Sukhadeo Thorat is an economist and was the former chairman of the University Grants Commission of India. He is Professor Emeritus at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has received several awards for public service for marginalized groups, minorities and education such as the Padmashree Award, the Mother Teresa International Award, the Dr. Ambedkar Chetna Award, the Bharat Shiromani Award, the Purushottam Award, and the Vidyalankara Award.
Professor Thorat has done extensive research, publishing about 20 books and more than 100 papers. His research focuses on problems of excluded groups, socially inclusive growth, poverty, agricultural growth in dry agriculture, caste and economic discrimination, labour market discrimination, impact of economic discrimination on the poverty and marginalization, economic ideas of Babasaheb Ambedkar, and higher education.