Panelists’ bios:
Shankar Acharya
As the longest-serving Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (1993-2001) Dr Acharya was deeply involved in the economic reforms of the 1990s and served three successive governments of the Congress, the United Front, and the National Democratic Alliance. He also served as Member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (1997-2000), Member, Twelfth Finance Commission (2004) and Member, National Security Advisory Board (2009-2013). He worked in the World Bank (from 1971 to 82) where he led the World Development Report team for 1979 and served as Research Adviser to the Bank (1979-82). He returned to India in 1982 as Senior Fellow, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, before joining the Government as Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance (1985-90).
Since 2001 he has been Honorary Professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. He has authored eleven books (mostly on Indian economic issues and policies) and numerous scholarly articles in academic journals. His two latest books, published in 2021, are India’s Economy, 2015-2020: Contemporary Commentary (Academic Foundation) and An Economist at Home and Abroad: A Personal Journey (Harper Collins). Since 2003 he has been a regular columnist for the Business Standard. He was non-executive Chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank for 12 years (2006-2018), one of India’s newest and most successful private commercial banks. Dr Acharya has a BA from Oxford and a PhD from Harvard University.
Montek Ahluwalia
Montek Ahluwalia was the Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission from 2004 to 14. Prior to it he was the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2004. Montek has been a key figure in the Indian economic reforms process since the mid-1980s. He served as Special Secretary to Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and VP Singh; as Secretary Commerce 1990-1991; as Secretary, Economic Affairs, Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance 1991-1998 and as Member Planning Commission and member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister 1998-2001.Prior to 1980 he was Chief of the Income Distribution Division at the World Bank before leaving to join the Government of India in 1979 .
He is currently a Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Social and Economic
Policy (CESP) and a member of the Board of the Council for
Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) both in New Delhi.
He received a BA (Honors) in Economics from Delhi University. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University where he also received an MA and an M Phil in Economics. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
He has published extensively on development, including co-authored book, with Hollis Chenery and others, titled Redistribution with Growth ( Oxford University Press in 1974.) His recent books include “Backstage: The Story of India’s High Growth Years”(2019.). In 2011 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, by the President of India.
Poonam Gupta
Poonam Gupta is the Director General of NCAER, and a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. She is also a member of the National Executive Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI); and a member of the Board of the Global Development Network (GDN).
She specializes in Macroeconomics, and issues related to the Emerging Market Economies. Before joining NCAER, Dr. Gupta was the Lead Economist for Global Macro and Market Research at the International Finance Corporation and led the policy research work on India at the World Bank. Prior to that, she was the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy; Professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, and at the Delhi School of Economics, and an Economist at the International Monetary Fund. She has also taught Graduate courses at Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, and at the University of Maryland.
Her research has been published and cited widely in scholarly journals and has also featured in leading international business dailies such as The Economist, Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She edits the annual flagship journal of NCAER, the India Policy
Dr. Gupta holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland, USA, and two master’s degrees in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, and the University of Maryland.
Devesh Kapur
He is the Starr Foundation South Asia Studies Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. His research has focused on four broad areas that examine the institutional and political determinants of economic development: International Financial Institutions; Political and Economic Consequences of International Migration; Governance and Public Institutions; and Higher Education. He is the coauthor (with John Lewis and Richard Webb) of The World Bank: Its First Half Century. His work on international migration examines the effects at a global level (Give us your Best and Brightest: The Global Hunt for Talent and Its Impact on the Developing World); on the country of emigration (Diaspora, Democracy and Development: The Impact of International Migration from India on India) and the country of immigration (The Other One Percent: Indians in America). His work on Governance and Public Institutions has focused on India: Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design; Rethinking Public Institutions in India; The Costs of Democracy: Political Finance in India; Regulation in India: Design, Capacity, Performance; and Internal Security in India: Violence, Order, and the State (forthcoming). On education: Navigating the Labyrinth: Perspectives on India’s Higher Education; The Oxford Handbook of Higher Education in Asia and the Pacific (forthcoming) He is currently working on a book on The Political Economy of Modern India (with Arvind Subramanian). Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, he held appointments at the Brookings Institution, Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania.
Nicholas Stern
Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Co-Director of the India Observatory and Chair, Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. He has held posts at other UK & overseas universities, and as Chief Economist at both the EBRD and the World Bank. He was Head, UK Government Economic Service 2003-2007, and produced the Stern Review on the economics of climate change. He was President of the Royal Economic Society (2018-2019), President of the British Academy (July 2013-2017) and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (June 2014). He was knighted for services to economics (2004), made a life peer (2007), and appointed Companion of Honor for services to economics, international relations and tackling climate change in 2017. He has published more than 15 books and 100 articles. His most recent books include How Lives Change: Palenpur, India and Development Economics (with Himanshu and Peter Lanjouw, OUP 2018). This is the third volume on Palanpur.The first two volumes (Palanpur: the economy of an India village (with C.J. Bliss) and Economic Development in Palanpur over five decades (with Peter Lanjouw), were republished in paperback by OUP 2018; and Standing Up for a Sustainable World: Voices of Change, Edward Elgar, 2020. He is a member of the High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (HLAG).
Martin Wolf
Martin Wolf is Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000. He was a member of the UK government’s Independent Commission on Banking between June 2010 and September 2011. He is an honorary fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and King’s College, London. He has honorary doctorates from six universities, including the London School of Economics. He is a University Global Fellow of Columbia University, New York. He won the Ludwig Erhard Prize for economic commentary for 2009, the 33rd Ischia International Journalism Prize in 2012, the Overseas Press Club of America’s prize for “best commentary on international news in any medium” for 2013 and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gerald Loeb Awards. His most recent book is The Shifts and The Shocks: What we’ve learned – and have still to learn – from the financial crisis.
He was placed 15th in Foreign Policy’s list of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” in December 2009 and 37th in the same list for 2010. He was joint winner of the 2009 award for columns in “giant newspapers” at the 15th annual Best in Business Journalism competition of The Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the 33rd Ischia International Journalism Prize in 2012, the Overseas Press Club of America’s prize for “best commentary on international news in any medium” for 2013 and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gerald Loeb Awards.
