Dr. Syed Ali Mohammad Hussain was born in Hyderabad on 1 May 1925 to a distinguished family of aristocrats, administrators and scholars.

He was an eminent diplomat, academic, journalist, administrator and policy analyst in India before passing away in August 2003.

He was also director of the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi; Director, Reserve Bank of India; Board of Trustees, State Bank of India Mutual fund, Chairman, Agha Khan Foundation, Editor, Financial express; Director, Indian Express Newspaper; Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University; Indian ambassador to Germany; Member, Planning Commission, GOI; Chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University; Consulting Editor, Financial Express; Chairman, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi; Chairman, Agricultural credit review, Reserve Bank of India; Chairman, National Institute of Public finance and Policy, Delhi; Chairman, Center of economic and social studies, Hyderabad; Director, All India Radio, Director, Air India; Member, National Commission of agriculture; Chairman, Committee on Monetary Effects of PL480; President, Indian Economic Association; President, Indian Agriculture Exonomics Conference; Chairman, Eleventh Finance Commission, GOI; Member, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council; Visiting Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA; Visiting Professor, Fletcher school of Law and Diplomacy; Visiting Lecturer, University of Leeds, Sussex, London, and Manchester besides many more important positions.

He was on various international assignments such as member of the Indian delegation to UNCTAD II; represented the Prime Minister of India at the conference of Club of Rome in Mexico; leader of the Indian delegation from the Planning Commission to the Gosplan of the Soviet Union and East Germany; chairman of the expert group on the future of the International Monetary and Financial system setup by the chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement, Mrs Indira Gandhi; Fulbright Fellowship at M.I.T.

; Humboldt Fellowship, Hamburg, Germany; chairman of the Review Committee of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.; leader of the Indian delegation at the Human Rights Commission at Geneva; member of the Indo-German Consultative Group, Ministry of External Affairs (1992 onwards).