N. Vittal holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in chemistry from University of Madras. He was Secretary to Government of India in the Department of Electronics (renamed as Ministry of Information Technology) from 1990 to 1996 and was Chairman of the Telecom Commission and Secretary to the Department of Telecommunications from 1993 to 1994. In 1996, he was appointed by the Government of India as Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board where he was involved in improving the public sector undertakings.

He was appointed as the Central Vigilance Commissioner in 1998. He has been a columnist for the Economic Times and has authored several books. He was awarded Dataquest IT Man of the Year in 1993 and was the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award of Dataquest in 2004.