Dr. G.U.K. Rao is the Director I/c of Centre for Industrial Planning and Development (C-IPD), Director I/c of Center for Policy Research (C-PR) and Registrar I/c.

His long and chequered career includes a spell with ASCI and another with TECS in the research area and a short stint as manager of a private company.

Among his qualifications are a Master's Degree in Science from Meerut University and a Doctoral Degree in Economics from S.V. University, apart from which he also attended a Programme on Training and Counselling for Enterprises at Cranfield School of Management, U.K.

Dr. Rao has a wide range of expertise spanning across study of regional planning, promotion of agro and food processing industries, development of small and micro enterprises, quantitative analysis, feasibility studies, project formulation, etc. He has led and participated in a number of research studies and projects especially impact studies, project evaluation and industrial potential surveys, coordinated scores of long-term and short-term training programmes and is active in other domains too guiding research scholars, delivering guest lectures in his areas of expertise, etc.

He is honorary visiting faculty at several prestigious institutions such as Central University, Hyderabad, College of Agricultural Banking, Pune, and State Bank Institute of Rural Development. Dr. Rao has published over 25 research papers in reputed Indian journals on a variety of economics related topics, attended and contributed papers at seminars and workshops, co-authored several published and unpublished works and has a wide range of secular interests .

As the Registrar he is also responsible for the smooth coordination and take-off of the Institute's academic programmes.