Any senior IAS officer in Odisha is handling multiple portfolios and juggling through the implementation of myriad people-centric schemes. But if you consider the case of Mr V V Yadav, a veteran IAS officer, the count of portfolios he handles boggles the mind. Yadav, a 1996-batch IAS officer, holds Principal Secretary, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department, Principal Secretary Cooperation Department, Member Secretary, Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes, Chairman OSWC, and Commissioner, Trade Promotion and Investment, Office of Chief Resident Commissioner, New Delhi.

The positions conferred on him by the Naveen Patnaik government is testimony to his administrative prowess and the scale of trust he has built with the powers that be. He has been a competent and outcome-driven officer unafraid of launching reforms when they are needed the most. Yadav is best known for a string of reforms he has unleashed in the food supplies and consumer welfare domains. A classic example is technology-powered automation of crop procurement. After a stunning success story of the Paddy Procurement Automation System (PPAS), the state government has also kicked off the Millet Procurement Automation System (MPAS). Both the PPAS and the MPAS are scintillating success stories in procurement and supply reforms.

They have overhauled the entire farm-to-fork ecosystem. The plough-to-plate journey is now seamless and shorn of manipulative intermediaries. Yadav’s leadership has made it possible. The technology anchored system ensures that genuine farmers sell the produce and get rewards. The Minimum Support Price (MSP) is directly credited to the farmers’ bank accounts within a span of 72 hours. It has eased the life of procurement agencies and farmers. The system integrated with blockchain technology is a surgical strike on fraud and duplication. By identifying the authentic growers from the lands they till and capturing their demographics like Iris, the system is an exemplar to all state governments to filter out unscrupulous traders and rightfully reward the farmers who sweat it out on the field. PPAS is going to the next level with satellite imagery powered Crop Analytics, wherein GPS along with satellite analytics are deployed to checkmate ground level anomalies.

The upgraded system can capture ground truth intelligence that will empower the policymakers to frame more result-driven policies through efficient mapping of beneficiaries. What’s more, the policymakers can also enhance the efficacy of schemes already in operation.

Besides discharging his core administrative responsibilities, Yadav has also shown his flair for handling crises. He was deputed as one of the trusted senior officers handling the cyclonic disaster Yaas and superintending the Covid pandemic. Odisha needs more officers of his tribe. They enrich the administration anywhere with their impeccable integrity and hands-on skills.

By Dibyajit Sahu, Group Editor