Dr. Ramanath Jha is Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai. He works on urbanisation — urban sustainability, urban governance and urban planning.
Dr. Jha belongs to the 1977 batch of the Indian Administrative Service. During his time at the IAS —through the 1980s and 1990s — he was Administrator, Pandharpur Municipal Council; Administrator and Municipal Commissioner, Solapur; Collector and Deputy Director Municipal Administration, Ahmednagar; Municipal Commissioner, Pune; and Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA. His subsequent postings were as Regional Advisor, South Asia for the Urban Management Programme of the UNDP/UN-Habitat; Vice Chairman and Managing Director at MSRDC; and Principal Secretary, Transport, Ports and State Excise, Government of Maharashtra.
He received the state government’s Chinmulgund Award for Administrative Excellence in 1989. He sought voluntary retirement from government in 2008 and joined the private sector as CEO & MD, Khed Economic Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.
Dr. Jha has co-authored the books — Towards People Friendly Cities — published by UNICEF; Urban Essays, published by YASHADA and co-edited Perspectives in Urban Development, published by Capital Publishing Company. He has published a number of papers on a variety of urban subjects and has widely lectured on urban issues.
Current Position(s)
- Chairman, Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee
- Chairman, CSR Committee, Symbiosis International (Deemed University)
- Member, Governing Council, Janwani, Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
- Member, Executive Committee, Indian School of Political Economy
- Member, Advisory Board, School of Architecture, Urban Development and Planning, Symbiosis
Past Position(s)
- Chairman, Mumbai Commission for Art, Music & Culture
- Chairman, Mumbai High Rise Committee
- Advisor, Mumbai Parking Authority
- OSD (DP 2034), Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai
- Director General, MCGM’s Centre for Municipal Capacity Building & Research
- Member, Expert Committee for the Preparation of the Model Municipal Law, GoI
- Member — Expert Panel, Property Tax Reforms, New Delhi
- Member — Expert Panel, National Urban Awards, CRISIL
- Chairman, Committee for Framing Bill on Metropolitan Planning Committee, Government of Maharashtra
- Member — Committee on Transparency, Accountability and Efficiency in Urban Local Bodies, Government of Maharashtra
Language Fluency
- English
- Hindi
- Marathi
- Maithili
