Shri Sitaram Kunte is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and former Chief Secretary of the Government of Maharashtra. With an illustrious career spanning over three decades, he has served in key leadership roles across urban governance, public policy, and state administration. His career highlights include serving as Chief Secretary in 2021, Additional Chief Secretary handling Home, General Administration, and Higher & Technical Education (2017–2020), and earlier as Principal Secretary in Housing, Planning, Finance, and Environment departments. He also served as the Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai from 2012 to 2015 and earlier as Vice President and CEO of MHADA.

Academically, Mr. Kunte holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Delhi University and a Master of Science in Public Policy from the University of Birmingham in the UK. He also holds a law degree from Mumbai University and has completed a certificate course in Public Policy from Syracuse University, USA.

He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at IIM Mumbai and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. He also serves as an Independent Director on the boards of several companies including Deepak Fertilizers and AFCONS Infrastructure, and is the Honorary Chairman of the Institute of Directors (Western Region), Mumbai. Additionally, he is empanelled as an arbitrator by the Bombay High Court and NHPC, and is a founder member of CRISP, an NGO focused on research in schemes and public policy.

His areas of expertise span public administration, corporate governance, urban development, housing policy, arbitration, and higher education.