Born on 25 December 1938 in a small village Bhadsoda in district Chittorgarh of Rajasthan, Shri M.L. Mehta had his initial schooling in his native village. His brilliant academic career culminated in his obtaining the post graduate degree in Physics from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur in 1960, standing first in the University in M.Sc (Physics) Examination and also creating a university record of marks for that examination. He was awarded University Gold Medal for obtaining first rank in M.Sc Physics and Chancellor’s Gold Medal for obtaining highest marks among post graduate students in the entire science faculty of the University during 1960-62. He also obtained Postgraduate Diploma in Urbanization from the University of London in 1972 with merit. He also studied international agriculture in 1992 at the University of Illinois, USA.

Shri Mehta joined Indian Administrative Service in 1963 and rose to the post of Chief Secretary, Rajasthan (India). He also served the Government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs for about 7 years. Shri Mehta’s career in civil service has been marked by sterling integrity, innovation and creativity, deep humanism, and concern for the poor and the downtrodden. His major contribution has been the famous scheme of Antyodaya, Which he conceptualized and designed in 1977. Thus with the launching of Antyodaya Programme in Rajasthan in 1977, Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of Antyodaya acquired a concrete shape as an economic programme for the last man in the row. Under this scheme, poor were not looked as a statistical abstract in terms of percentage of starving people but as an individual identified person with problems, hopes and aspirations. Due to his path breaking work, trickle down approach of poverty eradication yielded place to target approach with focus on the identified poor. After highly successful run in Rajasthan, the Government of India incorporated this programme in the Integrated Rural Development Programme in 1979-80. As SJSY, it is continuing as the main programme of poverty alleviation and has succor to millions of poor people in the country. Antyodaya approach focusing on the poorest of the poor called ‘Below Poverty Line' ( BPL) families developed by Sh. Mehta is permeating other development programmes.

As Tribal Development Commissioner, Shri Mehta planned and implemented Integrated Guineaworm Eradication Programme with the help of Swedish Development Authority and UNICEF and succeeded in eradicating century old scourge of prevalence of guinea worm disease in southern parts of Rajasthan. Shri Mehta also designed people centric innovative schemes of participatory development like Apna Gaon- Apna Kam, Gopal, Raj Laxmi and Jan Mangal, which received, wide acclaim. Due to his dynamic leadership and emphasis on community involvement, Rajasthan made phenomenal growth in literacy from 38 percent in 1991 to 61 percent in 2001. He contributed significantly to the innovative schemes of Shiksha Karmi, Lok Jumbish and Praveshotsav for universalization of education in Rajasthan. As Secretary, Agriculture Production he pioneered yellow revolution of mustard cultivation in Rajasthan and imparted dynamism to the state agriculture. For his work on environment, Government of India in 1986, the inaugural year of the award honoured him with Indira Priyadarshini Vrikash Mitra award.

Conferment of PadmaShree :
Mr. Mehta was greatly oriented to social work and community service. After superannuating from civil service in 1997, he devoted himself fully to the social work. He was awarded Padmashree posthomously on 8th April 2015 for social work.

Some important achievements during 1998-2014, are as follows:

1. SUMEDHA, Assisting Talented Students from Underprivileged Families :
Realizing that poverty is biggest constraint in fully harnessing the talent among poor due to their low educational endowment, he formed a voluntary organization called Sumedha in 1998. Sumedha has so far helped about 6000 talented students from resource poor families with assistance of about Rs 5 Crores. Annually, Sumedha now helps about 500-600 students for higher education with help of Rs 40-45 lakh. Preference is given to orphan students, those who have lost their income-earning parent then girls and thereafter boys.

2. Eye Banking for Helping the Cornea Blind Persons :
About one lakh corneal blind people in Rajasthan faced the problem of non-availability of corneas. Moved by their plight, Shri. Mehta with the help of other colleagues formed Eye Bank Society of Rajasthan (EBSR) in 2002. He has been Chairman of the Society since its inception. EBSR volunteers do grief counseling at the hospital mortuary for cornea donation. Under the Hospital cornea Retrieval Program the present focus is on motivating relatives waiting for collecting bodies of their dear ones from the mortuary. The EBSR has collected about 7735 corneas with 4648 transplants during 2002-15 and hopes to reach the collection level of 1500 corneas annually by the end of 2015 2. It is a unique effort based on volunteerism and under the dynamic leadership of Shri Mehta, it received support from Orbis (International) by way of sanction of a project of about Rs 60 lakh to EBSR for setting up a Community Eye Bank at Jaipur and SightLife, USA for strengthening eye banking activities in the State.

3. Assisting Rickshaw Pullers for ownership of their Rickshaws :
There are 20,000 rickshaw pullers in Jaipur city. Rickshaw owners exploit them by charging high rent. Shri Mehta developed a scheme for making rickshaw pullers owners of their vehicles through self- help. Under the scheme, a group is formed of Rickshaw- pullers. Every member of the group pays Rs 500 upfront and Kuhad Trust provides the bridge support. On getting his vehicle the beneficiary rickshaw puller starts paying Rs 20 per day and becomes owner of the vehicle in about 12-15 months time. This work began in 2004 and over 3000 Rickshaws have been provided so far to the Rickshaw Pullers in Jaipur city on ownership basis. Efforts are on to convert these Self Help Groups in to Savings and Thrift Groups so that members may become free from the clutches of moneylenders.

4. Helping underprivileged children:
Mr. Mehta also headed Pratham, Rajasthan, a Trust working for education of the underprivileged living in slums. About 6000 children are benefiting at present from Pratham’s work at Jaipur, Kishangarh and Jodhpur.

5. Transfer of Improved Farm Technology to Farmers :
Shri Mehta was also Chairman of Pragati Trust that runs a Krishi Vighyan Kendra in Jaipur district for transfer of improved farm Technology to farmers. About 2000 farmers are trained every year at the KVK. Besides social work, Shri Mehta had been on the Board of Directors of Local Board (Northern Region) of Reserve Bank of India and Prasar Bharati. He was the Chairman of the Forum for Population Action and Chairman of IIHMR University, Jaipur till his death. He contributed articles regularly to newspapers and was also sought for delivering lecturers on Leadership, Time Management, Rural Development and Innovation and Creativity. He wrote a column titled Krishi Chintan for 6 years in Sharad Krishi , a magazine published in Hindi, Marathi, Kannad and Gujarati.
He was also Founder Chairman of Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Limited and former Vice Chairman of Rajasthan Mission on Livelihoods.

6. Consultant to the World Bank :
He provided consultancy work for the World Bank on Arid Lands Management and Agriculture Research Project in Kenya and Tanzania.

7. Travels :
He was widely traveled, having visited USA, U.K., France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, Kenya and Tanzania.