Hirubhai Muljibhai Patel

Patel was born in Bombay on 27 August 1904. He was educated at St Xavier's in Bombay and then at St Catherine's College, Oxford, where he read economics.

Patel joined the Indian Civil Service in October 1927, serving as assistant collector in North Canara and Ahmednagar and then as collector of Bharuch. He was deputy secretary in the finance department in 1936, Indian Trade Commissioner in Hamburg from 1937 to 1939, and secretary in the Department of Supply by 1945. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1946.

As Cabinet Secretary and Home Secretary under Vallabhbhai Patel he worked with Chaudhry Muhammad Ali on the document setting out the administrative consequences of Partition, and headed the emergency committee that administered Delhi after 1947, overseeing refugee rehabilitation. He served as Defence Secretary from 1947 to 1953. He later entered politics, serving as Member of Parliament for Sabarkantha from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1984 to 1989, and holding office as Finance Minister from 1977 to 1979 and Home Minister in 1979 in the Janata government led by Morarji Desai.

Patel was chairman of the Charutar Vidya Mandal and was instrumental in founding Vallabh Vidyapith at Vallabh Vidyanagar, later renamed Sardar Patel University. In 1972 he established the Charutar Arogya Mandal at Karamsad to demonstrate how the health-care needs of a rural community could be met. Its Shree Krishna Hospital began as a 136-bed facility and has grown into a large multi-specialty teaching hospital on a campus that also houses a medical college, nursing and physiotherapy colleges and allied health institutes. The organisation cites his phrase 'Solace for the Suffering' as its founding vision.

Patel died at Vallabh Vidyanagar on 30 November 1993, aged 89.[2][3][4]