Mr. C.S. Sastry, recipient of Padmashri from Government of India, was born in December 1931. He did his Masters in Geology from Andhra University in 1952. As an IAS, he served in the Government of India (GOI) for several years and occupied many prestigious positions like Permanent Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture (MOA); Member of Governing Bodies of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR); Vice Chairman, National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC); Director, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD); Member / Board of Governors, International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); Coordinating Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, GOI. He was also Consultant and Expert for FAO, World Bank and CGIAR institutes.

He also held key positions like District Magistrate, Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh; Managing Director of Small Scale Industrial Development Corporation (SSIDC) & State Finance Corporation (SFC ); Permanent Secretary in the Dept of Education, Irrigation and Power, Food and Agriculture, Andhra Pradesh; Deputy Commissioner (Panchayati Raj), Ministry of Community Development; Deputy Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussorie and Additional Defense Secretary, Government of India.