Born on 17^th December, 1963, Shri Ajay Tirkey is a graduate in English (Hons.) from St. Xavier's College, Ranchi and specialised in Marketing Management from B.I.T. (Mesra), Ranchi. He was selected in the Indian Administrative Service (1987) and allotted to the Madhya Pradesh Cadre. He was District Collector in three Districts : Sidhi, Hoshangabad and Raipur. He was Managing Director for MP MARKFED for two tenures. He served as Deputy Secretary to Chief Minister (1996-97) and Principal Secretary to Governor (2015-2017). He served as Secretary / Principal Secretary in the Government of Madhya Pradesh in Departments of Rural Development, Labour and Medical Education from 2009-2015. He has served as Director/Joint Secretary in Ministry of Defence (2004-2009) and was instrumental in drafting of the Armed Forces Tribunal Bill and establishment of the Principal and Regional Benches; Joint Secretary in Department of School Education (2017), Additional Secretary / Special Secretary in Ministry of Women and Child Development (2017-2019) and as Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development (2020) and Secretary, Department of Land Resources (3.8.2020 till 31.12.2023). Department of Land Resources was recipient of Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration for National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) and Geospatial World Excellence Award, Amsterdam (Netherlands) for Land Administration. He has been appointed as Member of Lokpal on 27^th March, 2024.