Rajen Habib Khwaja, a 1976 batch AP cadre IAS officer, took charge as the new Director-General of Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here on Tuesday.
Mr. Khwaja served in Andhra Pradesh in several capacities, including Collector and District Magistrate of Khammam, Managing Director of AP State Housing Corporation, Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad and Member Secretary of AP State Pollution Control Board.
In the Union Government, he had assignments in the Ministries of Food, Commerce, Environment & Forests, Tourism and Mines. A noteworthy assignment of his career has been serving as the Chairman and Managing Director of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) from 2001 to 2006. His achievement as CMD of SCCL with a workforce of 1,05,000 employees was bringing a turnaround in the fortunes of the company from a loss-making public sector undertaking to a profit-making company, which paid dividend after a gap of 37 years in 2003.
Mr. Khwaja graduated with BA (Hons.) in 1974 from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He completed his postgraduation in history from Aligarh Muslim University. He joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1976 and superannuated from service on February 28, 2014 after a distinguished career spanning 38 years, which included working as Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministries of Tourism and Mines.
During his career in the Civil Service, Mr. Khwaja participated in the meetings of United Nation’s Environment Programme (UNEP), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Cartagena Protocol on Bio-Safety, Kyoto Protocol, United Nation’s Framework on Climate Change, Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances, Rotterdam Convention, Stockholm Convention, and Basel Convention.
He was in the US from 1989 to 1990 as a Hubert Humphrey North-South Fellow in University of Minnesota. Mr. Khwaja and M. Siddiqui, Managing Director of Intellects Biz., co-authored a book on management of change titled The Acrobatics of Change - Concepts, Techniques, Strategies and Execution .