In August 1984, he was appointed chairman of the Policy Planning Committee in the Ministry of External Affairs with the rank of Cabinet Minister to assist and advise the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, in the country's foreign relations. He had previously served in this position during 1975-77 with the rank of Minister of State, but during his reappointment, he functioned as a de facto Foreign Minister referring only high policy matters to the Prime Minister. G.P. made several contributions to higher education. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi requested G.P. to serve as the first vice-chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi which opened in 1969, a position he held for five years. He established the foundation for the intellectual, academic and physical quality of the institution. JNU with its multi-disciplinary programs focusing on basic and applied sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities was India's first institution of its kind. He also founded the UN University of Japan and was a member of its council. G.P was comfortable dealing with student radicalism. Largely due to his efforts, JNU was the first university in India to establish a highly participative, broad-based and democratic student union thus leading to a dynamic student movement on its campus. G.P accepted the student union's demand for a democratic admission policy thereby enabling students of diverse socio-economic backgrounds to enter the university. G.P was appointed chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) in August 1980 during Indira Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister. He oversaw a chain of social science research institutions across the country and raised the level of academics. He founded the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and elevated the status of mass communication to a social science. G.P was also a writer and edited the five-volume Jawaharlal Nehru's Letters to Chief Ministers. and was co-editor of the Nehru Centenary Volume and the Indira Gandhi Commemorative Volume G.P. died in New Delhi on 1 August 1995 at the age of 83.