P. Somasekhar Rao

Director (Technical)
, Advanced Centre for Integrated Water Resources Management
Profile / Bio: 

Doctoral degree holder (Ph. D) in Geophysics from the Osmania University, Hyderabad after obtaining M.Tech from Osmania University and a Masters's degree holder in Business Administration (MBA) from Delhi. Trained Life Coach in the area of Mastering Life’s Energies.

Having a career span of 22 years in the development sector with a spectrum of working experience with the United Nations, Donor agencies, National and Provincial Government Departments, Academic Universities, and NGOs, I gradually evolved into a rural development specialist with a focus on water and agriculture. While working with the Government of India I had set up 80 national research projects in the drinking water sector. While working with the Government of the Netherlands for eight years in the Land and Water division, was at the forefront of the process of evolving the water sector policy in various states in India. I had a key role in bringing out the Water Vision 2020 document for Andhra Pradesh state. Had formulated a number of development projects and mobilized grant funds for various states including Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamilnadu, etc. in the specific areas of agriculture, irrigation – minor and major, rural development, watershed management, salinity and drainage, dryland agriculture, groundwater development and management, hydrology, green environment, urban lakes, etc. The main focus has always been the capacity building of various stakeholders in the sector. He was instrumental in sponsoring 200+ scientists from various agricultural universities in the country for training abroad in The Netherlands and other countries and 300+ engineers of irrigation and groundwater departments of various states in The Netherlands. He has several scientific and popular articles to his credit and recently brought out two important books on India’s Water Resources and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

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