Background
He was born at Nagercoil in a South Indian Brahmin family on 18 May 1899 as the eldest of twelve children of Rao Bahadur Mahadeva Nilakanta Ayyar (an Executive Engineer ).
He was born at Nagercoil in a South Indian Brahmin family on 18 May 1899 as the eldest of twelve children of Rao Bahadur Mahadeva Nilakanta Ayyar (an Executive Engineer ).
He was educated at the Presidency College in Madras and later at Cambridge.
Mahadeva Ayyar joined the International Correspondence Schools cadre in October 1922. He was initially posted in Bengal as Assistant Magistrate and Collector and subsequently rose to the post of Sub-Divisional Officer in 1924. From 1925-1927 he served the Finance Department of the Government of India as Assistant Collector of Customs at Calcutta and Madras.In 1928 North.M. Ayyar was appointed as Magistrate and Collector of Bengal.
From 1936 to 1942 he served as Deputy Secretary to the Industries and Labour Department, and then as the first Chairman of the Coal Mines Stowing Board in 1939.
In 1943 he served for a term as Director and Secretary of Civil Supplies, Government of Bengal, and then as Provincial Transport Commissioner. In 1947, after Independence he was appointed the first Indian Chairman of the Commissioners for the Portuguese of Calcutta.
While serving as the Chairman, Coal Mining Stowing Board, North.M. Ayyar was awarded Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire ( International Commission on Illumination)in 1941 and later Honorary Lieutenant Colonel. In 1952 he was appointed Secretary to the Transport Ministry, Government of India.
North.M Ayyar retired in 1958 and died in Bangalore in 1971.
