, Spain (2006) and Curitiba, Brazil (2006). He has travelled extensively and visited more than 30 countries.

As Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, he has been able to bring several structural reforms in the functioning of Rajya Sabha. During his tenure, several Bills of far reaching consequence have been passed by the Rajya Sabha. Some of them are Insurance Amendment Bill, Triple Talaq Bill, Bill to amend Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Bill, P Farm Bills, National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Bill etc.
He has been awarded several times for high performance achieved through pushing the boundaries of stereotypes and archaic, which was duly highlighted by the media all across. Coverage of his extra ordinary works in different assignments by the media can be seen at https://youtu.be/XwdOvz-tK3w , https://youtu.be/bJp4K6TaReA , https://youtu.be/_eKDgh-uqsQ , https://youtu.be/yst1ujut6uY , https://youtu.be/f4F9f9CJ7t8 , https://youtu.be/gDeQOgOKt5E , https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/this-scheme-helps-nris-find-their-birthplaces/?utm_source=whatsapp_web&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialsharebuttons , https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/states/uttar-pradesh/story/19940228-mini-collector-scheme-in-uttar-pradesh-village-delights-inhabitants-with-its-swift-results-810114-1994-02-28?utm_source=washare&utm_medium=socialicons&utm_campaign=shareurltracking.
He has several publications to his credit, especially on the environment related topics. Some of his publications are (a) “Whither CBD” : January 2007, published in ‘LEAD’ Journal – an international publication (b) Perspective on Biodiversity – A Vision for Mega Diverse Countries: 2006 etc. His articles titled “For Power to reach All”, “ऑलम्पिकः अब आगे क्या” and “Migrant Workers – A Road Map to Strengthen India’s Rural Economy”, “An essential pit stop in Parliamentary business”
have been published in the prominent Newspaper Dailies “Indian Express”, “हिन्दुस्तान”, “Hindustan Times” and The Hindu respectively. Link to these publications are at https://lead-journal.org/content/06212.pdf, https://twitter.com/DdvDesh/status/776140652744544256?t=XCnC5BQJwRCmJH6AFA9g4w&s=08, https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/a-road-map-to-strengthen-india-s-rural-economy-analysis/story-OW0gjZ1qcR9uhx6111uSuN.html?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ht_site , https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/an-essential-pit-stop-in-parliamentary-business/article65895581.ece.

A post graduate in Physics from Allahabad University and an MBA from Australia in International Business, Shri Verma has taken a keen interest in oratory, dramatics and sports during his student days at Gorakhpur and then at Allahabad University. He won several inter-school, university level and state level debates and essay competitions.

He is interested in Music, Poetry writing, Badminton & Golf. He is a keen golfer and has been President of Lucknow Golf Club (LGC) twice.