8th pay commission: Meet Chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, and other members Pankaj Jain, Pulak Ghosh

Constituted every 10 years, the Central Pay Commissions are expected to make significant decisions impacting salaries of central government employees and pensioners, including railways and defence staff. Beneficiaries of the 8th pay commission include close to 50 lakh central government employees and about 65 lakh retired pensioners, including defence personnel and retirees.

The 8th CPC is expected to announce its final recommendations by mid-2027. Notably, the panel closed submission of suggestions on 15 June and is seeking online submission of data from stakeholders till 30 June 2026.

8th CPC: Who are the panel members?

Constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, the 8th CPC will make big decisions on salary hikes and fitment factor, based on which updated compensation for central government employees and pensioners will be finalised.

The current panel is chaired by Former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash
Desai. Other members on the panel are Professor Pulak Ghosh, tenured Professor of Finance, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, as a Member of the Commission and Pankaj Jain, former IAS, as Member-Secretary.

Who is Chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai?

Born on 30 October 1949 in Mumbai, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai completed her Bachelor of Arts from the Elphinstone College in 1970 and her LL. B from the Government Law College in 1973. She joined the legal profession in 1973 working as a junior in the chambers Late Justice SC Pratap, before he became a judge and later also worked with her father the late SG Samant, an eminent criminal lawyer

In 1979 Desai was appointed as a Government Pleader on the Appellate Side of the Bombay High Court and was elevated to the Bench of Bombay HC on 5 April 1996. She was further elevated as a Judge of Supreme Court of India on 13 September 2011.

Following her retirement from the apex court, in late 2014 she was appointed as Chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity till 2017; next year she was appointed as Chairperson of the Advance Ruling Authority, Income Tax till late 2019. During the pandemic, in March 2020 she was appointed as Chairperson of the Delimitation Commission of India till May 2022 and headed the final Delimitation report for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

She was appointed as the Chairperson of the Press Council of India vide Gazette Notification dated 17 June 2022 and served as such till 16 December 2025.

Who is IAS Pankaj Jain, Member Secretary?

Pankaj Jain is a member of the Indian Administrative Service (Assam-Meghalaya Cadre) with long and varied experience in public administration at both the state government and Centre, according to his profile on the 8th CPC's official website.

In the State Cadre, he has served in senior positions in various departments such as expenditure, information technology (IT), power and rural development.

In his career spanning over 35 years, he has held several important assignments, including Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (PNG), as well as Additional and Joint Secretary in the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance (MoF), where he dealt with complex issues of policy design and implementation in the domains of oil, gas, biofuels, banking and finance.

He also has extensive Board experience across banks, energy sector entities, financial institutions, insurance companies and regulatory and supervisory institutions; and was a member of Reserve Bank of India’s Expert Committee on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

Who 8th CPC's part-time member Pulak Ghosh?

Pulak Ghosh is a tenured Professor of Finance, Decision Sciences and Public Policy at IIM Bangalore and a Member of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister. He has held several key policy and advisory roles, including Senior Fellow at NITI Aayog, Member of the National Statistics Commission, Chairman of SEBI’s Committee on AI in Trading, and advisory positions with RBI Academy, NSE, and the UN Global Pulse (Big Data initiative).

As per the CPC website, Ghosh played a pivotal role in the 2018 employment report using EPFO data and in shaping the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme in 2019. The professor has published extensively in top international journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, and Biometrika. His work has been cited by the World Bank, Government of India, RBI, and NITI Aayog.

Upcoming schedule: 8th CPC state visits and meetings

• Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh: The meeting in Lucknow is scheduled for 22-23 June (Monday and Tuesday), and stakeholders have until 10 June to make appointments.
• Bhubaneswar, Odisha: The 8th CPC will visit Bhubaneswar, Odisha, from 6-7 July (Monday and Tuesday) to hold discussions with concerned stakeholders. Appointment requests must be completed by 15 June.
• Kolkata, West Bengal: The 8th CPC will visit Kolkata from 9-10 July (Thursday and Friday) to hold discussions with concerned stakeholders. Appointment requests must be completed by 15 June.