[1][2] He was previously the highest ranking Indian in Britain's civil service,[3] serving as Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery from late 2007[4] until 2012.

On returning to the ODA in London, he became Private Secretary to the Conservative Lynda Chalker, then Minister of State for Overseas Development based at the Foreign Office.

He moved to H.M. Treasury in 1996 before taking a Cabinet Office post responsible for creating the new central Performance and Innovation Unit to support the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, co-ordinating reviews of long-term issues that cross public sector institutional boundaries.

Still in the Cabinet Office, he headed the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, also maintaining a foot in the then Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions.

[8] In his last weeks as EBRD President, Chakrabarti made a number of think tank appearances where he discussed the current state of international development and its principal actors.