Prof. Ramesh Chand is currently a Member of NITI Aayog (in the rank and status of Union Minister of State). He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. He is a Fellow at the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics. He has been involved in policy formulation for the agriculture sector for the last two and a half decades. Prior to joining NITI Aayog, he was Director, National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi.

In addition, Prof. Ramesh Chand is also a Member of:

.    The Board of Trustees (BOT) of CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), Mexico.

.    The Policy Advisory Council (PAC) of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Canberra, Australia.

In the recent past, he also held the position of Member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission.

Additionally, in the past, Prof. Ramesh Chand has worked in senior academic positions as ICAR National Professor; Professor and Head, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University; and Professor at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. Prof. Chand has been Visiting Professor at University of Wollongong, NSW Australia and at the Institute of Developing Economies, Chiba Shi, Japan. He has also been a Consultant with international organizations such as FAO, UNDP, ESCAP, UNCTAD, Commonwealth and World Bank.

Prof. Chand has chaired important committees on Food and Agricultural Policy set up by various Ministries of the Government of India. He has served as India’s nodal officer for agriculture for the SAARC for 7 years and represented India in meetings of the G20 and UNESCAP.

Prof. Chand has authored seven books and published more than 150 research papers in reputed national and international journals in the areas of agriculture – production, growth, development policy, farmers’ issues, markets and trade.

Prof. Chand has been presented the Jawaharlal Nehru Award (1984), Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Award (2006) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Award (2018) by the Indian Economic Association.