Ms Vini Mahajan

Non-Executive Director

Ms. Vini Mahajan, appointed as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of IL&FS from May 23, 2025, is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1987 batch from the Punjab cadre. She served in the civil services until her retirement in October 2024. Her last assignment was as Secretary in the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India, a position she held from January 2022 until her retirement. In this role, she was responsible for overseeing two of the Government’s flagship programmes – the Jal Jeevan Mission and the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen).

Prior to her tenure in the central government, Ms. Mahajan served as the Chief Secretary of Punjab, becoming the first woman to hold this position in the state’s history. Over the course of her career in Punjab, she led several important departments, including Housing & Urban Development, Revenue, Industries & Commerce, Information Technology and Investment Promotion, Finance, and Health. She also played a leading role in managing the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the national level, Ms. Mahajan served as Director and then Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister of India from 2005 to 2012, where she was responsible for handling financial and infrastructure sector matters. She was a key member of the team that crafted India’s response to the global financial crisis of 2008–09. Earlier, from 2004 to 2005, she served as Director in the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Ms. Mahajan holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, where she was placed on the Roll of Honour, and a B.A. (Honours) in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. She is a recipient of several academic awards, including the National Talent Search Scholarship, and was selected as a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow for the year 2000–2001, during which she was based at American University in Washington, D.C.