Vijay Mahajan

Vijay Mahajan, Secretary and CEO of the Foundation

Vijay Mahajan is an internationally recognised Indian social entrepreneur, rural development specialist and policy thinker known for his pioneering work in livelihood promotion, financial inclusion and sustainable development.

After graduating in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1975, working in an electronics multinational for four years and completing his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 1981, he decided to hear his inner voice and work for poverty alleviation in rural India.  In 1982 he co-founded PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action), one of India’s leading rural development NGOs. In 1996 he established the BASIX Social Enterprise Group, a new-generation livelihood institution that has supported low-income households across India through integrated financial services, agricultural support and enterprise development. Together PRADAN and BASIX have reached over 50 lakh poor households.

Mahajan was also a mid-career fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. His policy influence extends to national deliberations as well — he has served on high-level government committees including the Rangarajan Committee on Financial Inclusion, the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms, and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) under the World Bank, where he later became Chair. These roles reflect his contributions to global policy on financial inclusion, enhancing access to financial services for the poor.  

He has published over 20 papers in prestigious Indian and international journals, contributed chapters to 15 academic books, and authored over 100 papers/articles in the rural development, livelihood promotion and employment, microfinance, financial inclusion, social innovation and entrepreneurship, environment and climate change.

His contributions have been widely recognised: in 2003, he was named among “60 Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs” by the Schwab Foundation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He was nominated a fellow of the Ashoka Foundation and was invited to be a resident fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Centre in 2016.

Mr. Mahajan took over as Secretary and CEO of the Foundation in Jun 2018. He strengthened the Foundation’s field presence programs in supplementary Education, agricultural and non-farm Livelihoods, Environment and natural resource conservation, and added a new program titled Sadbhavana, to build mutuality and empathy and hope in society through discourse, dialogue, art and culture, and citizen activism.   

Mr. Mahajan is also the Director of the Foundation’s knowledge affiliate, the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS).  In that capacity, he has led a number of nationwide policy research studies covering RGICS themes – Growth with Employment, and Environment, Natural Resources and Sustainability. He has also inducted visiting fellows in RGICS themes – Constitutional Values and Democratic Institutions, Governance and Development and India’s Place in the world.