Madhav Godbole

Madhav Godbole (b. 15 August 1936) took voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service in March 1993, when he was union home secretary and secretary, justice. Earlier, he was secretary, petroleum & natural gas, and secretary, urban development, Government of India, and principal finance secretary, Government of Maharashtra. He worked in the Asian Development Bank, Manila, for five years.

Dr Godbole has written nineteen books on public policy issues, of which eleven are in English. His previous two books were: Good Governance: Never on India’s Radar, and The God Who Failed: An Assessment of Jawaharlal Nehru’s Leadership. His essays have been published in several English and Marathi compilations. He has written over 400 articles in English and Marathi in leading newspapers, journals and periodicals. He wrote a weekly column for two years for the Marathi daily Loksatta.

Dr Godbole was the chairman of several government committees including the Enron power project, good governance, and the management of India’s international borders.