Vinod Rai

Vinod Rai
Born May 23, 1948 (1948-05-23) (age 63)
Ghazipur (Mohammdabad)Parasa

Vinod Rai (born May 23, 1948) is the present Comptroller and Auditor General of India. He assumed office on 7 January 2008.[1][2] He holds a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Delhi, and Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University.He did his schooling from Vidya Niketan - Birla Public School - BPS Pilani Rajasthan. He belongs to Ghazipur UP.[3]

Mr Rai is a 1972 batch Kerala cadre officer of Indian Administrative Service (IAS).[4] He was the MD of Kerala State Co-operative Marketing Federation from 1977 to 1980.[2] Prior to his appointment as Financial Services Secretary, Mr Rai was Additional Secretary in the Banking Division of the Finance Ministry.[5] He has been a Director on several Boards including the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Life Insurance Corporation of India and Infrastructure Development and Finance Company of India. Mr. Rai was instrumental in setting up the India Infrastructure Finance Company and was also on the Board of this company. Rai has also been the Principal Secretary (Finance) in the State Government of Kerala, apart from holding senior positions in the Ministries of Commerce and Defence, Government of India.[1]

As Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Vinod Rai has consistently hit the headlines for his unforgiving audits, ranging from the scathing report on the shoddy preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to the latest on spectrum allocations for second generation (2G) telecom services. Bureaucratic grapevine suggests there was quite a bit of pressure on Rai to dilute the 2G report but he held fast, merely asking his people to check for unnecessarily harsh or unfair language. The report ripped apart the government, even pointing a finger at the prime minister for arbitrarily giving away spectrum, a valuable and limited national resource. The CAG report said the ultimate loss to the exchequer could be as high as Rs 1.76 lakh crore.[6]Behind every gigantic scam that has shaken the Manmohan Singh regime - CWG, 2G or KG basin - there is the quiet and assertive hand of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India Mr Vinod Rai.

He is a keen tennis player and his other interests include cricket and mountaineering. He figured as one of the persons in Forbes magazine January 2011, the profile of the country's top auditor carried a picture of him executing a forehand shot.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Mr. Vinod Rai". Archived from the original on 2 July 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5zsKtRLWx. Retrieved 2 July 2011. 
  2. ^ a b "Vinod Rai appointed CAG". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 2007-12-18. http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/18/stories/2007121855371100.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
  3. ^ "Vinod Rai to be new CAG". Business Standard. 2007-12-17. http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?tp=on&autono=31381. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
  4. ^ "Vinod Rai appointed as CAG". The Hindu Business Line. 2007-12-18. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/12/18/stories/2007121852311001.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
  5. ^ "Vinod Rai appointed as CAG". The Hindu Business Line. 2007-12-18. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/12/18/stories/2007121852311001.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
  6. ^ Narayanan, Dinesh (2011-01-07). "A Person of the Year: Vinod Rai". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2011/01/06/forbes-india-person-of-the-year-vinod-rai-auditor-general.html.