Avinash Dharmadhikari is a former

Indian Administrative Services The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

officer. He was a well known social activist and free-lance journalist before joining IAS. After serving on various posts during his administrative career of ten years he resigned from IAS in 1996 for the reason that can be best described in

Arun Shourie Arun Shourie (born 2 November 1941) is an Indian economist, journalist, author and politician. He has worked as an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission of India, editor of the ''Indian Express'' and ''The Times ...

's words "to be able to serve Indian society better". He was Deputy Secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra at the time of his resignation. He is founder and director of Chanakya Mandal Pariwar, working in the field of Career Guidance and Personality Development. He unsuccessfully contested for

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

as an independent candidate against

Suresh Kalmadi Suresh Kalmadi (born 1 May 1944) is an Indian politician who spent 10 months in jail from April 2011 to January 2012 on corruption charges related to his time in charge of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. He was accused of awarding a con ...

. He was Director General of Neharu Yuva Kendra Sangathan in 2001 under Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs,

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. As a social activist he has been part of many movements such as farmers' movements and movements against corruption. He was also a part of

Team Anna The Indian anti-corruption movement, popularly known as Anna Andolan, was a series of demonstrations and protests across India that began in 2011 and was intended to establish strong legislation and enforcement against perceived endemic polit ...

during India against corruption movement. He has authored many books which includes ''75 Soneri Pane, Aswastha Dashakachi Diary, Nava Vijaypath, Ek Vijaypath, Swatantra Nagarik, Jinkanara Samaj Ghadawanari Shikshanpadhhati, Aani Aapan Saglech, Ratra Gahirichya Tisarya Prahari(a collection of poems) ''. Aswastha Dashakachi Diary has been translated into English by Gauri Deshpande titled: Diary of a Decade of Agony.

Personal life

Administrative career

In his administrative career he had been known for his efficient, transparent and creative work in Maharashtra. During these ten years he had served on many posts such as – Sub-Divisional officer, Phaltan; Officer on Special Duty for state's Chief Secretary; Director, State Archives,

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

; CEO at Ratnagiri and

Amaravati Amaravati () is the capital of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located on the banks of the river Krishna in Guntur district. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone at a ceremonial event in Uddandara ...

zilla parishads; Additional Collector,

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

;

Director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, Women and Child Welfare Dept, Maharashtra; District Collector, Raigad (Alibag); Deputy Secretary to

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

, Maharashtra.

Current occupation

After resigning from IAS in 1996, he founded Chanakya Mandal Pariwar, a network organization working in the field of Career Guidance, Competitive Exam ( Civil Services Examination) Training, Entrepreneurship Building and Personality Development. On 31 December 2014, the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

inaugurated a new building of Chanakya Mandal Pariwar and lauded Avinash Dharmadhikari's commitment to serve the nation through youth education.

politics

Dharmadhikari was a Shiv Sena member between March 2009 and April 2011. After

Arvind Kejriwal Arvind Kejriwal (Hindi: �ɾʋin̪d̪ ked͡ʒɾiːʋaːl born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician, former bureaucrat, and activist who is the 7th and current Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. Currently, he is the national co ...

Yogendra Yadav Yogendra Yadav (born 5 September 1963) is an Indian activist, psephologist and politician whose primary interests are in the political and social sciences. He was a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Del ...

and some other members separated from Anna Hazare to form the Aam Adami political party.In November 2012, Dharmadhikari joined the

movement against the then UPA-II government and proposed

Jan Lokpal Bill The Jan Lokpal Bill, also referred to as the Citizen's Ombudsman Bill, was a bill drawn up by civil society activists in India seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body to investigate corruption cases and complete the investi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dharmadhikari, Avinash Indian Administrative Service officers 1959 births Living people