Former IAS Officer (16 years) | IIT Kanpur | CEO & MD — I'm Anurag Srivastava.
I don't have answers. I have experiences. This is where I share real stories from 16 years inside the IAS — and what leading as a CEO in a private company taught me about how government, public administration, and the private sector actually work.
The purpose is simple: make you think. Question. Analyse. Understand different sides of the same coin. Because real growth starts where certainty ends.Here's what you'll find:
✔ Real stories from inside India's top institutions
✔ Insights comparing public administration, government, and private sector leadership
✔ Uncomfortable truths about career, power, and success
✔ Frameworks to think, decide, and lead — not shortcuts to hack the system
🔔 Subscribe if you prefer depth over noise.
Connect on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/anurag-sr/
Rise Beyond
The images over the past few days have been truly disheartening.
I look at my teenage son and cannot help but think of the thousands of students who felt compelled to come out in protest because they had not been heard. I sincerely wish this situation had been handled with greater sensitivity. I also wish a greater effort had been made to address their concerns before it reached this stage.
A nation's greatest strength is not just its economy or its military, but the confidence its young people have in its future and in its institutions.
I hope the government finds a way to restore the confidence of these students so that they continue to believe they have a future in this country, and that our institutions have the wisdom to listen.
I also hope this serves as a reminder that accountability is not charity; it is a responsibility. Whenever students or citizens suffer because of a systemic failure, accountability should be swift and certain.
Above all, I sincerely hope this is resolved soon. I hope the students' concerns are addressed with empathy and wisdom, and that this ultimately strengthens our nation rather than weakening young people's faith in our country and its institutions.
1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 50
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Rise Beyond
A podcast has been making the rounds recently. In it, a speaker claims that IAS officers can make hundreds of crores for their friends. Friends keep forwarding it to me.
My reaction? Amusement. And frustration.
Amusement, because after 16 years in the IAS, I can immediately see how incomplete many of these claims are.
Frustration, because I believe we are debating the wrong questions entirely.
It reminds me of the old story of the blind men and the elephant. Each one touches a different part. Each one is right about what they feel. But none of them sees the whole picture.
This Saturday: ₹100 CRORES? WRONG DEBATE.
This is neither a defence of the IAS, nor an attack on its critics. It is simply an attempt to step back — and look at the whole elephant.Watch it. And tell me where you agree, and where you think I am wrong.
Video released this Saturday: https://youtu.be/YCPLKk-Aav8?si=vUe0m...
2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 126
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Rise Beyond
People preparing for the UPSC spend an extraordinary amount of time worrying about cadres."Is this a good cadre?"
"Is that a bad cadre?"
"Should I prefer my home state?"
Very few people ask a different question:What is it actually like to spend 15–20 years serving in a state that is not your own?
I was born in Kanpur. Studied at IIT Kanpur. Allotted to West Bengal.My first posting was Bankura — a place I had never even heard of.
I had to learn a new language. Understand a new culture. Slowly become part of a society that was completely unfamiliar to me.
Sixteen years later, I look back very differently.West Bengal gave me another language. Another culture. Lifelong friendships. And a much deeper appreciation of India's extraordinary diversity.
It taught me that sometimes the places we know the least about become the places that shape us the most.
This Saturday's video is about the insider-outsider cadre system in the IAS — but it is not a policy debate.
It is a story about discovering another India. And, in the process, discovering another part of yourself.
🎥 Now live: https://youtu.be/YFRYSpPlJoY
3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 157
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Rise Beyond
Are IAS officers always busy?
Do they get time for their family?
Can they pursue hobbies?
What is their work-life really like?
Having spent 16 years in the IAS, I’ll share my honest experience—the good, the difficult, and the realities that most people never see.
I’ll answer these questions in this Saturday’s video. Hope to see you there.
1 month ago | [YT] | 143
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Rise Beyond
Can Government Actually Deliver? What do you think?
(Full video drops Saturday 9 AM - 16 years of inside truth)
1 month ago | [YT] | 3
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Rise Beyond
One of my earliest memories of transitioning from the IAS to the private sector was a salary negotiation. The recruiter asked me a simple question:
“What is your current CTC?” And I honestly did not know how to answer.
I knew my monthly salary. But I did not know my “CTC”. More importantly, I realised that my salary appeared much lower than what people with similar experience and seniority were earning in the private sector.
That got me thinking. How do you compare a government salary with a private-sector CTC? How do you value government housing, job security, leave, study leave, official support, and other benefits that never appear on a salary slip?
And on the other side, how do you value bonuses, variable pay, stock options, and the much higher upside available in the private sector?
This week’s video explores a question that genuinely confused me when I moved from the IAS to the private sector:
How do you convert a government salary into an equivalent private-sector CTC?
(Photos from my first day in the private sector.)
1 month ago | [YT] | 163
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Rise Beyond
Some images never leave you.
Years pass. Jobs change. Life moves on.
But a few memories remain.
This Saturday, I’m starting a new series: Stories from IAS.
The first story is about a tribal woman who was declared a Daayan and tied to a tree in a remote village.
And even today, I am not sure I fully understand what happened in that village.
See you Saturday.
1 month ago | [YT] | 130
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Rise Beyond
Across different postings, senior officers often told me: "You are too soft. People will not listen to you."
I refused to change.
This Saturday: the full inside story.
Are IAS officers naturally arrogant — or does the system make them that way?
1 month ago | [YT] | 11
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Rise Beyond
Yesterday, someone recognised me as a YouTuber.
Not as an ex IAS officer. Not as a CEO. But as a YouTuber.
That was a first for me.
Strange how life changes identities over time.
Next video is about two very different roles I have lived closely — District Magistrate and CEO.
Who is actually more powerful?
Coming soon.
2 months ago | [YT] | 201
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