Chandrika Prasad Srivastava

Indian civil servant

Chandrika Prasad Srivastava KCMG, ComIH, IAS (Retd.) (8 July 1920 – 22 July 2013) was an Indian civil servant, international administrator, and diplomat.

C. P. Srivastava was born on 8 July 1920 in a religious Chitraguptvanshi Kayastha family and was educated in Lucknow, India (BA, MA, LLB). He started his career as a civil servant in India, entering the Indian Administrative Service, becoming a Joint Secretary to the Indian Prime Minister's office from 1964 to 1966, during the premiership of Lal Bahadur Shastri. C. P. Srivastava became the first chief executive of the Shipping Corporation of India and in 1974 was elected to serve as the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency based in London, serving successive four year terms as Secretary General from 1974 to 1989. During this time he played a pioneering role in the establishment of the International Maritime Academy in Italy, and the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta. He was also the first Chancellor of the Sweden based World Maritime University which was founded in 1983 to address a pressing need for maritime professionals in the developing world.

Padma Bhushan in 1972 in recognition of his contributions to establishing one of the most successful public sector undertakings in India. In 2005 he received the 2004 Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration and Management Sciences by the then President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. In 2009, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, by the President of India.

C. P. Srivastava was married to Nirmala Srivastava, the founder of Sahaja Yoga a spiritual movement, based on an experience called "Self realization". C. P. Srivastava has stated that: "his life has been greatly influenced by his wife and he has been motivated by her vision of one Almighty God and one human family". He has been motivated by this vision in all aspects of his life and believes it can be applied worldwide. The couple had two daughters, Kalpana Srivastava and Sadhana Varma.

Sir C. P. Srivastava practised Sahaja Yoga, he has said it changes people from the core. He has described Sahaja Yoga practitioners as being miracles of transformation and displaying an angelic quality. He believed that the rapid spread of Sahaja Yoga is very important for the world.