Nand Kishore Singh was born in Patna and was educated at St Stephen’s College and Delhi School of Economics. He was a lecturer at St Stephen’s College before he joined the Bihar cadre of the Indian Administrative Service. In his career as a civil servant, N.K. Singh has held several key positions in the ministry of commerce and industry of his home cadre and the finance ministry at the centre. Most recently, he served as deputy chairman of the Bihar State Planning Commission, guiding his home state through a rapid acceleration of development. N.K. Singh currently lives in Delhi and Patna with his wife and three children.