During his career spanning 38 years, Anil Swarup attempted to 'make it happen'. Born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, he earned his Master's Degree in Political Science from Allahabad University in 1978 where he was also awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal for being the Best All Round Student. Before joining the Indian Administrative Service (1AS) in 1981; he served the Indian Police Service for a year. He won the Director's Gold Medal for the best Officer Trainee at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration amongst the officers of his batch. As a civil servant, he held various assignments within both the State (Uttar Pradesh) and Central Government. During the final years of his career, he served as Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Coal where he handled the aftermath of the coal scam. Thereafter, he served as Secretary, School Education and Literacy, where he attempted to foster public private partnership to improve quality of school education.

As a strategic thinker and an innovative leader, he won several awards and nominations, the prominent ones being: Nominated as one of the Policy Change Agent by The Economics Times during the years 2010, 2012, 2015 & 2016. He was selected as one of the 35 Action Heroes in India Today's 35' Annual Edition.

He is the Founder Chairman of Nexus of Good: an initiative towards recognising positive action and providing inspiration to the society at large to replicate them. He is also the author of the bestseller 'Not Just a Civil Servant'.