Upendra Tripathy

H.E. Upendra Tripathy is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Karnataka Cadre. He is the first[1] and current Director General of the International Solar Alliance. Well known for receiving the prestigious Prime Minister's award for excellence in public administration in individual category, Tripathy received several other awards for his innovations and ideas during his career as a civil servant. He is currently heading International Solar Alliance which the first treaty based International Organisation head-quartered in India.[2] ISA is an alliance of 121 countries worldwide focusing on solar power utilisation, co-operation, and sustainable energy.[3][4][5] Previously, Tripathy was the Secretary to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy from April 1, 2014 until October 31, 2016.[6][7]

Upendra Tripathy

IAS
Personal details
BornKahakapur, Ganjam, Odisha, India
Alma materJawaharlal Nehru University
Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada)
OccupationIAS officer
ProfessionCivil servant

About

Tripathy (born 5 October 1956) is currently the Director General of International Solar Alliance. He is from Odisha, India. In ex-officio capacity, he has headed as chairperson, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), National Institute of Solar Energy and National Institute of Wind Energy, National Institute of Bio Energy, and Association of Renewable Energy Agencies of States (AREAS).[8]

Initially, he was selected to be the Interim Director General of the newly formed International Solar Alliance, and later he became the first and founding Director General of ISA. Tripathy is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Karnataka Cadre, known for his innovations, ideas and hard work. He has worked with local, provincial and union government in India over the last 40 years and was the 18th secretary of Ministry of New and renewable Energy, established in 1982, one of the oldest Ministries in the world in the area of new and renewable energy. He replaced Shri Satish Agnihotri as Secretary on 1 April 2014.

Tripathy was born and spent his early life in Kahakapur, a remote coastal hamlet in the tail ends of Eastern Ghats hills, near Rambha, Odisha, close to the Asia's largest lagoon, Chilika. Tripathy studied in Ravenshaw College, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He has published one volume of poetry from Writer's Workshop titled "Caged". Best known for his turning around of the city transportation in Bangalore, he received the Extraordinary Citizen award in 2008 from Rotarians in Bangalore, usually reserved for Chief Ministers and doyens of the industry.[9]

Education

Tripathy has done his master's in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi[8] and master's in Public Administration from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.[8] He has undergone various training programme in areas of programme implementation, financial management, sustainable development, quantitative methods and operational research for public policy and management and e-governance. He has also undergone a six weeks SIDA training programme in Sweden in areas of environmental management.[9]

Career

His institution building abilities and innovations got reflected in building of Hassan Kalamandir (1989), Center for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP) in Indian Institute of Science (2009), Environmental Management Policy Research Institute (EMPRI) (2003), Akshar Foundation (2001), turnaround of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) (2003–2008) and institution of Nrupatunga Award in Karnataka (2008).[9] For these achievements, and for all his work in transforming a city Transport undertaking in Bangalore into a profit making one, the Prime Minister of India bestowed the PM's Award for Excellence in Public Administration on Tripathy in 2009.[9][10] Before Joining ISA, Tripathy was Secretary to the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy. Previous to that, he was Adviser (Agriculture and Marine Products) in the Indian Embassy in Brussels. He held the post of Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat; Joint Secretary, Minority Affairs and Deputy Secretary; Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in the Central Government; as well as Chairperson of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. He has worked in several sectors such as — Revenue Administration, Rural Development, Petroleum Conservation, Agriculture & Horticulture, Agricultural Marketing, Education, Environment & Transportation, and Renewable Energy.

Work Area and Innovation
S.No Designation / Place Work Areas / innovative initiatives Period of service
1 Assistant Commissioner, Puttur, Karnataka[11] Land administration, Rural development, Law and order management. Rehabilitation programmes, Disaster management. To 1982 to 1984
2 District Rural Development Society, Chitradurga.

