G. Asok Kumar is currently working as Special Secretary and Director General of the National Mission for Clean Ganga,  in the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India. During his tenure, Namami- Gange the flagship program of Government of India to clean and rejuvenate River Ganga and its tributaries was recognised as one of the top 10 "Eco-Restoration World Flagships" by UN  (by a UNEP- FAO led consortium) at the Bio-Diversity CoP15 (Conference of Parties) on 13 December, 2022 at Montreal Canada. During his tenure many innovative people centric programs were launched under the "Arth Ganga"; a concept suggested by Hon'ble Prime Minister in the National Ganga Council meeting in 2019 at Kanpur. These include identification of the 6 pillars of Arth Ganga- (viz Natural Farming; Monetization and Reuse of Treated Water and Sludge; Generation of Livelihood opportunities; Promotion of Tourism and Cultural heritage; People's participation; and building of institutions and capacities of stakeholders);  starting of the DGC forum meetings (District Ganga Committee-  4M- Monthly, Mandated, Minuted and Monitored) meetings; Promotion of River Cities Alliances, Ghat par Yoga, Ganga Artis, staring of PRAYAG- Platform for Realtime Monitoring of Yamuna And Ganga and tributaries etc. These are in addition to the multifold increase in the Sewage treatment Capacity created - about 2000 Million Liters Daily (MLD) in 2 years from Jan 2022  to October 2023 compared to 998 Million Liters Daily (MLD) in 8 years from 2014- 2021.

A 1991 batch IAS officer belonging to the Telangana Cadre, G. Asok Kumar, had earlier served at the Centre as Additional Secretary and Mission Director, National Water Mission, where he successfully implemented the innovative "Catch The Rain" campaign, to harvest maximum rain water with people's participation,  which earned him the popular moniker -"The Rain Man  of India". He pioneered the concept of "Jal Shakti Kendras" in all districts of India, as one stop- resource centre for all water related information in al districts, to break the silos in water management.  Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation where he set-up the Aircraft Accidents Investigation Bureau and played a keyrole in reviving the then ailing airline industry.  A winner of Telangana Excellence Award in 2018 and Jalmitra Award in 2002, he has initiated/completed many infrastructure projects like the Outer Ring Road, Krishna Phase-2 Drinking Water Pipeline, Godavari Drinking Water Pipeline Project, etc. in Hyderabad. As Principal Secretary BC Welfare Dept., he was instrumental in starting 119 English Medium Residential Schools in all the Assembly segments on 12^th June 2017. He has also worked in the sectors of Power, Medical and Health, Urban Planning, Urban Water, Information Technology, Education, Tribal Welfare and Sports.

G.Asok Kumar has made significant and diverse contribution to the Water and Sanitation Sector:

As Additional Secretary and Mission Director, NWM, he made many innovative initiatives in the Water sector management, the most prominent being the "Catch The Rain" campaign, with the tagline, "Catch The Rain, where it falls, when it falls" in February 2020. Due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid 19 pandemic, it was initially taken up in institutions under Ministry of Defence- the establishments and offices of of Army, Navy and Air Force and their training institutions, Cantonment Boards, Ordinance Factories etc; institutions under the Ministry of Home Affairs, like the offices, establishments and training institution of Central Armed Police Forces; Railways; Airports; Universities and Education institutions like IIMS,IITs etc which have large land parcels with them. This caught the attention of Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, who mentioned it in his Mann Ki Bath on 28 February, 2021 and directed the Ministry of Jal Shakti to start a countrywide campaign- "Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch The Rain", with the tagline, "catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls". This campaign was launched by Hon'ble PM himself on 22nd March, 2021 by virtually addressing almost all 2.5 lakh Sarpanchs of the country. This campaign, held during the pre-monsoon and monsoon periods, covered all areas- both Urban and Rural- of the country and is perhaps the largest Rain Water Harvesting campaign ever launched in the world. National Water Mission, under Asok Kumar, is the nodal implementing agency for the campaign. The success of this campaign has given him a popular moniker- "The Rain man of India". Earlier he had also started a series of lectures titled “Water Talks” which is held in the 3rd Fridays of every month, starting from the World Water day, March 22, 2019. In these “Water Talks” eminent personalities/ activists from the theoretical and practical field of water conservation, water management and water technology share their insights and experiences. This series was followed with the "Water-Tech talks" on every 2nd Fridays of the month, starting from 8 October, 2020 and "Water Biz -Talk" every 4th Fridays in addition to "Catch The Rain: Dialogues with DMs" every Saturdays. Since, now these talks are being held in he digital platform, some of them have gathered over 2.5 million views, underscoring their popularity and acceptability among the people. During his tenure, the National Water Mission Awards were presented for the first time on 25^th September, 2019. The awards, in 10 categories, carry total prize money of Rs 45 lakhs. As Executive Director (Projects), National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)(Namami Gange) , he was in charge of the implementation of project works estimated over Rs 20,000 Crores related to the cleaning of Ganga river in its 11 basin states and was the chief organizer of the "Great Ganga Run", the mini marathon held in New Delhi on 15 September 2019 and the 31 days- 2500 km Ganga River rafting expedition -"Ganga Amantran" in the Oct- Nov 2019 period.

Another significant achievement of this winner of “Jal Mitra” award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh (under Sri Nara Chandrababu Naidu) and the first TEX (Telangana Excellence) Award by the Government of Telangana (under Sri K.Chandrasekhar Rao) for Outstanding work done in Public Administration, is the successful completion of over 1.20 lakh Individual Sanitary Latrines (ISLs) in Nizamabad District in the year 2002. Conceived, planned and executed under the leadership of Sri Asok Kumar, who was then the District Magistrate and Collector of Nizamabad district, (in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State), presently in Telangana, this locally conceived project, aptly named “Shubrata” was originally intended to complete One lakh pucca Individual Sanitary Latrines (ISLs) in the houses belonging to the people living Below Poverty Line  in SIX months (June- December, 2 2002). With the massive participation of the people, not only the target was successfully achieved, but it went on to complete another 20,000 more ISLs. (This  was even before the advent of the Atal Nirmal gram Yojana and the Swatch Bharat Mission.) “Shubrata” was a perfect example of convergence of funding from schemes like the Total Sanitation Campaign and Food for work program of the Government of India, the contributory funding of the total sanitation program by the Government of Andhra Pradesh; the funds from the local bodies and local contribution in addition to the beneficiaries contribution- either in cash or kind and implemented with overwhelming public participation. The foundation of the “Shubrata” program was another local initiative which built 3500 toilets+ in 1000 government schools, particularly for the girls in the year 2001- 2002 with UNICEF assistance. Girls from these schools acted as the main motivators and drivers of the massive construction of pucca latrines (and many cases with expanded area to include a space for bathing) in their house hold, encouraging their mothers to demand these ISLs at home. Earlier habitation wise drinking water committees were also formed in all 1168 habitations. The combined effect of these initiatives resulted in a drastic decrease in diarrhea cases in the following year.