Professor Ved P. Gandhi was an Assistant Professor at IIMA between 1965 and 1969 in the Finance and Accounting Area and an expert on taxation.

Born in Multan in 1936, he completed his MA in 1958 from the Delhi School of Economics and topped the University. After teaching at Hans Raj College he went to Harvard University, in 1961, for his PhD. He completed his PhD in 1964 and his dissertation was titled Tax Burden on Indian Agriculture. He taught at Amherst and in 1965 was approached by Ravi Matthai to teach at IIMA. He came to Ahmedabad and taught from 1965 to 1969 and was on leave until August 31, 1972, when he officially left the Institute. While at IIMA, he worked on a research project titled The Incidence of Corporate Taxes in India: An Empirical Study, financed by Alembic Chemical Works Ltd., Baroda, that led to several journal publications.

In 1969, while at a conference in Turkey, he was approached by the World Bank. He joined the World Bank, based in Washington DC, as an economist. Over the next decade in the World Bank, he worked in the area of Taxation reaching the level of Division Chief.

In the early 1980s he moved to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an Economist, continuing to be located in Washington DC. Over the next decade and a half he was a part of many IMF Missions to various countries who sought IMF assistance. His area continued to be in taxation with a specific interest in Value Added Tax (VAT) and related areas.

Understanding the country, that the Mission was visiting, was very important to him. He would visit grocery stores to see pricing levels and talk with taxi drivers and the local population. He retired in 1998 as Assistant Director Fiscal Affairs.

After retiring, he continued to be engaged, as a consultant, in providing advice to countries in the area of Taxation.

He was very fond of teaching and taught undergrad students at the American University. He conducted programmes, in some of the countries that he went on IMF Missions, on VAT.

He wrote regularly and some of his publications are Tax Burden on Indian Agriculture, his PhD Dissertation which was published by Harvard University, Some Aspects of India's Tax Structure: An Economic Analysis (1970), Supply-Side Tax Policy: Its Relevance to Developing Countries (1987), Edited the IMF publication- Macro Economics and the Environment and multiple reports during his IMF tenure.

He loved travelling and exploring different cultures and cuisines and seeing Hindi movies. He tried not to miss the Saturday Movie at IIMA.

Prof Gandhi's wife, Mrs. Saroj Gandhi loves reading and is a strong follower of Vedanta. She stays in Anandale, Virginia. Their children, Meeta and Anand, are married and work in New York City and Frisco, Texas, respectively.

(With inputs from Mr. Rahul Kohli, PGP 1983, and Mrs. Saroj Gandhi, wife of Prof. Ved P. Gandhi)

Date of Birth: March 19, 1936

Date of Death: April 13, 2021