Department of Rural Development

 Project formulation, implementation, management and monitoring in areas Watersheds (soil, crop, water and training of farmers), afforestation employment generation, drought management, water management, anti-poverty programs. 1984–1986
3 Dy. Commissioner (Vigilance), Department of Commercial Taxes, Department of Finance. Bangalore Tax compliance and tax administration, Environmental taxation. 1986–1987
4 District Magistrate & DC, Department of Revenue and Home, Hassan. Administrator, Hassan City Development Authority. President, Hassan District Cooperative Bank. Administrator, Agricultural Price Marketing Societies, Chairman, Hassan Central School, President, Hassan City Municipality. Law and order, excise administration, rehabilitation, local governance, banking, agricultural marketing. Achievements: Founded Hassan Kala Mandir, Officer's club building, got land for Central School, turned around Hassan City Municipality in revenue generation from annual exhibitions. 1987–1989
5 Director, Agricultural Marketing & Secretary to the Agricultural Marketing Board,

Bangalore

 World Bank program to strengthen marketing infrastructure in rural Karnataka. Administration of agricultural marketing societies. Enforcement of farmer oriented policies. 1989–1989
6 Chief Secretary (Zilla Parishad),

Gulbarga.

 Rural development and administration of all field level departments in the grassroots level – education health and family welfare, agriculture, horticulture social forestry, soil conservation, minor irrigation, sericulture, social welfare, block development, anti-poverty programmes, Pancayati Raj institutions, rural electrification, 1989–1990
7 Dy Secretray,

M/o Petroleum & Natural Gas, New Delhi

 Petroleum exploration, petroleum conservation and global tendering of oil block both onshore and off shore. 1990–1992
8 On Foreign Training and study leave in Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada with CIDA scholarship, Indira Gandhi Scholarship and Commonwealth scholarship. Completed Masters programme in Public Administration. Completed course work and proposal defence for Ph D thesis on India's ozone management policy. (Incomplete) 1992–1996
9 Director (Personnel and Environment)

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Bangalore.

 76000 employees. Introduced environmental cell in KSTRC. Planted thousands of teak trees in vacant lands of the corporation. 1996–1999
10 Commissioner

Public Instruction, Bangalore.

 300000 Teachers and one crore students. Built Sikshaykar Sadan with collection of one day's salary from employees, introduced Sikshyan Barte, a monthly magazine, mobile schools for slum children, computer centres for teachers’ training, and got Akshar Foundation established and registered. 1999–2001
11 Secretary

Department of Agriculture and Horticulture. Bangalore.

 Strengthened R&D centres in the department, new programs to promote palm oil cultivation as a climate resilient crop, measures to strengthen Lal Bagh society, and planned Lal Bagh II in Bangalore. 2001–2002
12 Chairman

Karnataka Pollution Control Board.

 Established the new office building in MG Road, brought in pension for employees, successful implementation of World Bank programme to strengthen infrastructure, introduction of mobile labs, multi-structural devilment. 2002–2003
13 Managing Director, Bangalore Metropolitan Transportation Corporation (BMTC)

Bangalore

 Made a corporate profit of more than 650 crore during his tenure. Brought in all round welfare measure for employees. Bus strength went up to 6000. Introduced Volvo buses in the city and Vayu Bajra to and from airport. Got around 1700 acres of land for future projects. Ten TTMCs were sanctioned by GoI under JNNURM. This was a period of expansion and consolidation. CiSTUP and EMPRI were established. Nrupathunga Award was instituted with a corpus grant from BMTC. 2003–2008
14 Principal Secretary, Home and Transport.

