Vinod Rai

Mr. Vinod Rai did his post-graduation from the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, and later acquired a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1972. He has held many important positions in government and was Secretary of Financial Services.  He served on the board of Directors of the State Bank of India, the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Bank, the Life Insurance Corporation of India, and the Infrastructure Development Finance Company.

Rai was appointed the 11th Comptroller and Auditor General of India and served on the board of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, the Chair of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, and the Chair of the United Nations (UN) panel of external auditors. He was also a member of the Independent Audit Committee of the UN. He demitted office in 2013. In January 2018, he joined the Trustees Board of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation and served for two terms till December 2023.

The Supreme Court of India appointed Rai as the Chairman of the Committee of Administrators of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, to undertake reforms in its administration. In recognition of his services, Rai has been decorated with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India.

Utilizing his four decades of experience in the Indian Civil Services, Rai has been striving to develop an architecture for an effective and transparent governance set-up. He believes that such governance structures must allow complete autonomy to accountability institutions such as offices of the auditor general, the election commission, and the information commission.

He has authored three books: “Rethinking Good Governance-Holding to Account India’s Public Institutions,” “Transforming the Steel Frame-promise and Paradox of Civil Service Reform,” and “Not Just an Accountant.” 

He co-edited: “Seven Decades of Independent India’ and ‘India and the Future of G20”. Rai also authored “Not Just a Night Watchman”- a book dealing with reforms in Indian cricket.

Rai continues to pursue research in the fields of public administration and financial sector reforms at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, where he serves as a distinguished visiting research fellow.