IAS Officer Divya Mittal Who Left Career In London To Serve India Quits After 13 Years. Her Post Tells Why

Last Updated:August 30, 2026, 6:49 PM IST

Divya Mittal, who was serving as Special Secretary in the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Department, shared an emotional post on X explaining her journey

Divya Mittal

What makes an IIT-IIM graduate give up a job in London, return to India to join the civil services, and then voluntarily resign from the IAS after 13 years?

The resignation of Uttar Pradesh-cadre IAS officer Divya Mittal has raised that question after the 2013-batch officer announced on Sunday that she had stepped down from the Indian Administrative Service.

Mittal, who was serving as Special Secretary in the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Department, shared an emotional post on X explaining her journey, the reasons that brought her back to India and the lessons she learnt during more than a decade in the bureaucracy.

Importantly, she did not cite any specific administrative controversy, political disagreement or government decision as the reason for her resignation. Instead, her post reads as a deeply personal reflection on a 13-year journey that she described as “unforgettable”.

‘I HAD TO REPAY THE DEBT OF THIS SOIL’

Mittal recalled growing up in an ordinary environment and dreaming of building a successful life.

She worked hard to study at IIT Delhi and IIM Bangalore, eventually landing a job in London. But despite achieving what appeared to be professional success, she felt something was missing.

Being away from her country, she said, bothered her.

In her X post, Mittal wrote that her education, confidence and the ability to walk with her head held high anywhere in the world were all a debt owed to the soil of India.

She wanted to repay that debt. She returned to India, appeared for the civil services examination and eventually got the opportunity to become an IAS officer.

Her journey from premier institutions and a foreign corporate career to district administration in Uttar Pradesh became one of the more unconventional trajectories in the state bureaucracy.

‘IMPOSSIBLE IS ONLY AN OPINION’

Looking back at her postings, Mittal singled out Deoria and Mirzapur as places that shaped her understanding of administration.

Deoria, she said, taught her that standing with what is right is not an option but a duty. Mirzapur taught her that “impossible” is not a fact but merely an opinion.

She also referred to her association with Maa Vindhyavasini, saying that her experience in Mirzapur taught her that real power does not come from a government post but from people’s trust and divine grace.

But the most important lesson, she said, was that once the dreams she had seen for herself had been fulfilled, she wanted to spend her life pursuing the dreams she had for her people.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE FILES

Mittal’s post also offers a glimpse into what she considers the most rewarding part of her bureaucratic career.

She recalled families receiving land rights for the first time, persons with disabilities getting an opportunity to live with dignity and farmers getting water for their fields.

For her, these moments provided the “real peace” of public service.

Her central lesson, she said, was that behind every government file there is a person, and preserving that person’s dignity is ultimately what justice means.

The reflection gives an insight into how Mittal viewed the IAS — not simply as a position of authority but as an opportunity to directly affect people’s lives.

‘I WAS FOOLISH TO THINK I CAME TO GIVE SOMETHING’

One of the most striking parts of her resignation message was her admission that she initially believed she had joined public service to give something back.

“I thought that I have come to give to the society. But I was wrong,” she wrote.

She said the reality was the opposite: she had received far more from the people she served, and the debt she felt towards them had only grown.

Mittal said people celebrated her happiness more than she did and continued to look at her with the same faith even when she herself was tired or broken.

That affection, respect and sense of belonging, she said, gave her the strength to continue. She also credited the officers, colleagues and employees who worked alongside her and stood by her during her assignments.

THE ELDERLY WOMAN OF LAHURIA DAH

The most emotional part of Mittal’s post was her recollection of an elderly woman from Lahuria Dah. She remembered the moment when water finally reached the woman’s hill village.

The elderly woman did not say anything. Instead, she touched Mittal’s head with trembling hands and blessed her. For Mittal, that moment appears to have become symbolic of what her years in the IAS meant. She wrote that while the post has been left behind, that touch will remain with her for life.

And so will the dream that she says the soil of India gave her.

FROM LONDON TO IAS

Mittal’s resignation is particularly significant because of the career she gave up before entering government. After studying engineering at IIT Delhi, she pursued an MBA from IIM Bangalore and subsequently worked in London.

She later returned to India and appeared for the UPSC Civil Services Examination. She initially qualified for the IPS, but appeared again with the aim of joining the IAS and secured All India Rank 68 in the 2013 Civil Services Examination.

Over the next 13 years, she held several important assignments in Uttar Pradesh, including district-level postings and senior responsibilities in the state government.

Her tenure as an administrator, particularly in Mirzapur, brought her considerable public recognition.

WHAT NEXT?

While Mittal’s resignation marks the end of her formal association with the IAS, her X post makes clear that she does not consider it the end of the dream that brought her back from London. There is no detailed explanation yet about what she plans to do next or whether she intends to enter another form of public service.

But her farewell message leaves behind a clear theme: the designation may have ended, but her commitment to the larger idea of serving the country, as she sees it, has not. And that perhaps makes her resignation more intriguing.

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