Decorated by Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the Republic of India in 2019, Shri Pranab Mukherjee was the 13th President of India from 2012 to 2017, crowning a political career of over five decades of exemplary service to the nation in the Government as well as the Parliament. Shri Mukherjee is a man of unparalleled experience in governance with the rare distinction of having served at different times as Foreign, Defence, Commerce and Finance Minister. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha five times and twice to the Lok Sabha.

Shri Mukherjee was instrumental in spearheading critical decisions of the Government on a range of issues such as Administrative reforms, Right to Information, Right to Employment, Food Security, Energy Security, Information Technology and Telecommunications, setting up of UIDAI, Metro Rail etc., through Chairmanship of over 95 Groups of Ministers constituted for various purposes. In the seventies and eighties, he was instrumental in setting up the Regional Rural Banks and the EXIM Bank of India as well as National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. Shri Mukherjee was also the author of a modified formula for resource sharing between the Centre and the States in 1991 which came to be known as the Gadgil - Mukherjee formula.

Shri Mukherjee has extensive diplomatic experience and has served on the Board of Governors of the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and African Development Bank.

A prolific reader, Shri Mukherjee has authored several books on the Indian Economy and on Nation Building. The many awards and honors conferred on him include India’s second-highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan in 2008, the Best Parliamentarian Award in 1997 and Best Administrator in India Award in 2011. He was rated one of the best five Finance Ministers of the world in 1984 according to a survey conducted by "Euro Money” Journal published from New York and was declared ‘Finance Minister of the year’ for Asia in 2010 by "Emerging Markets”, the journal of record for the World Bank and the IMF.

An avid traveler, there are few parts of India and few countries in the world he has not visited in his illustrious and long public career. GITAM is proud to honor Bharat Ratna Pranab Mukherjee with the GITAM Foundation Award for his exemplary service to the nation.