He studied at Ramakrishna Mission School and graduated from Loyola College, Madras University in the with a Bachelor of Commerce degree with honours in 1956.

[1][2] In a later interview, he would say that while he wanted to pursue a career in the Indian civil services, he missed the application due to an age cutoff.

[2] Vaghul was appointed as the chairman and managing director of the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, which was then still a government-controlled public finance institution, in 1985 by prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

[3][2] In addition to driving the transformation at the Bank, his time at ICICI was noted for grooming of leaders, including K. V. Kamath, Kalpana Morparia, Shikha Sharma, and Nachiket Mor, many of whom went on to lead other public and private sector financial institutions.

Vaghul was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in the trade and industry category in 2010.