Deepak Nayyar, President

Deepak Nayyar is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was Distinguished University Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, New York, from 2008 to 2012. And he was Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, from 1986 to 2011. Earlier he has taught economics at the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex, and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi from 2000 to 2005.

His distinguished career in academia has been interspersed with short periods in the government. He was, to start with, in the Indian Administrative Service. Later, from 1983 to 1985, he worked as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Commerce. He served as Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India and Secretary in the Ministry of Finance from 1989 to 1991.

He was educated at St. Stephen’s College and the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. Thereafter, as a Rhodes Scholar, he went on to study at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he obtained a B. Phil and a D. Phil in Economics.

Deepak Nayyar is an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. And he is a Distinguished Professor at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. He is Chairman of the Sameeksha Trust, which publishes Economic and Political Weekly. He was, until recently, Vice Chairman of the Board of the South Centre, Geneva. He served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki from 2001 to 2008 and as Vice President of the International Association of Universities, Paris, from 2004 to 2008. He was on the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council in the United States from 2001 to 2007 and was Chairman of the Advisory Council for the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, from 2004 to 2007. He has received the VKRV Rao award for his contribution to research in Economics. He has been President of the Indian Economic Association. He is also on the Editorial Board of several professional journals.

He has served as a member of many commissions, committees and boards: both national and international. He has been a member of the National Knowledge Commission in India. He has been a Member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization. He was a Director on the Boards of State Trading Corporation of India, State Bank of India, Export-Import Bank of India, Maruti Udyog, ICRA, Steel Authority of India Limited, and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.

His research interests are primarily in the areas of international economics, macroeconomics and development economics. He has published papers and books on a wide range of subjects, including trade policies, industrialization strategies, macroeconomic stabilization, structural adjustment, economic liberalization, trade theory, macro policies, international migration, the multilateral trading system, and the world economy. In addition, he has written extensively on economic development in India.