Prof. Kirit Parikh
Prof. Kirit Parikh is the Chairman since the inception of IRADe in 2002.He was conferred Padma Bhushan in 2009, shared the Nobel Prize in 2007 given to IPCC authors as was a review editor of IPCC-3 and IPCC-5. He was a Member of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) of five Prime Ministers of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chandra Shekhar, V.P.Singh and Rajiv Gandhi.
As the Member of Planning Commission in charge of Energy and Water, he was the principal architect of India’s official Integrated Energy Policy. He chaired the expert groups to recommend ‘viable and sustainable system of pricing petroleum products’ in 2010 which led to petrol price liberalization and later diesel price liberalization. Subsequently he has also chaired committees to recommend ways to introduce private players in petroleum products and LPG marketing.
He chaired the expert group on ‘Low Carbon Strategy for Inclusive Growth’ in 2014. The report has had significant impact on India’s energy and climate change policy. Honoured as the Most Distinguished and Illustrious Alumni of the Decade from India by MIT and as Distinguished Alumnus by IIT-Kharagpur.