Awanish Awasthi, Advisor to the Chief Minister of Uttar PradeshAwanish Kumar Awasthi, currently serving as the Advisor to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, is the former Additional Chief Secretary of the Home, Confidential, Visa Passport, Jail Administration & Reform and Vigilance Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh, and CEO of Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) and Uttar Pradesh State Highways Authority (UPSHA). A trained electric engineer from IIT Kanpur with a career spanning over 35 years in UP administration, Awanish Kumar Awasthi, an IAS officer of the 1987 batch, has served in the Energy, Tourism, Higher Education, Irrigation, Institutional Finance, Industrial Development and Home Departments. He also handled important assignments including Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the Department of Disability Affairs; Chairman & Managing Director of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation; and CEO of Noida and ACS Information. He was also the District Magistrate and Collector of Lalitpur, Azamgarh, Badaun, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Meerut and Gorakhpur districts. He is prominently known for his pioneering work done for the upliftment of disabled people during his stint as Joint Secretary in the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. He was also the religious affairs secretary who handled the Kashi-Vishwanath Dham project in Varanasi. As Additional Chief Secretary-Home Uttar Pradesh, he was at the forefront in handling the COVID crises within the state and was instrumental in managing the migrant crises where more than 40 lakh migrants of Uttar Pradesh returned to the state.Throughout his five-year tenure as the CEO of UPEIDA, Awasthi was involved in the launching and inauguration of some major infrastructure projects across India including the Purvanchal Expressway – the foundation stone for which was laid in 2018 and the project was inaugurated in 2021; Bundelkhand Expressway – foundation stone laid in 2020 and inaugurated in 2022; Gorakhpur Link Expressway, Ganga Expressway – foundation stone laid in 2021; UP Defence Industrial Corridor, Bharat Dynamics (BDL) – foundation stone laid in 2019 and inaugurated in 2021, and Brahmos Aerospace. Under the leadership of Awasthi, UPEIDA has played a major role in establishing such infrastructure of national significance.