Dr C.S. Mohapatra is an Indian Economic Service (Retd.) officer of the 1986 batch and an expert in financial sector development and reforms, economic administration, planning and policy.

Presently, he is the IEPFA Chair Professor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), where he heads the Investor Education and Protection Fund Unit. The IEPF Chair at NCAER organises seminars and workshops, and conducts research, analyse regulatory issues & provide policy suggestions in the area of investor education and protection, as mandated by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Dr Mohapatra has served in the Ministry of Finance in senior positions from 2007 till 2021 besides various other Ministries/Departments during his 36-year long career in the Government of India. Prior to joining the Government, he taught Economics and was a Banker. He held several wide-ranging responsibilities and undertook important assignments primarily in financial sector policy and reforms before retiring as Principal Adviser in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India. As Adviser and subsequently Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, he was responsible for critical deliverables pertaining to financial stability and cyber security, financial sector reforms, policy and institution-building. He was Secretary to the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), and handled matters related to the RBI Board, bilateral cooperation and sustainable finance, international economic relations, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council Secretariat, and prominent institutions, including IMF, the World Bank, G20, BRICS Financial Stability Board, the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP), Asian Development Bank, JICA, and UNDP, among others.

He has also worked on capital market and related issues, including implementation of the SEBI Act, SCRA, and the Depositories Act, and was associated with several policy reforms, including examination and implementation of the recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission. He has been Chairman/Member/Convener of various financial sector-related Committees/Groups, and served as Chairperson of the Task Force on Sustainable Finance and Standing Committee for the Indian Development and Economic Assistance Programme, and as Co-chair of the Screening Committee for Bilateral and Multilateral projects. He has also been Member of the Early Warning Group, Technical Group on Financial Inclusion & Financial Literacy, Secondary Market Advisory Committee of SEBI, Working Group on Promoting Foreign Investment in India, Task Force on Financial Data Management Centre, Convener of the Macro Financial Monitoring Group of the Ministry of Finance, and of the Working Group for setting up of CERT-Fin. He was involved in setting up of the National Centre for Financial Education, and in initiatives for taking forward the National Strategy on Financial Education. He has participated extensively in seminars/workshops in the area of financial sector policy and reforms besides representing the Government of India in international fora.

He has a PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and an MA in Analytical and Applied Economics from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. In addition, he has received training from various reputed institutions in India and abroad on economic policy, planning, financial stability and reforms, banking, and economic administration and public policy, including the Indian Institutes of Management, Lucknow and Bangalore; the IMF Training Institute, Singapore; and the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, USA.