Dr. Jadhav is known for his affable and inspiring personality. 

Dr. Narendra Jadhav is presently the Vice Chancellor of the University Of Pune, which is a premier institution of higher education in India and one of the largest Universities in the world with more than five lakh students, 433 affiliated Graduate Colleges and 232 Recognized Institutes.
 

After taking over as the Vice Chancellor, in August 2006 Dr. Jadhav has placed two principal objectives before himself: one, to place the University of Pune on the global map as the Center of Excellence, and second, to bring the University of its splendid isolation and make it directly responsive to the ever changing societal needs. Accordingly,  Dr. Jadhav has taken several far reaching initiatives aimed at improving the access and quality of higher education, (such as revising curricula) and  improving the teaching-learning and research environment, besides making an all round effort to make the University pro-people, pro-society. As a flagship program of the University, an ambitious ‘movement’ styled, ‘Samarth Bharat Abhiyan’- a comprehensive rural development program, has been launched for directing the youth power towards constructive social engagement in the rural areas. Under the Abhiyan, all 433 colleges would adopt one village each in their vicinity for all-round socio-economic development. Each University Department would also adopt one village each.  In all, around 500 villages are being adopted. A 12 Point Program has been drawn which covers, inter alia tree plantation, water management, primary education, sanitation facilities, communal harmony and the like.  This ‘movement’ would involve more than half a million students and teachers, and senior citizen volunteers who will work  throughout the year in the chosen village with the locals and the government machinery, seeking help from NGOs active in the relevant field,  and endeavor to bring about a complete transformation .

Dr Narendra Jadhav is also a renowned economist and policy maker. He has served in the Reserve Bank of India for nearly 30 years. As Principal Adviser and Chief Economist (Executive Director), he steered a team of over 120 Career Economists in the Reserve Bank and played an important role in macroeconomic policy making in the country. Dr. Jadhav represented India at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has worked as Senior Economic Advisor to various governments particularly in India as well as, in Ethiopia and recently in Afghanistan on USAID Project.  

Dr Narendra Jadhav is a prolific writer. He has written 11 books mainly on economic and social issues which have been published by reputed publishers in India and abroad. He has over 100 research papers to his credit in national and international journals of repute. His book Amcha Baap Aan Amhi, (Marathi), is in the Best Seller list for last 13 years and is also the winner of several awards.  This book has been published in 15 languages, including English, French, and Spanish and is being published in Korean and Chinese. Dr. Jadhav’s scholarly contributions have received praise from the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.  In fact, on November 16, 2005, on the occasion of the release of seven books written by Dr. Jadhav, the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh said,

 “Like the life of Dr. B R Ambedkar, or indeed the life of our beloved former Rashtrapati, the Late Dr. K R Narayanan, the life story of Dr. Jadhav is also a story of change, of great courage, of progress, of hope. …I urge all political leaders and social reformers to read both the autobiography of Dr. Jadhav and his treatise on ‘Re-Emerging India’. We must draw the correct lessons from both. Narendra’s autobiography must shape our social and political vision. It must shape our educational policy. His book on the Indian economy must shape our thinking on economic policy.”

Dr. Jadhav is a celebrated public figure. He has been associated with several social organizations.  He has been delivering over 100 lectures a year for the last several years.He has anchored and participated in several discussions on All-India Radio, Radio France, National Public Radio (USA), Doordarshan, STAR TV, BBC (UK) and ABC (USA) and CCTV (China). Interviews in TIME (October 1997), the National Geographic Journal, International Herald Tribune (2005) and a cover story in Readers’ Digest (October 2006) have received world wide attention.  

Dr. Jadhav toured the US extensively in 2005 on the occasion of the release of the book “Untouchable” and delivered 40 speeches in 12 days at places including the New School University, Yale University, Cornell University, University of Washington, University of California at Berkley and Santa Cruz and Stanford University where the audience included leading literary figures, social activists, university professors and students.