After completing high school in Razole, he took a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge.
[2][3] Arriving in India in October 1938, Rao was initially posted to Midnapore in the Bengal Presidency (now in West Bengal) as an assistant collector and magistrate,[1] and was promoted to joint magistrate and deputy collector in May 1941, receiving an appointment as under-secretary to the Finance Department in August.
[2] He was in Bengal on the Direct Action Day of 16 August 1946, which led to widespread communal riots,[1] and was a joint magistrate and collector at the time of Indian independence.
[2] A month after Independence and Partition, on 27 September 1947, Rao was transferred to the Finance Department of the Madras Government as a deputy secretary, his final posting before the old ICS was converted into the new Indian Administrative Service.
[5] Following his retirement he served as Vigilance Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh from 1974 to 1977,[5] and then as Principal Secretary to the President of India, N. Sanjiva Reddy, from 1981 to 1982.