Vishakha Yadav Biography: From a Cisco Desk to the Arunachal Frontier and Back to Delhi

In September 2025, Vishakha Yadav stood among the officials welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Papum Pare district as he laid the foundation for and inaugurated more than ₹5,100 crore in development projects across Arunachal Pradesh, including two hydropower projects worth over ₹3,700 crore.

Six months later, on March 31, 2026, her tenure as the district’s Deputy Commissioner ended when APCS officer Lobsang Tsering took over, with local reporting confirming she had been transferred to New Delhi , closing out a frontier posting that followed an earlier stint in Kurung Kumey district, where she won the Prime Minister’s Award for Public Administration for a digital education initiative.

Vishakha Yadav is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the AGMUT cadre, who ranked sixth in the 2019 Civil Services Examination and went on to serve as Deputy Commissioner of Kurung Kumey and later Papum Pare districts in Arunachal Pradesh before her 2026 transfer to New Delhi.

Profile

Early Life and Education

Yadav was born in 1994 and grew up in Dwarka, West Delhi. Her father, Rajkumar Yadav, served as an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the Delhi Police, while her mother, Sarita Yadav, is a homemaker.

She earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering from Delhi Technological University (then Delhi College of Engineering) in 2014, and later completed a Master’s in Public Management.

Career Before the Civil Services

After graduating, Yadav worked as a software developer at Cisco Systems in Bengaluru for nearly two and a half years before leaving her corporate career in 2017 to prepare for the UPSC Civil Services Examination without formal coaching.

UPSC Journey

Yadav’s path to the civil services was not immediate: she failed the examination on her first two attempts before clearing it on her third attempt in 2019, achieving an All-India Rank of 6 with 1,046 out of 2,025 marks , making her the second-highest-ranked woman candidate that year. She was allotted the AGMUT cadre.

Deputy Commissioner of Kurung Kumey

Yadav’s early field postings included service as Deputy Commissioner of Kurung Kumey district, Arunachal Pradesh, where she launched the “DigiKaksha” initiative, a digital education program. The initiative earned her the Prime Minister’s Award 2024 for Excellence in Public Administration.

Deputy Commissioner of Papum Pare and the PM’s Visit

Yadav subsequently served as Deputy Commissioner of Papum Pare district, Arunachal Pradesh. In this role, she was among the officials who welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the state in September 2025, posting on social media about extending a “warm welcome to the Hon’ble Prime Minister.” During that visit, Modi laid the foundation stone for and inaugurated development projects worth more than ₹5,100 crore in Itanagar, including two hydropower projects valued at over ₹3,700 crore, and inaugurated a convention centre in Tawang.

Transfer to New Delhi

On March 31, 2026, Yadav’s tenure as Papum Pare Deputy Commissioner concluded when Lobsang Tsering, a 1995-batch Arunachal Pradesh Civil Service (APCS) officer previously serving as Commissioner of Tax, Excise and Narcotics, assumed charge of the district. Local reporting confirmed that Yadav had been transferred to New Delhi; her specific new assignment was not detailed in available reporting as of this writing.

Career Timeline

Zeez

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