Professor Dr. Gopal Naik, had been working as a professor of Economics and Social Science for the last 20 years in IIM Bangalore. He has obtained BSc (Agriculture) in 1980 from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore and masters in Agriculture from the GB Pant University of Agriculture and technology, Pantnagar. Afterwards he moved to USA in 1987 for pursuing PhD in Agriculture Marketing and Econometrics from the University of Illinois, Urban-Champaign.

His research areas include Public Policy/Public Service Delivery, Policies on Agriculture and Rural Development and Performance of Agricultural Markets. Prof. Naik has been a consultant to international organizations such as the Ford Foundation, WHO, FAO, World Bank, NAFED, Central Autonomous bodies, and several leading private firms. He has served on several committees of the Government of India and State Governments. He also designed and coordinated programmes for civil service officers and state and international legislators. 

Prof. Naik’s focus areas have been agriculture and rural development. Many of his works facilitated policymaking at the government level, including coordinating the Unnat Bharath Abhiyan initiative by the Govt. of India. He also led a project for IIMB’s Centre for Public Policy, which developed a tele- education project, which was reaching nearly about 2 lakhs school children in thousands of schools in rural backward regions of Karnataka. In 2015 this project has won the prestigious Award of the International Telecommunication for innovative applications in Geneva.

Professor Naik is an author of over a hundred publications in agricultural economics and had a distinguished academic career combined with several national and international consulting. He has widely published; his contributions include books, many book chapters, and several research articles in national and international refereed journals, and has more than 1500 citations with a H-index of 18.  He was one of the few competent scientists who carried out the economic impacts study of Bt cotton in India that has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

In 2022, Prof. Naik was appointed as the Chairperson of Jal Jeevan Mission. He is a highly regarded teacher and has won several prestigious awards, including the Dr. D.K. Desai award for the best paper published in the Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics and also won the American Agricultural Economics Association Award for Professional Excellence.