Pawan Agarwal is a civil servant from India. He is currently Adviser, Education to the Planning Commission. He had earlier served as Director in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and as Financial Advisor and Coordinator of new initiatives of the University Grants Commission - a position in which he developed substantial expertise in higher education policy and practice, and gained a broad understanding of the issues and challenges faced by India’s universities and colleges. He has also held important positions in the West Bengal Government as Principal Secretary, Cooperation Department; Secretary, Science and Technology and Municipal Affairs Departments.

Between 2005-06, he was a Fulbright New Century Scholar on higher education from India. He was visiting scholar under the Science and Engineering Workforce Program at the Harvard University and at the India-China-America Institute at Emory University.