Social entrepreneur Vijay Mahajan was appointed as secretary and chief executive officer of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies.
The foundation was launched in 1991, a month after the death of the former Prime Minister, and the Rajiv Gandhi Institute is an independent national policy thinktank promoted by the foundation.
Mr. Mahajan was involved in policy formulations under the Congress governments. He served on the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (2005-10); the Rangarajan Committee on Financial Inclusion 2007-08; the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms 2008-09; and several working groups of the XIth and XIIth Five Year Plans. He was also the chair of the World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (2011-13)
He started out with PRADAN, a non-governmental organisation, which motivates young professionals to work at the grassroots.