Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers Dr Renu Raj, who is currently service as Alappuzha district collector, and Dr Sriram Venkitaraman, Kerala Medical Services Corporation Managing Director, got married to each other in a private ceremony in Ernakulam on Thursday.
As per reports, the wedding took place at a function hall in Chottanikkara. The couple had only invited their close friends and family members to attend the wedding. Both Raj and Venkitaraman had completed their MBBS degree before joining the civil services. Venkitaraman passed the civil services exam in 2012 and got the second rank.
Renu Raj Sriram Venkitaraman wedding
Renu Raj passed the exam in 2014. Raj belongs to Kottayam. She made headlines during her service years as the sub-collector in Devikulam when she took strict actions against the illegal constructions and land encroachments.
Renu Raj started her career as the the sub-collector at Thrissur after completing the civil services training. She was earlier married to a colleague and then she got divorce. Her second marriage is with Sriram Venkitaraman.
In 2019, Sriram Venkitaraman was suspended from his services after his speeding car mowed down a journalist named KM Basheer. He was later reinstated as the joint secretary in the Health Department. Raj too had scored the second rank in the 2014 civil services exams, it was her first attempt. In one of her interviews, Renu Raj had said, "I thought that being a doctor, she could have helped 50 or 100 patients, but as a civil service officer, her one decision would benefit thousands of people will get. After that, I decided to give the UPSC exam."
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According to Venkitaraman's LinkedIn profile, he is a bureaucrat, experienced in working in diverse government sectors like health policy, skill development and land revenue. He is also a physician with master’s degree in Public Health, with a particular focus on Global Health.
He did his bachelor’s of medicine and bachelor of surgery between 2004 to 2010 from the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram. From 2018 to 2019, he did his Master of Public Health from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.