PUDUCHERRY: Former educational advisor to the government of India Kireet Joshi died here on Sunday following cancer. Joshi, a bachelor, was 83. The end came at the care unit of the Aurobindo Ashram Hospital around 5 am, sources said.
In view of his age, Joshi was accommodated in the care unit of the ashram.
Three months ago, he had fractured his leg after a fall and was treated at JIPMER. Because of his weak condition, he was admitted to the Ashram Hospital and was diagnosed with throat cancer one-and-a-half months ago.
The funeral took place at Karuvadikuppam.
Kireet studied law but was interested in philosophy which he later took up seriously. He was selected to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1955, but he resigned in 1956 in order to study and practise yoga of Sri Aurobindo and became a devotee of The Mother at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
In 1976, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi appointed Kireet as Education Advisor to the government of India.
In January 1999, Kireet was nominated by the government to be a member of the International Advisory Council of the Auroville Foundation. Three months later, he was made chairman of the foundation. Kireet was a member of a number of committees with the University Grants Commission, the National Council of Education Research and Training, and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
In 1976, he was appointed as Member-Secretary of the National Committee on Vishwabharati, under the Chairmanship of Dr K L Shrimali. Subsequently, he was instrumental in redesigning and redrafting of the Bill for Vishwa Bharati University. He developed the idea of Indira Gandhi National Open University as also of Pondicherry University. Later, both these institutions were established, and Bills for both of them drafted by him.
During 2008-2010, he was Educational Advisor to the Gujarat Chief Minister.
In 2009, he was appointed as first executive chairperson of the Gujarat Educational Innovations Commission (GEIC).