After completing his Masters in Economics from Delhi School of Economics in 1970, Dr Mitra attained a Doctorate Degree in Economics from Duke University, USA in 1978. Later he taught at major Universities in the United States over a decade and got honoured with the prestigious Sears-Roebuck Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1990. Furthermore, he has ample Post Doctoral Research experience as senior consultant and has undertaken many commissioned research projects of importance from various national and international organizations.

Currently, Mr. Mitra is on the Board of some of the most prestigious organizations. A few of them are Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)- the largest steel manufacturer of India, GAIL (India) Limited - the largest Gas infrastructure company of India, Principal Pnb Asset Management and Bata India Limited. He is also a Member of the Advisory Board of The India Fund of The Unit Trust of India (UTI), Member, Central Advisory Committee, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and Member of the "Indo - EU Roundtable" from the Indian side (initiated by Government of India and the EU). He is also represented on various sectoral Committees / Sub-Groups constituted by the National Manufacturing Competitive Council and the Planning Commission. He was also the Chairman of the Radio Broadcast Policy Committee, set up in the recent past, by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.