Sh. K. J. Alphons comes from a village background with no electricity and is the son of a schoolteacher. He scored 42% in his board examinations but later cleared the civil services examination, emerging as a top performer as an IAS officer. He was featured in Time magazine's list of 100 young global leaders. Over the course of his career, he has served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), Member of Parliament (MP), and as a Union Minister in the Government of India. He has written 3 books namely Making a Difference (1996, Penguin), Accelerating India (2023, OakBridge), and The Winning Formula (2025, Bloomsbury).