Rajendra Coomaraswamy
Rajendra "Raju" Coomaraswamy (July, 1915 - April 7, 1981) was a Sri Lankan civil servant and a UN administrator. He was the Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. He had also served as the President of the Colombo Plan Council.[1]
The son of C. Coomaraswamy, Ceylon's High Commissioner to India, he was educated at the prestigious Royal College Colombo where he was Captain of Cricket and Athletics and went to the University College Colombo, then an affiliated University of London, from where he graduated with a B.A.. His brother, Satheyandra "Sathi" Coomaraswamy was All Ceylon Cricketer and former Director Shaw Wallace & Hedges Co. Ltd.
Joining the Ceylon Civil Service in 1933, he had served as the Assistant Controller of Exchange, Imports & Exports; Deputy Commissioner of Labor, Industries & Commerce; General Manager, Credit Corporation and Secretary, Housing Loan Board.
Thereafter he was appointed Assistant Administrator of the UNDP, Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific in 1961, Secretary General 1971, Assistant Director UNDP 1971.
He had been an adviser to the Prime Minister; cabinet of Ministers in International Economic Cooperation and Alternate for Sri Lanka to the World Bank.