Triyugi Prasad was born in a remote village Dokati in the district of Ballia in eastern U.P. in 1939. When he was around 6 years, his family moved to a village called Pupri, now a sub divisional town in the district of Sitamarhi in North Bihar. He completed his secondary education from Zila School, Muzaffarpur in 1954 and intermediate education in science in 1956 from Science College (Patna University), the premier institution in science education in Bihar. He carried out his engineering education at Bihar College of Engineering, Patna, one of the oldest engineering colleges of India and presently National Institute of Technology, and obtained B.Sc.(Engg.) (Hons.) degree in Civil Engineering from Patna University in 1960. He executed his post-graduate studies in Dam Design, Irrigation Engineering and Hydraulics at the University of Roorkee, (now Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee) and joined subsequently Bihar College of Engineering under Patna University as a Lecturer in 1961. He went to the USA for higher studies under a Govt. of India scholarship in 1964 and obtained Ph.D. degree in Water Resources from the University of Illinois under the guidance of a world renowned Professor, Dr. Ven Te Chow in 1968 and returned to India to devote himself to teaching and research in water resources and related activities. Later on, he obtained specialized training for varying periods in various aspects of water resources from renowned institutions such as from Moscow State University in 1971, Harvard University in 1976 and US Bureau of Reclamation in 1984. He visited a number of water resources related institutions, organizations and projects in many countries of the world in order to acquire wide experience, exposure and expertise. He presented his research papers in different areas of water resources at various national and international conferences. He himself organized several such conferences in Patna. More than 120 of his articles, keynote addresses, lead papers and other contributions have been published in the proceedings, refereed journals and books. The complex problems and immense potentialities related to the water resources of the eastern region of the Indian sub-continent have been the dominant theme of most of his investigations, research and studies. In order to ensure that requisite level of modern knowledge in water resources is applied to solve the complex problems and realize the immense potentialities related to water resources of this region, he made special efforts to remove institutional deficiencies in water resources education and research in Bihar. Towards this objective, a well-equipped Centre for Water Resources Studies was set up under Patna University with help, cooperation and collaboration of several national and international agencies and institutes. He had been the founder director of this Centre until his retirement from Patna University service in October 1999. Since then, he has been the Executive Chairman of Integrated Hydro Development Forum, a non-profit professional organization in water resources and related areas incorporated with the Govt. of India.
Dr. Prasad has been keenly interested in national and even international affairs, particularly in public and political arena, from his student days. He actively took part in such extracurricular activities as debates, students’ unions and several other students’ activities. He was elected member of the first Students Union of Patna University. While at the University of Illinois, he fought a keenly contested election to be the President of India Students Association. During his tenure, he organized a very well attended Panel Discussion on “Does India Have a Future?” with several professors of the University having expertise in Indian and South Asian affairs on the Panel. Having keenly experienced with critical perception the life and living in the USA, Dr. Prasad got a new perspective in seeing India and its problems. In the midst of his fairly gruelling research work and studies, he found time to write a comprehensive paper on Corruption in Public Life in India, a problem which struck him as stark even as much ago as in 1965. In this paper, Dr. Prasad analysed the factors giving rise to corruption in India based on what he saw and perceived in the USA. Another article that he wrote while there was titled “India’s Brain Drain”, which was published in a widely circulated journal. In this article, Dr. Prasad advocated that instead of being overly concerned with India’s brain draining to the west, it should be more concerned about its brain going into the drains in India itself. On returning to India soon after completing his studies in November 1968, Dr. Prasad was filled with a bubbling desire and enthusiasm to make the fullest impact of his knowledge, experience and perception acquired in the USA on the problems and potentialities of his mother land. Fresh from the USA, he wrote an article titled India Under Shackles ” with a view to getting it published in the Republic Day Supplement of a local English daily. In this article, Dr. Prasad clearly saw that India’s debilitating problems and performance below par were on account of adopting the same system of governance for the Indian republic that was designed and used for exploiting the resources and degrading the people of the colony of India under the British rule.
For the next three decades or so, Dr. Prasad was wholly immersed in water resources education, research and allied activities aimed at harnessing modern knowledge to solution of complex problems and realization of immense potentialities related to the water resources of this region in the belief that this would resolve the paradox of ‘poverty amidst plenty’ that this region is suffering from, would serve as a key to economic transformation of this region, and would ensure its rightful prosperity. At the end of the day, he realized that although his rather valiant efforts did create ripples in the vast inertia of vision and action but failed to create the wave that was called for. He came to an enlightening realization that the ‘shackles’ which strangle India in so many ways lie also at the root of our inertia of vision and action. India’s genius and creativity cannot come into play unless these shackles are removed. Change of the system of governance is the crying need of India. Rejection by the people of the “Shining India” slogan and depiction of India so avidly projected by the Bajpai government resulting in its defeat at the 2004 polls, which threw up Congress led government by default, was perceived by Dr. Prasad as people’s desperate call for change of the system of governance rather than change of the government. This prompted Dr. Prasad to write a comprehensive paper titled “India’s Crying Need for Change of the System of Governance – Call for Action” in March 2005. As Dr. Prasad formally belonged to the academic discipline of engineering science, he thought it would be desirable to get an approbation of his essentially political thoughts and ideas from the community of political and social scientists. With this in view, he prepared a paper titled “India Has Been Groaning Under Illusions of Being a Free, Democratic, Sovereign, Socialist, Secular Republic” and presented it at the 32nd Indian Social Science Congress having a focal theme ‘The Indian Republic at the Crossroads’ held at Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi in December 2008. In order to make people at large aware of these ideas so that they may be able to adjudge it, appreciate it and be motivated by it, it was considered essential to write them in Hindi to start with. Consequently, Dr. Prasad made a maiden attempt to write them in Hindi in the form of a booklet named
in Oct. 2008. This booklet was formally released by Shri Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister, Bihar in a ceremony held in the Patna University Campus on 31 January 2009, Saraswati Puja Day.
Dr. Prasad presently devotes much of his time in the service of the cause indicated in his ideas, believing in the Einstein’s famous quote, “Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act.”