Ranjit Barthakur

Political career

In 2001, the Congress-led Assam Government appointed Barthakur as advisor for strategy, action planning, project formulation, investment initiation and image building exercise for the state of Assam. He was appointed again in 2011. His term with the State Government as an advisor to the Chief Minister of Assam ended in 2016 , when the Congress Government led by Tarun Gogoi in Assam was replaced by the BJP.

In 2013, he was shortlisted by the then chief minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi for a Rajya Sabha MP seat from Assam. Barthakur was considered a 'high profile candidate' and 'dark horse' for the post due to support from certain dissident sections of the Congress Party. However Barthakur lost to Santiuse Kujur.

Indian Premier League (IPL)

In 2008, Ranjit Barthakur took on the chairmanship of Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Limited, Rajasthan Royals, the inaugural champions of the Indian Premier League. In 2010 it was alleged that BCCI tender norms were violated by the franchise. It was being claimed that Ranjit Barthakur and Fraser Castellino were the only two shareholders of the Rajasthan Royals franchise, completely unknown to the BCCI at the time. The interim order of Justice BN Srikrishna, the arbitrator on the case, asserted there was no violation of the ownership agreement and that the composition and ownership was known to the BCCI while communicating with the franchise. While there may have been claims made that no documentation was provided to suggest connections between bidder and company, Justice Srikrishna noted that the franchise's counsel had provided evidence in the form of emails to show the BCCI had communicated with the shareholders. The Bombay High Court upheld the order passed by the arbitrator. Further, during the course of the arbitration, an out of court settlement between the franchise and BCCI ensued and its ownership structure was given a clean chit.

Other ventures

At GMS he promotes Naturenomics promoting agriculture and bio-diversity based community initiatives, and NatureFirst (focused on restoring the balance between nature through land,energy,waste, water, air and carbon) and River Journeys and Bungalows of India (nature based tourism business). Barthakur set up other ventures such as Agilisys (formerly Netdecisions), Advent Healthcare (a facilitator in the healthcare industry in India), and Green Ecological Managed Services (GEMS & NatureFirst)-(A fully integrated, first of its kind environmental services organization) which was acquired by TCS and where he continued as advisor to the environmental services Unit.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Barthakur was CEO of Hutchison Max-Touch Telecom (Vodafone) in India, chairman of Marconi in the Indian Sub-continent, and held senior positions in sales and marketing at consumer goods company ITC.

Barthakur had also supported S. Ramadorai, Chairman of NSDC and advisor to the Office of Prime Minister of India, on the national skill development during S. Ramadorai’s office tenure. The two have retained their association in the matters of common business interests after S Ramadorai gave up his office. He is also the member of the Planning Commission's Steering Committee on Eco-Tourism.