Ex-Indian Cabinet Secy receives honorary doctorate from University of Birmingham

Seth was named Doctor of the University (DUniv) on Wednesday in the University’s historic Great Hall, in the presence of hundreds of graduands and their families.

 Ajit Seth, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, was the 30th Cabinet Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India from June 2011 and was superannuated in June this year. 

 

He has the unique distinction of being among the longest serving Cabinet Secretaries and the only Cabinet Secretary in India to have served in two successive dispensations.

Prior to this appointment as India’s principal bureaucrat, he spent two years as Secretary for Coordination in the Cabinet Secretariat. Mr Seth is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1974 batch (Uttar Pradesh cadre).

Seth is already an alumnus of the University of Birmingham, being awarded a Master’s in Development Finance in 1993, when he was also awarded the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Prize for his outstanding academic performance. Prior to this he received a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s in Chemistry at St Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and an MPhil in Life Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), also in New Delhi.

Following Seth’s graduation ceremony, the University of Birmingham’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir David Eastwood, said: "The University of Birmingham is extremely proud of its close and longstanding engagement with the Republic of India. For more than a century, Indian students have enriched our campus community while our office in Delhi enhances research and teaching collaboration. The appointment of Lord Bilimoria as our Chancellor underlines further this commitment. Mr Seth’s honorary doctorate supports the strong bonds the University has with India – a truly wonderful country I have had the great pleasure of visiting on several occasions as Vice-Chancellor."

The University’s Chancellor, Indian-born Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea CBE, added: "Being admitted to the IAS requires being ranked in the top 200 out of over 500,000 thousand applicants from around India – it is one of the most competitive exams in the world. Mr Ajit Seth, after graduating from one of India’s prestigious institutions, St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, joined the Uttar Pradesh Cadre of the IAS, where he rose to Principal Secretary and thereafter reached the pinnacle of his profession being appointed Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India for the past four years."
 

"He has therefore been one of the most prominent individuals in India, with an excellent reputation for playing with a straight bat and being meticulous in his work. It is a matter of great pride that Shri Seth is an alumnus of the University of Birmingham, where he graduated in an MSocSc in Development Finance. I am privileged to confer this honorary doctorate on someone whose achievements are not only a matter of great pride to the University, but also as an individual who personifies the strong links between not only the University of Birmingham and India, but the UK and India," said he. 

On receiving his honorary degree from the University of Birmingham, Seth said: "I am deeply honoured by the decision of the University of Birmingham to award me an honorary doctorate."

He thanked the Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor for bestowing this honour upon him.
 
"The experience of my stay in Birmingham in 1992-93 was memorable, and in some ways transformative for me, and also for my wife and my young daughter, who accompanied me. The University, which I hold in very high regard, evokes precious and warm memories in us. We loved the city of Birmingham and its warm and friendly people," Seth said.

Seth had no hesitation to say that he found the academic faculty, the course content and the overall ambience of the University of Birmingham to be of exceptionally high order. More than anything else, it was the personal – informal – rapport which the faculty developed with the course participants, and the individual attention they gave to all, which made all the difference. "I benefitted immensely from the course I studied, and was able to put the learning to good use in my career," Seth added

Within his home state of Uttar Pradesh, Seth has served as Principal Secretary (Rural Development), Principal Secretary (Vigilance) and Secretary (Home and Confidential), besides stints in both the Industries and Cooperatives Departments. He also served as Divisional Commissioner of Kumaon Division in Nainital and District Magistrate of Mainpuri and Lucknow districts.