About the Book
Civil servants are the permanent executive-a bulwark of stability as regimes and policies change. They are small cogs in the large machinery that is the Indian state, yet indispensable for its efficient running. Naresh Nandan Prasad was one such cog in the wheel-and an extraordinary one at that. He had the rare privilege of working in three states: Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. From this uncommon vantage point, he looks back on a long, storied career and, through that examination, investigates the role of a civil servant in the life of a nation.
Beginning with his training days at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and his life as a young administrator caught in the hurly-burly of Indian politics, Small Cogs in a Large Wheel is an account of Prasad's life. It examines his time in the corridors of power in Delhi and his international stints with the United Nations. Capturing the many experiences of one man's career, the book records the political through the personal.
A candid account of an exceptional career, this is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the life of a civil servant in India, the role of the country's civil service and the complex maze of multilateral diplomacy.
About the Author
NARESH NANDAN PRASAD, an alumnus of St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, held a double master's degree in history and economics. Prasad's professional career spanned almost forty-five years, with about thirty-one years in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS, 1981 batch Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand cadre) and over fourteen years in the United Nations.
Foreword
Few persons have had the depth of experience as a civil servant that Naresh Prasad had. He worked at all levels of government, starting, as is customary in the Indian Administrative Service, at the district and state levels, moving to the national level and then concluding his long and distinguished career at the international level as the chief of staff and assistant director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland. It was in this last capacity that I came to know, work with and admire Naresh during my two terms as director general of WIPO.