Who Is Heading the 8th Pay Commission? Meet Chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Other Members of the Panel
The 8th CPC closed its primary memorandum window on June 15 and is accepting online stakeholder data until June 30. Chaired by retired SC Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai alongside IAS Pankaj Jain and Professor Pulak Ghosh, the panel will submit salary and pension recommendations by mid-2027, impacting over 1.15 crore people.
The newly constituted 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC) has successfully concluded its primary memorandum submission window, marking a crucial operational shift as the panel transitions into regional consultations across the country. Tasked with reviewing the salary structures, pensions, and allowances for central government personnel, the panel is expected to finalise and submit its core recommendations by mid-2027. The impending revisions are slated to directly impact the compensation frameworks of roughly 50 lakh active central government employees - including specialised railway and defense personnel - alongside approximately 65 lakh retired pensioners.
Stakeholder Submission Status and Consultation Timeline
Following multiple institutional extensions to accommodate technical challenges encountered by diverse employee bodies, the 8th CPC officially closed its portal for memorandum submissions on June 15. While the main window for structural proposals has concluded, the panel continues to mandate the digital upload of secondary data parameters from recognised stakeholders through June 30. 8th Pay Commission Collecting Data Through Online Portal: Who Can Participate and by When.
The commission is currently executing an intensive phase of geographic outreach to engage directly with local unions, state administrations, and regional staff associations. Having completed high-level baseline reviews in the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh earlier this month, the panel has scheduled consecutive physical consultation sittings in Lucknow on June 22–23, followed by upcoming visits to Bhubaneswar and Kolkata in early July.
Profile of the 8th Central Pay Commission Panel
Constituted under the administrative directive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the high-level committee comprises three primary members tasked with engineering the revised salary slabs and determining the crucial fitment factor metrics:
- Chairperson: Justice (Retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai
- Member of the Commission: Professor Pulak Ghosh
- Member-Secretary: Pankaj Jain (Retired IAS)
Who Is Ranjana Prakash Desai?
Born on October 30, 1949, in Mumbai, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai holds a Bachelor of Arts from Elphinstone College (1970) and an LL.B. from Government Law College, Mumbai (1973). She began her legal career in 1973 as a junior in the chambers of the Late Justice S.C. Pratap and later practised alongside her father, the late S.G. Samant, an eminent criminal lawyer. Justice Desai was appointed as a Government Pleader on the Appellate Side of the Bombay High Court in 1979, subsequently being elevated to the bench of the Bombay High Court on April 5, 1996. On September 13, 2011, she was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India.
Following her retirement from the apex court, Justice Desai has led multiple prominent statutory bodies:
- 2014–2017: Chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity.
- 2018–2019: Chairperson of the Authority for Advance Rulings (Income Tax).
- 2020–2022: Chairperson of the Delimitation Commission of India, where she headed the final delimitation mapping for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
- 2022–2025: Chairperson of the Press Council of India, completing her tenure on December 16, 2025.
Profile of Member-Secretary Pankaj Jain, IAS
Pankaj Jain is a retired officer of the Indian Administrative Service (Assam-Meghalaya Cadre) with over 35 years of experience in public administration across state and central tiers. Within his state cadre, Jain held senior administrative portfolios supervising expenditure, information technology, power, and rural development. At the union level, his assignments included serving as Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and as Additional and Joint Secretary within the Department of Financial Services under the Ministry of Finance. His central tenure involved managing regulatory policy architecture across the oil, gas, biofuels, and banking sectors. Additionally, Jain has held extensive board-level roles across central energy entities and financial institutions, and served on the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Expert Committee on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Who Is Pulak Ghosh?
Professor Pulak Ghosh is a tenured Professor of Finance, Decision Sciences, and Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, and currently serves as a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). He has filled several key national policy roles, including Senior Fellow at NITI Aayog, Member of the National Statistical Commission, and Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Trading. 8th Pay Commission News: Why Central Unions Are Demanding a 3.83 Fitment Factor.
Professor Ghosh’s data models significantly influenced the 2018 national employment report utilising EPFO statistics and aided in configuring the structural parameters of the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme in 2019. A widely published academic, his quantitative research features regularly in international econometric journals, including the Journal of Finance and Management Science, and has been utilised extensively by the World Bank and the RBI.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 20, 2026 08:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
