In the Service of Free India: Memoir of a Civil Servant

B.D. Pande (Bhairab Datt Pande) was the first person from Kumaon and Garhwal division to pass the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination from London in 1938. In his thirty-nine years as a civil servant, Pande held many important offices in the state and central governments. He served as finance secretary, development commissioner and food commissioner in Bihar; chairman of LIC at then Bombay; and finally cabinet secretary to the Government of
India from 1972 to 1977. Pande was also the first person from Uttarakhand to be appointed the governor of West Bengal and later Punjab. In 2000, then President K.R. Narayanan conferred on him the Padma Vibhushan for his meritorious service to the nation. He was also honoured with a DLitt (honoris causa) by the Kumaon University in 2006. He passed away peacefully on 2 April 2009.