Dr. Ajit Ranade, is Vice Chancellor of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune. He was earlier Group Executive President and Chief Economist with the Aditya Birla Group. He had been with the AB Group since 2003, prior to which he was Chief Economist with ABN Amro Bank. His thirty-three -plus years'
career has spanned both academia and corporate assignments. He has served on
various committees of the RBI, including the
Committee on Fuller Capital Account
Convertibility. He has been a member of the
Governing Council of the Banking Codes and
Supervisory Board of India, and Board of
Governors of Indian Institute of Technology,
Bombay. Between 2007 and 2010 he served
as FMC nominee as independent director on
the board of MCX Ltd., a commodity
exchange. Between 2017 to 2023 he served on the board of India International Exchange of GIFT
city. Dr Ranade is a member of the executive committees of apex industry chambers CII,
FICCI and MCCIA. He is a Trustee of Pune
International Centre, and an Honorary Senior
Fellow at the Takshashila Institution.
Dr. Ranade holds a B.Tech in Electrical
Engineering from Indian Institute of
Technology, Bombay and is a management
graduate from Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad.and holds a PhD in Economics.
He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Bombay in 2009, Scholar of the Year Award from Wadia Trust in 2010, and Dr.
Ramchandra Parnerkar Economics Award in
2012. He is a co-founder and Trustee of the
Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO
working in area of electoral and political
reforms. He writes in the business press on
economics and current topics. He is a co-
author of an award winning book "Rising to the China Challenge" (2021).