Ramaraju Vidyasagar Rao was an Indian government administrator and a Telangana activist. He was the Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources, Central Water Commission. After the formation of Telangana State, he was appointed as the Advisor on Irrigation to the Government of Telangana.
Ramaraju Vidyasagar Rao . After the formation of Telangana State, he was appointed as the Advisor on Irrigation to the Government of Telangana.[1] He was the foremost expert on irrigation projects in Telangana, and was instrumental in highlighting injustices in water allocation for Telangana Region in United Andhra Pradesh.

The Dindi Lift Irrigation Scheme was named after him as R. Vidyasagar Rao Dindi Lift Irrigation Scheme for his enormous contribution to irrigation in Telangana. He fought for safe drinking water to the fluoride affected Nalgonda district and provide water to the arid lands in the Telangana region. Rao was a native of Jajireddygudem village, Suryapet, Nalgonda District. He was born to R Raghava Rao, a government school teacher and R. Lakshmamma, a housewife.[3] Because of his father’s frequent transfer, Vidyasagar Rao completed his primary and upper primary schooling in Huzurnagar and Miryalaguda, Higher Secondary School in Suryapet, and PUC in Nizam College, Hyderabad. He received his Bachelor of Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India in 1960 and his Master of Engineering in Water Resources Development University of Roorkee (Now IIT Roorkee) in 1979. He also earned his diploma in Water Resources Systems Engineering at Colorado State University (USA) in 1983. He also earned a Bachelor of Law at Delhi University in 1990.

He started his career with Irrigation Department as Junior Engineer, Government of Andhra Pradesh, in 1960. After three years, he left the State Government and joined Central Water Commission.

He worked in the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water Resources, government of India in various capacities and retired as Chief Engineer in 1997.

He also worked as a consultant to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) at Nairobi (Kenya) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) during November–December, 1991.

He served as member of Working Group of Major, Medium Irrigation & Command Area Development Project for XII Five Year Plan of Planning Commission, government of India. Also served: As Resources Person, National Commission for integrated Water Resources Development Plan, Government of India, responsible for preparation of working group report on legal, institutional and financial aspects. He also worked as Consultant to NABARD responsible for appraisal and monitoring of Irrigation schemes of Government of AP posed for financial assistance to NABARD.

He visited several countries all over the globe under UN related organisations’ programmes. He was Life Member of Indian Water Resources, Life Member of Indian Network on Participatory Irrigation Management and Individual Member of Indian Council of Arbitration. His role in Telangana agitation and subsequent contributions for water resources is well known to all of you