Vidhan Soudha, Bnagalore

 Major law and order problems tackled. In the transport front, many petroleum conservation programmes and anti-pollution measures were tackled. Home and Transport departments were combined long after. 2008–2009
15 Joint Secretary, Ministry of Minority Affairs. Spearheaded many programmes for social inclusion of minorities. Computerisation of programmes and speed of delivery. 2009–2010
16 Joint Secretary/Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat. Rastrapati Bhawan. New Delhi Assisted Cabinet Secretary in supervising 27 Ministries, attended to Cabinet matters, and processed matters pertaining to climate change and environment. 2010–2013
17 Advisor (Agriculture and Marine Products – trade), Embassy of India, Brussels. Attended to bilateral trade issues between India and Belgium, India and Luxemburg, and India and EU. 2013–2014
18 Secretary, MNRE, Block 14, CGO Complex. New Delhi 175000 MW target up to 2022. New land for office after 34 years of waiting. The budget goes up from 1500 cr (14-15) to 6000 cr by 16–17. Association of Renewable Agencies of the States (AREAS) formed. International Solar Alliance launched. Officers’ long-pending promotions streamlined. Nomenclature of three institutions changed to National Institutes. Solar Energy Corporation of India turns profitable. SECI's authorised capital increased to 6000 Cr. World Solar Museum green flagged. National Renewable Energy university planned. 2014–2016
19 Director General, International Solar Alliance 1) Concept of ISA translated into a world class organization with HQ in India.

2) 69 member strong ISA's Governance structure put in place with India (President) France, (Copredident) Vice Presidents Peru, Togo, Tonga, and the UK.

3) 128 Cr collected for ISA from Corporate partners who launched the Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action as a global platform.

4) Strong 40 partner network established globally.

5) M.Tech international programne commenced in Delhi IIT.

6) International MBA program to commence by Delhi IIT from next year.

7) ISA Care initiative, STARC network, INFOPEDIA and 47 projects for LDCs and SIDS countries commenced.

8) World Solar Technology Summit held with 10500 virtual participants and World Solar Investment Summit planned for 2021.

9) Three Assemblies successfully held. SUNWORLD held in Peru as a global signature event.

10) Demand aggregation carried out for 272000 pumps and 47 million Home Power Systems.

11) World Solar Bank & One Sun, One World, and One Grid - ideas of Prime Minister Modi - crystallised.

 2017 - Till date

Awards
Sr. No Subject Year Name
1 Transport 2007 Silver Award from Harmony for having brought fundamental changes in Transport system in Bangalore.
2 Urban Development 2007 International Gold Star Millennium Award under Persons of Indian Origin Conclave-Invest in India.
3 Urban Development 2008 Citizen Extraordinary Award-2008 for contribution in introducing innovative changes in Bangalore.[12]
4 General Administration 2009 Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration.[10]

Other awards that recognise his abilities are – Extra-Ordinary Citizens’ Award from Rotary International (2008), Central Board of Irrigation and Power Award for outstanding contribution to India's Renewable Energy Sector (2016), 10th Enertia Life Time Achievement Award (2016) and UBM (2016) as Crusader of the year for Renewable Energy.[9][13]

See also

References
  1. Vishwa Mohan (4 December 2017). "Legal framework for International Solar Alliance to kick in this week". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  2. "International Solar Alliance: How India is leading the world in reducing carbon emissions". Qrius. 8 December 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  3. Bhaskar, Mayank Aggarwal,Utpal (22 March 2017). "India's Upendra Tripathy to head International Solar Alliance". livemint.com. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  4. "Upendra Tripathy appointed as Interim Director General of ISA". Jagranjosh.com. 22 March 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  5. Jai, Shreya (10 March 2018). "ISA Summit aims to create a $1 trn global solar market: Upendra Tripathy". Business Standard India. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  6. www.ETEnergyworld.com. "Upendra tripathy News - Latest upendra tripathy News, Information & Updates - Energy News -ET EnergyWorld". ETEnergyworld.com. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  7. "Ex-MNRE Secy Upendra Tripathy to be ISA Director General". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  8. "Director General - International Solar Alliance". isolaralliance.org. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  9. "Brief Biography of H.E. Mr Upendra Tripathy" (PDF). web.archive.org. 4 October 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  10. "Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration for year 2007-08, Presented on 21st April, 2009" (PDF). Prime Minister's Office (India).
  11. "This senior civil servant has good memories of Puttur". The Hindu. 1 November 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  12. "Extraordinaire Citizen Award to Sri. Upendra Tripathy - MD, BMTC". www.nilachakra.50webs.com. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  13. "Upendra Tripathy | India Smart Utility Week 2020". www.isgw.in. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
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