The Eco Warrior IAS Officer – Hari Chandana Dasari – SpeakIn

“When you think back on your life, is it about bank balance? Is it about home and car? Or is it also the fact that I could have an impact or I could do something? People remember what you could do for them, even if it’s a small thing. Even if you give one weaver a livelihood, that is some satisfaction all of us have, and that is my motivation.” –  Hari Chandana Dasari

When people are busy singing siren songs of their lives, we still have people who work for others, and one such name is Hari Chandana Dasari. A woman with a cause who is driven by the satisfaction of helping others, Hari Chandana left her highly paid corporate job and joined IAS to help people. An alumnus of the elite London School of Economics, she chose to pursue IAS as a career path because of its far broader public reach than any other. Hence, when she was exploring the opportunity to significantly impact the lives of the people, it was a no-brainer for her to take a shot at becoming an IAS officer. 

Hari Chandana Dasari is an Indian Administrative Services Officer from the Telangana cadre from the 2010 batch. She is the daughter of an ex-IAS officer. Her husband works for the Internal Revenue Service and has a four-year-old daughter. She is the current District Magistrate and Collector at Narayanpet, Telangana and has formerly served as GHMC’s Zonal Commissioner (West Zone) and Assistant Commissioner. Hari Chandana is well-known for her work as an officer passionate about environment and a recycling champion, for which she has received numerous awards. People often associate Hari Chandana for bringing about “another Green Revolution” in Hyderabad.

When the local economy was teetering under the weight of the pandemic, Hari Chandana saw an opportunity in the challenge at hand. She engaged the help of 4,000 women to make masks. In just a year’s time, the enterprise made a profit of Rs 50 lakh. This became one of the numerous reasons Hari Chandana got the British Council’s Social Impact Award for her foresight. She was chosen for the honour recognizing her outstanding contribution to positive social change.