Suryadevara Ramachandra Rao is an Indian civil servant and the former Municipal Commissioner of Surat, a large metropolitan city in the Indian state of Gujarat.[1] He is best known for his developmental efforts during the 1994 epidemic of plague and for transforming it from a dirty city into one of the cleanest and greenest in India, with the city being rated as the second cleanest in India, after Chandigarh, in a survey conducted by the Indian National Trust for Arts and Culture.[2] Later he became the chairman of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust and during his tenure there, the port is reported to have become a major port in India.[3] He also served as the Secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.[4] He was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri by the Government of India, in 1998,[5] making him one of the few civil servants to be awarded Padma honours while in service.[3] He is also a recipient of the Tirupathi Raju Memorial Award.[3]
