Shakti Sinha (11 May 1957 – 4 October 2021) was a career

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

of the

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

and Director of the

Nehru Memorial Museum & Library The Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) is a museum and library in New Delhi, India, which aims to preserve and reconstruct the history of the Indian independence movement. Housed within the Teen Murti House complex, it is an autonomous ins ...

. At the time of his death, he was Director General of the

International Buddhist Confederation International Buddhist Confederation is the biggest religious Buddhist confederation, based in Delhi, India. The architect of the International Buddhist Confederation is Lama Lobzang. This confederation is named as the first organization which un ...

and Honorary Director, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International Studies (AIPRIS), M.S.University of Baroda, Gujarat.

Early life and education

Shakti Sinha had his early schooling in St. Xavier's School, Ranchi. He subsequently moved to Delhi where he completed his B.A. (Honours) in History in 1976 and his M.A. in History from the

Hindu College, Delhi Hindu College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi in New Delhi, India. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in sciences, humanities, social sciences and commerce. In 2022, it is ranked 2nd nationally by National ...

in 1978, specializing in contemporary Chinese history & politics, and modern Indian history. He also obtained an M.A. in International Commerce & Policy from the

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

in 2002.

Career

Administration

Shakti Sinha was of the 1979 batch of the

(IAS). Over the course of his administrative career, he served in various capacities in the states and Union Territories of Delhi, Goa and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Amongst other postings, he served as the Principal Secretary (Finance & Power),

Government of Delhi The Government of Delhi, officially the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) is the governing body of the Union Territory of Delhi, whose urban area is the seat of the Government of India. It also governs the city or l ...

, and Chief Secretary,

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

. He also headed the governance and development section of the

United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan ('UNAMA'') is a UN Special Political Mission tasked with assisting the people of Afghanistan. UNAMA was established on 28 March 2002 by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1401. Revi ...

(UNAMA) . He took voluntary retirement from the IAS in 2013 on account of policy differences and after the

passed him over for appointment as Chief Secretary .

Foreign Assignments

Shakti Sinha served as the Senior Advisor to the Executive Director representing India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka on the Board of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

from January 2000 to June 2004. He served in various senior capacities in the UN programmes in Afghanistan, including UNAMA and

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

, from April 2006 to April 2009.

Academic

He was a Visiting Senior Fellow,

Observer Research Foundation Observer Research Foundation (ORF) is an independent global think tank based in Delhi, India. The foundation has three centres in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. ORF provides potentially viable inputs for policy and decision-makers in the Indian ...

, New Delhi from April 2005 to March 2006 and a Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies,

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

in 2009.

Notability

He was closely associated with Prime Minister

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

, whom he got to know in the eighties. He first served as his secretary when Vajpayee became Prime Minister in 1996 and continued serving as private secretary after he became leader of the Opposition from June 1996 to January 1998. He again served as

Joint Secretary Joint Secretary to Government of India (often abbreviated as JS, GoI or Union Joint Secretary or Joint Secretary to Union of India) is a post under the Central Staffing Scheme and the third highest non-political executive rank in Government of I ...

to the Prime Minister from March 1998 to November 1999 during his second premiership. A book recounting his experiences
Vajpayee The Years That Changed India
was published to general acclaim in December 2020.

Books and publications

* Shakti Sinha, ''https://penguin.co.in/book/vajpayee/ Vajpayee: The Years That Changed India'', 2020, Penguin, , 300 pages

References

External links

Shakti Sinha on the Nehru Memorial - The challenges & changing with the time , No Holds Barred
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinha, Shakti Indian civil servants 1957 births 2021 deaths