Vinod Rai

Vinod Rai (born 23 May 1948) is a former IAS officer who served as the 11th Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

Rai is a 1972 batch Kerala cadre officer of Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

He started his career as the sub-collector of Thrissur District.

Later, he became the Collector and spent his eight years of career in Thrissur City.

He was called the second Sakthan Thampuran for his role in the development of the Thrissur City.

He was the MD of Kerala State Co-operative Marketing Federation from 1977 to 1980.

Later he was appointed as Principal Secretary (Finance) in the State Government of Kerala.

He had served senior positions in the Ministries of Commerce and Defence, Government of India.

Prior to his appointment as CAG, he served as Secretary, Financial Services and Additional Secretary in the Banking Division including banks and insurance companies under Ministry of Finance.

Rai was instrumental in setting up the India Infrastructure Finance Company and was also on the Board of this company.

Apart from serving in both, state and union governments, 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.

He chose to study Financial Administration at Harvard Kennedy school in 1987 while he held the position of District Collector and Magistrate in the state of Kerala, India.

He is married and has three children.

He has a bachelor's and master's degree in economics from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi and MPA from Harvard University, USA in 1988.

He assumed office on 7 January 2008 till 22 May 2013.

He is the current chairman of UN Panel of External Auditors and Honorary Advisor to the Indian Railways and a member of the Railway Kaya Kalp Council.

The most prominent action of CAG under Vinod Rai was the report that stated that the 2G sprectrum allocation by the government had caused a loss of over inr 1000000000000 to the government.

The trial of 2G allocation accused led to the court passing the judgement that not a single piece of admissible evidence existed against the accused.

Rai was made the chairman of the Banking Board of India under the new government.

Mr. Rai has taken over as the chairman of Governing Board of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) on 29 February 2012.

Forbes described Rai as being among that rare breed of civil servants who knows how to get work done in the government.

A former colleague says Rai has an uncanny ability to cut through red tape.

He was appointed as Comptroller and Auditor General of India with the backing of finance minister P. Chidambaram.

But he has served up uncomfortable audit reports that have pinned many government departments beyond the baseline.

He has consistently hit the headlines for his unforgiving audits, ranging from the scathing report on the shoddy preparation for the Commonwealth Games to the latest on spectrum allocations for second generation (2G) telecom services.

Along with a vibrant media, an activist Supreme Court and an increasingly vociferous civil society, his supporters say, Rai has made his office into a powerful force for accountability and transparency in modern India.

Vinod Rai recommended that all private-public partnerships (PPPs), "Panchayti Raj Institutions" and societies benefiting from government funds should come within the ambit of the CAG.

The PPP model is a popular medium for the execution of infrastructure projects worth millions of rupees, and these projects are not audited by the CAG.

60 percent of government spending does not currently come under the scrutiny of the CAG.

He is widely credited for the report on issue of Licences and Allocation of 2G Spectrum by United Progressive Alliance government which resulted in a huge controversy in India.

In February 2016, Rai was appointed the chairman of Banks Board Bureau (BBB), the body which advises the government on top-level appointments at public sector banks and ways to address the bad loans.

He is the chairman of United Nations Panel of External Auditors and member of the Governing Board of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI).

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appreciated the panel and the yeoman service rendered by the external auditors in improving governance in the United Nations system.

The panel headed by Vinod Rai discussed the major business transformations currently under way in the United Nations with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Panel of External Auditors plays an important role in promoting accountability and strengthening governance mechanisms in the UN organisations.

On 30 January 2017, the Supreme Court of India appointed Rai as the interim president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

He is the head of advisory commission of Kerala Infrastructure and Investment Board (KIIFB), appointed by Government of Kerala.

He was born in a Bhumihar Brahmin family at Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh.

He did his schooling from Birla Public School in Pilani, Rajasthan.

He graduated from Hindu College, University of Delhi.