Ex-Union health secretary Keshav Desiraju dead

Ex-Union health secretary Keshav Desiraju dead

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  06.09.2021

Bureaucrat, scholar and public health expert Keshav Desiraju, a former Union health secretary, passed away on Sunday at a city hospital, where he was admitted following health complications. He was 66.

He died on the birth anniversary of his illustrious grandfather S Radhakrishnan, former President of India, which is celebrated as Teachers Day.

An IAS officer from the 1978 batch of the Uttarakhand cadre, he held several key positions in Tamil Nadu and at the Centre. He grew up in Mumbai, where he first heard M S Subbulakshmi, on whom he penned a critically acclaimed book, “Of Gifted Voice: The Life and Art of M S Subbalakshmi”.

He had a masters degree in economics from the University of Cambridge and a masters degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Expressing his condolences, chief minister M K Stalin said Desiraju was a multi-faceted personality whose interests extended beyond bureaucracy and administration.

He was known for his advocacy of mental health and improving public health. Desiraju was one of the architects of the National Mental Health Policy 2016.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, former Union minister Jairam Ramesh, and CEO of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant took to social media to express their condolences.

Jairam Ramesh told TOI that he had close ties with Desiraju and recalled meeting him as a child. “His aunt and my mother were school mates. His uncle and my father-in-law were school mates. He moved to Chennai to be near his aunt and also for his passion for carnatic music. I was planning to call him and was shocked to hear about his death,” Jairam Ramesh said.