Mr. Siraj Hussain

Biography

Mr. Siraj Hussain Mr. Siraj Hussain has been appointed as Independent Director on the Board of HPCL effective September 21, 2017. Mr. Siraj Hussain joined the IAS in 1979 and was allotted Uttar Pradesh Cadre. He served the Government of Uttar Pradesh in various capacities including District Magistrate, Hardoi; Managing Director, UP State Industrial Development Corporation; Managing Director, UP Agro Industries Corporation and Registrar of Cooperative Societies. He was posted in the State Secretariat in the Departments of Energy, Education and Panchayati Raj. He was also Secretary to Chief Minister of UP. He has served the Government of India in various capacities including Deputy Managing Director, National Cooperative Development Corporation; Joint Secretary in Department of Food and Public Distribution and Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Food Corporation of India (FCI). From 2000 to 2005 he served as Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Hamdard University in New Delhi. In the Department of Food & Public Distribution, he formulated the scheme for attracting investment from private sector in warehousing sector, popularly known as Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee Scheme (PEG) 2010. About 16 million tonnes of storage capacity has been sanctioned so far, out of which 13.60 million tonnes has been completed and another 1 million tonnes is under construction. The storage problem of the country for central pool stocks has thus been successfully addressed in most States. However, there is still shortage of storage capacity in some districts of eastern and north eastern states. All this investment has been made by private sector and FCI has only given guarantee for payment of rent for ten years. From May 2013 to February 2015, he served as Secretary to Government of India, in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI). He took up the issue of complexity of FSSAI’s regulations for granting product approval for proprietary food products. FSSAI has finally abolished the system of granting product by product approval. Several mega food parks and cold chain projects were sanctioned in this period. He was posted as Secretary, Agriculture, Co-operation & Farmers Welfare in February, 2015. The scheme of for setting up of National Agriculture Market by creating an electronic platform for e-trading of agricultural commodities was formulated under his supervision. The PM Fasal Bima Yojna was also prepared under his guidance. It is envisaged that insured area will increase from about 20% in 2014-15 to 50% by 2018-19. In January 2016, he was awarded Doctorate in Philosophy (honoris causa) by Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Andhra Pradesh in recognition of his contributions for advancement of Agriculture. He retired from Govt service in January 2016. He is presently a Visiting Senior Fellow with ICRIER. He has been researching and writing on various issues of agriculture sector including crop insurance, futures market of agricultural commodities, streamlining of food subsidy through DBT and state agriculture reports of some states. He is also a contributor to Indian Express and Financial Express with Dr Ashok Gulati.

Research Interest

 Bioprocessing & Biotechniques, Chemical Engineering & Process Technology