Dr. Ajit Ranade is an Economist and Former 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. His thirty-five 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. Dr Ranade is a member of the executive committees of apex industry chambers. He is a Trustee of Pune International Centre.

Dr. Ranade holds a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and a management diploma from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a PhD in Economics from Brown University. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Bombay in 2009. 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).