Parasuram is a retired civil servant. He retired from the IAS in 2013. His last posting in the government was as Chief Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh. After that for over five years he served as the State Election Commissioner, Madhya Pradesh. It is an independent Constitutional position for conducting elections to the three-tier Panchayats in rural areas and for Municipalities.  Following this, for a year and half, till June 2020, he served as the Director General of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis (AIGGPA), Bhopal. It is an autonomous institute set up by the Government of M.P. to serve as a consultancy and public policy formulation agency.

He is an electrical engineering graduate and has spent a year at IDRC, Ottawa, Canada as a Fellow in the public policy area. 

Parasuram says, living in small towns across Madhya Pradesh during his formative years, he developed an abiding interest in issues and challenges faced by rural populations in developing countries like India. He is of the view that eliminating rural poverty continues to be a major challenge. He believes in the capacity and willingness of India’s rural population to overcome the adversarial economic circumstances in which large numbers continue to live. This can be achieved through sustainable livelihood opportunities, in agriculture and through non-farm employment. Improved physical connectivity, access to digital technologies and strong grassroots level institutions can help achieve this. Over the years, as the realisation and sensitivity around concerns relating to the environment, biodiversity and climate change have grown, he has also become appreciative of the inextricable link between rural livelihoods and the sustainable management of natural resources.

While in government service, Parasuram served for long years in the rural development and agriculture sectors, both in policy and implementation positions. He considers himself fortunate to have worked in a variety of jobs in these sectors. Firstly, while serving as the Collector, in the 1980s, in three predominantly rural districts of Madhya Pradesh: Sidhi, Satna and Bastar, and later in the Departments of Agriculture, Panchayat & Rural Development, and Technical Education & Skilling, and as the country rep in Rome at the FAO, IFAD and WFP, in real work situations he got an opportunity to deepen his insights. During his tenure as the Director General, AIGGPA, Bhopal, apart from coordinating the Institute’s work across sectors, including in areas like NRM and rural livelihoods, which he is passionate about, he pursued work centred on urban infrastructure and livelihoods, reforming and strengthening human resource capacities in government and a range of issues in public health.  He also set up a new Centre for Urban Governance at the Institute.

Presently he is connected with the World Resources Institute, India, as a Senior Fellow advising the NRM, Food and Agriculture functions. He also works with CSOs like CARD, Samarthan and SRIJAN. In 2018 he initiated a muti-stakeholder platform called BIWAL (Bundelkhand Initiative for Water Agriculture and Livelihoods) in collaboration with these and other CSOs working for the development of rural areas of Bundelkhand. An early success in this direction has been the restoration of over 50 tanks built by the Chandela and Bundela kings in Bundelkhand districts of MP and UP.