Shri Awanish Kumar Awasthi
(BT/EE/1985)
Shri Awanish Kumar Awasthi is currently serving as Advisor to Hon'ble Chief Minister
of Uttar Pradesh. He is a former Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Confidential, Visa Passport,
Jail Administration & Reform and Vigilance Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh and
Chief Executive Officer, Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority
(UPEIDA) & Uttar Pradesh State Highways Authority (UPSHA).
He hails from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and did his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1985. In a career spanning over 35 years, Shri
Awasthi, an IAS officer of the 1987 batch, has mostly served in the Energy, Tourism, Higher
Education, Irrigation, Institutional Finance, Industrial Development and Home Departments
and handled important assignments including Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment, in the Department of Disability Affairs, Chairman & Managing
Director, U.P. Power Corporation Ltd., C.E.O., Noida, Principal Secretary, Tourism and ACS
Information. He was also the District Magistrate & Collector of Lalitpur, Azamgarh, Badaun,
Ayodhya, Varanasi, Meerut and Gorakhpur districts.
He is prominently known for his pioneering work done for the upliftment of disabled persons
during his stint as Joint Secretary in the Department of Empowerment of Persons with
Disabilities. As CEO of UP Expressway Authority, he ensured the completion of Purvanchal &
Bundelkhand Expressways in the state and started the construction of the 594 km long Ganga
Expressway, the largest single infrastructure project of the State. As the Home Secretary of
the State he very actively contributed to the upgradation and modernization of the UP Police &
ensured an effective law & order machinery of the State. He is currently working on the One
Trillion Dollar Economy Project of Uttar Pradesh.
Honouring his stellar contributions in the fields of Public Administration, Infrastructure and
Policy Leadership and Social and Institutional Development, IIT Kanpur confers upon Shri
Awanish Kumar Awasthi the Distinguished Alumni Award 2025