Gandhinagar: Former Gujarat Additional Chief Secretary (Home) S.K. Nanda passed away in the United States on Saturday at the age of 68.

Nanda traveled to the U.S. on July 22 with his wife, Sanjukta, to visit their children. He reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest early Saturday. It is learned that he was receiving treatment for pneumonia at a hospital in Ithaca, New York.

A 1978-batch bureaucrat from the Gujarat cadre, Nanda held various positions, including collector of Dang, Vadodara, Panchmahal, Banaskantha, and Junagadh districts. His last role was as Chairman and Managing Director of Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFC), from which he retired in 2016.

Generally, IAS officers are of reserved nature, maintaining distance from the public; however, in contrast, Nanda was a very approachable officer to all, whether it be journalists or the general public. He was also known for responding to queries from common people, attending calls from everyone, and replying with transparency.

He served as Additional Chief Secretary (Home) while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2012 to 2014. However, even after being the senior-most bureaucrat in the state, when Anandiben Patel assumed the office of Chief Minister, he was superseded by 1981-batch IAS officer D.J. Pandian.

Hailing from Puri district in Odisha, Nanda was the chairperson of the Jagannath Cultural Academy and Research Centre (JCARC) and the Odisha Socio-Cultural Association (OSCA), which established an Odisha-styled Jagannath temple in Adalaj, Gandhinagar, in 2014.

Nanda, who had expertise in ham radio operations, was the first to utilize amateur radio to establish communication with Amreli district as Relief Commissioner of Gujarat during a cyclone in 1997. In 2001, following the Kutch earthquake on January 26, he chaired the Gujarat Institute of Amateur Radio (GIAR).

He also served as the “guardian secretary” of Dang district for an extended period and published a book in 2014 titled Dangs: The Little Known Paradise of India. DeshGujarat