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).