Shri Balmiki Prasad Singh is a distinguished scholar, thinker and public servant. H.E. the Governor was born on 1.1.1942 in Bihar. He was educated in a village school and subsequently at the universities of Patna and Oxford. He passed his M.A. in Political Science from Patna University, Patna, standing first in first class with record marks and several gold medals. He became a lecturer in Political Science in Patna University at the age of nineteen.

Shri B.P. Singh was appointed to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1964. He has since been the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1982-84) and Queen Elizabeth Fellowship (1989-90). He was Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow at New Delhi.

Shri. B.P.Singh is  recipient of Gulzari lal Nanda Award for Outstanding public service from the President of India in 1998 and Man of Letters Award from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2003.

Over the past four decades Shri B.P. Singh has held a variety of important positions within Assam as well as in the Government of India. He was Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forest (1993-95), Culture Secretary (1995-97) and Home Secretary (1997-99) in Government of India.

As an international civil servant, Shri B.P. Singh served as Executive Director and Ambassador at the World Bank during 1999-2002 representing India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Shri B.P. Singh was Chancellor of the Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath for six years and Chief Editor of the South Asia Series on “Perspectives on Economics, Technology and Governance” of Oxford University Press, New York. 

Shri B.P. Singh is currently Governor of Sikkim.

Shri B.P. Singh has authored six books (i) Threads Woven: Ideals, Principles & Administration, LBS Guwahati, 1975, the second edition published by Allied Publishers, New-Delhi in 2010 (ii) The Indian National Congress and Cultural Renaissance, Allied Publishers, New Delhi 1987 and the second edition in 2010; (iii) The Problem of Change: A Study of North-East India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1987 and latest reprint in 2010; (iv) India's Culture: the State, the Arts and Beyond-Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1998 and the second edition in 2010;  (v) Bahudha and the post-9/11 World; Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2008; and (vi) Our India, NCERT, New Delhi, 2011.

He is also Chief Editor of the The Millennium Book on New Delhi, OUP (2001).

In addition, Shri B. P. Singh has published several monographs and articles on politics, culture, ecology and governance in reputed Indian and foreign newspapers and journals.

Shri B.P Singh was married to Late Smt. Karuna Singh who resided at Raj Bhavan, Gangtok, Sikkim till her passing away on 01.04.2010.