Montek Singh Ahluwalia is Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission for India, a position he has held since 2004. He left his position as the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund, a position he had held from 2001, in order to take up his current position. Montek first joined the Government of India in 1979 as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, after which he held a series of positions including Special Secretary to the Prime Minister, Commerce Secretary, Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, and Member of the Planning Commission in New Dehli.

Montek received his BA (Honours) degree in New Dehli, and his MA and MPhil degrees from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has written on various strategic aspects of economics and has made numerous contributions to prominent Indian and international books and journals. He co-authored Redistribution with Growth: An Approach to Policy, published in 1975, and authored Reforming the Global Financial Architecture, Economic Paper No. 41, Commonwealth Secretariat, London in 2004.

Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia presented during the 1a - Education and economic development: engaging the new India session.