Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu took every officer by surprise when he announced that ‘missing IAS officer’ Randeep Sudan, will soon return from Washington to join him in the development ePragati in Andhra Pradesh. He said the 1983 batch officer, who is now in World Bank service had agreed to return to Andhra Pradesh to assist the state in the IT sector.
Sudan left Andhra Pradesh 2005 on a deputation to World Bank and never came back to state. He was on the member of Naidu’s think-tank between 1995-2004 in Naidu’s first and second stints as chief minister. Many believe that after Rajasekhar Reddy became chief minister, Sudan might have thought he would be either marginalized or ignored. He opted for World Bank deputation and went mission ever after. Though his deputation ended in 2007, he preferred to stay put in the World Bank to join YSR administration. Later, he managed to get an extension for two more years which also ended in 2009. But never reported back. At the time of division of AIS officers between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, he was alloted Telangana and his wife Andhra Pradesh . Now his name doesn’t appear even in the list of DoPT, the controlling authority of the IAS officers. Today suddenly, Naidu said Sudan has agreed to come back to Andhra Pradesh. He said he requested Sudan to assist the state in the ePragati program and the Babu agreed to join Andhra Pradesh government as advisor. A World Bank acknowledges him as the key member of the leadership team that helped the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, to make significant progress in e-government, and become an important international destination for IT based services.
At present Sudan is the practice manage for information and communication technologies at World Bank in Washington DC. His team supports developing countries on policies, programs related to broad band infrastructure and ICT industry.