Former IAS officer A.K. Jain passes away

Senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and former secretary to the Government of India Mr. Arun Kumar Jain passed away on Monday in a tragic car accident. He was 62.

Mr. Jain is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

Mr. Jain was a 1977-batch officer of the Nagaland cadre, who retired as Secretary, Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. He had served the government in various other capacities, including as Nagaland's Home Secretary and Law Secretary; Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and Member (Finance) in Prasar Bharati.

He represented the Ministry of Home Affairs for three years at the U.N. Human Rights Commission Annual Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mr. Jain - a double-degree holder, Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi, and Business Management with specialisation in finance from University of Hull, the U.K. - had extensive experience in administration and governance, besides having acquired special experience in matters relating to law, finance, management, project administration, public sector management and industrial investment.

As joint secretary in charge of the Home Ministry's human rights division, Mr. Jain initiated path-breaking steps to promote transparency in the functioning of police organisations through a series of seminars in different state capitals, providing an interface platform for police, eminent citizens and leading NGOs to interface on human rights issues, facilitating exchange of best practices and influencing attitudinal change in police functioning.

Besides these, Mr. Jain was well acquainted with the working of industry in the sectors of heavy engineering, chemicals and fertilisers, broadcasting and agro-processing.

Mr. Jain, who was a member of the Drafting Committee constituted by the Ministry of Law and Justice to draft the Bill to deal with Communal Violence, had prepared a comprehensive conceptual paper on the approach to enacting legislation to deal with the problem of communal violence and rehabilitation. The then home secretary, while recording his appreciation in his ACR for the period 2004-05, noted the work as one of "lasting merit''.

As sub-divisional magistrate and additional district magistrate in the early years of career, he held the Court of Judicial Magistrate Class I and Sessions Court in the State of Nagaland and was entrusted with judicial responsibilities under applicable law at that time.

He always stood up for high standards of professional competence, efficiency and integrity while serving government interests.

During this posting from 2006 to 2012, he was amongst the first to resist the alleged financial irregularities committed during the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi.

A prayer meeting for Mr. Jain will be held at the Chinmaya Mission in New Delhi on June 1 between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.