Raghavendra Singh 1997 batch IAS officer

Singh, who comes from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, studied engineering at Rewa Engineering College in Madhya Pradesh before joining the civil service in 1997.
MP's CM Mohan Kumar Yadav appointed him as his Principal Sec. currently.
Described by colleagues as a go-getter and effective coordinator among officers, Singh, who served as collector of Indore between 2010 and 2012,

is credited with playing a crucial role in getting Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys to set up their campuses in the city’s Super Corridor.
The state government had to overcome resistance from a section of the bureaucracy to allocate the land.
Senior government officials were hesitant over land being allocated to TCS and Infosys at nominal rates.
Similarly in Indore, Singh understood that investment came with trust, and he was effective in clearing all the hurdles for industries to be set up in Indore.

After taking over as CM in 2005, Chouhan had appointed him collector of his own home district, Sehore, in 2006.
It was during his tenure that the Trident Group procured nearly 800 acres of plant directly from farmers to establish a textile factory in Budhni, Chouhan’s constituency.
The farmers were all taken into confidence through effective coordination and given four times the asking price.

After the Congress government led by Kamal Nath came to power in 2018, Singh was made commissioner for higher education in 2019 under then education minister Jitu Patwari, now the Congress’s state chief.
Then, after the BJP returned to power with the help of Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists in 2020, Yadav became a minister for the first time, receiving the higher education portfolio, and Singh continued under him as commissioner.
In 2021, he became commissioner of the Department of Public Relations (DPR), and after that was moved to the mining department as its principal secretary, with the additional charge of heading the Bhopal-based Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis.

In the corridors of Vallabh Bhawan, he is described as an official with a ‘yaarana (friendly) attitude’, who would not hesitate before walking up to a subordinate to enjoy a cup of tea.
Having learnt cooking in his engineering days, Singh is known for hosting friends and acquaintances at home on special occasions where he has been the chef.
According to people who have worked with him, Singh also enjoys Hindi literature while going about his daily routine.