According to the sources close to Sinha’s family said he died of cardiac arrest while asleep, on Monday. “He was talking to his family till 2 am. When he didn’t get up till 11 am, family members tried to wake him up only to find he was no more,” a family friend mentioned.
BJP leader Ram Madhav tweeted, “Shocked to hear about Shakti Sinha’s demise. He was a member of the Governing Board of India Foundation and was scheduled to address a conference going on at Leh this afternoon.” In a Facebook post, Madhav mentioned, “Shakti returned from Russia last week and was having some health issues but not really serious to take his life.”
Shakti Sinha was an Ex- IAS officer and private secretary to the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The 64-year-old was also an honorary director at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International Studies at MS University, Vadodara, and was involved in forming the Delhi School of Public Policy and Governance at Delhi University. Sinha previously served as Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library for three consecutive years. He had done an MA in history of modern India and China from Delhi University, he had also pursued a mid-career course in International Commerce and Trade from George Mason University and was known as an expert on Afghanistan.
During his service in the government, Sinha took some time off to work with think tanks in India and Singapore where he observed and studied subjects such as; how poorly designed state structures and distorted policies cause or worsen conflict and why economic policies did not seemingly work in the absence of supportive governance ecosystems. He took leave to work for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (April 2006-December 2008) too. As well as, for a short while, he also worked with UNDP, Afghanistan, as appointed Strategic Policy Advisor.
