Montek Singh Ahluwalia , an economist, and civil servant, was former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Government of India. He joined the Government in 1979 as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, after which he held a series of positions including Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; Commerce Secretary; Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs; Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance; Member of the Planning Commission and Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. In 2001, he was appointed as the first Director of the newly created Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund. He resigned from that position in 2004 to take up the position of Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission which he held from 2004 to 2014. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic progress.

Mr. Ahluwalia has been a key figure in Indian economic policy. He writes on various aspects of development economics and has been published in prominent Indian and international journals and books. He co-authored Re-distribution with Growth: An Approach to Policy, which, published in 1975, was a path-breaking book on income distribution. In February 2020, he published his book, Backstage: The Story Behind India’s High Growth Years, an insider’s account of policymaking from 1985 to 2014.

For his outstanding contribution to economic policy and public service, he was conferred the prestigious ‘Padma Vibhushan’ in 2011, India’s 2nd highest civilian award for exceptional and distinguished service.

Mr. Ahluwalia graduated from Delhi University and holds an MA and an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University.He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College Oxford.

Amar Bhattacharya is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development, housed in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. His focus areas are the global economy, development finance, global governance, and the links between climate and development.

From April 2007 until September 2014 he was Director of the Group of 24, an intergovernmental group of developing country Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. In that capacity he led the work program of the Group, supported the deliberations of the Ministers, and was the principal point of interface with other organizations including the G20. He has therefore been an active participant in the global economic discussions and a key representative of the views of developing countries. Prior to taking up his position with the G24, Mr. Bhattacharya had a long-standing career in the World Bank. His last position was as Senior Advisor and Head of the International Policy and Partnership Group. In this capacity, he was the focal point for the Bank’s engagement with key international groupings and institutions such as the G7/G8, G20, IMF, OECD and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Through these different positions Mr. Bhattacharya has had a long standing engagement in research and policy discussions on the global economy and spillovers, international financial architecture, development financing and the global governance agenda including on the role and reform of the international financial institutions.

He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Delhi and Brandeis University and his graduate education at Princeton University.

Pramod Bhasin is Chairman, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi. He was the President & CEO of GE Capital in India from 1994 to 2005, and GE Capital Asia from 1998 to 2001. Considered the founder and pioneer of the Business Process Industry in India, he founded Genpact in 1996 (as a subsidiary of GE Capital, India) and built it from start into a global business that currently spans 20+ countries and employs 80,000 people. Currently, he is also the Chairman of Clix Capital, a financial services business in India focused on providing digital platforms and financial services to consumers and small businesses. He is the co-founder of Asha Impact, an organisation focused on Social Impact Investments and advocacy in key areas such as education, waste management, healthcare and financial inclusions. He also founded the Skills Academy, that focuses on vocational skills for the under privileged and sits on the Governing Board of Help Age India, an NGO for handicapped children amongst others. Mr. Bhasin has also been the Chairman of NASSCOM and was voted IT Man of the Year by DataQuest, and Manager of the Year by EY & Co. He is a Chartered Accountant (England & Wales) by profession and an alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce.

Dr. Nada Choueiri is the Mission Chief for India at the International Monetary Fund since September 1, 2021. Prior to that, she was Mission Chief for Malaysia and Singapore. Her career at the International Monetary Fund spans 23 years, during which she worked on a range of countries in Emerging Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and spent several years in the Office of the Deputy Managing Director as Advisor. While on leave from the International Monetary Fund during 2014-15, she was Lead Economist for Algeria and Libya at the World Bank. Born in Lebanon, Ms. Choueiri received her B.A. in Economics from the American University of Beirut and her Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA.

Richard Damania is the Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice Group, effective March 1, 2020. He has held several positions in the World Bank including as Senior Economic Advisor in the Water Practice, Lead Economist in the Africa Region’s Sustainable Development Department, in the South Asia and Latin America and Caribbean Regions of the World Bank. His work has spanned across multiple sectors and has helped the World Bank become an acknowledged thought-leader on matters relating to environment, water and the economy. Prior to joining the World Bank he was Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide. He has published extensively with over 100 papers in scientific journals, has held numerous advisory positions with governments and in international organizations and serves on the Editorial Board of several prestigious scientific journals.

Sonalde Desai (Professor and Centre Director, NCAER-National Data Innovation Center, New Delhi and Distinguished University Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland) is a demographer whose work deals primarily with social transformation and its impact on the lives of individuals with a focus on education, employment, and maternal and child health. She leads the India Human Development Survey of over 40,000 households which is one of the few national panel survey in India providing a rich and free public resource for studying the transformation of the Indian society in the 21st Century. Since April 2020, Desai and her colleagues at NDIC have carried out telephone surveys around COVID-related experiences in Delhi National Capital Region. She is a frequent contributor to Indian newspapers and serves on the editorial board of Population and Development Review. She received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and post-doctoral training at the University of Chicago and RAND Corporation. Desai has recently been elected President of Population Association of America.

Carl Benedikt Frey is Oxford Martin Citi Fellow at the University of Oxford where he directs the programme on the Future of Work at the Oxford Martin School.

After studying economics, history and management at Lund University, Frey completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in 2011. He subsequently joined the Oxford Martin School where he founded the programme on the Future of Work with support from Citigroup. Between 2012 and 2014, he taught at the Department of Economic History at Lund University.

In 2012, Frey became an Economics Associate of Nuffield College and Senior Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, both at the University of Oxford. He remains a Senior Fellow of the Department of Economic History at Lund University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). In 2019, he joined the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on the New Economic Agenda, as well as the Bretton Woods Committee.

In 2013, Frey co-authored “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerization?”, estimating that 47% of jobs are at risk of automation. With over 5000 academic citations, the study’s methodology has been used by President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, the Bank of England, the World Bank, as well as a popular risk-prediction tool by the BBC. In 2019, the paper was debated on the Last Week Tonight Show with John Oliver.

Frey has served as an advisor and consultant to international organisations, think tanks, government and business, including the G20, the OECD, the European Commission, the United Nations, and several Fortune 500 companies. He is also an op-ed contributor to the Financial Times, Scientific American, and the Wall Street Journal, where he has written on the economics of artificial intelligence, the history of technology, and the future of work.

His academic work has featured in over 100 media outlets, including The Economist, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Time Magazine, Le Monde, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In addition, he has frequently appeared international broadcast media such as CNN, BBC, PBS News Hour, Al Jazeera, and Sky News.

His most recent book, The Technology Trap, was selected a Financial Times Best Books of the Year in 2019.

Piyush Goyal (57) is the Minister of Commerce & Industry (2019-present), Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (2020-present), Textiles (2021-present), and Leader of the Rajya Sabha (2021-present). He was earlier the Minister of Railways (2017-21). He has also held the additional charge of Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs twice in 2018 and 2019. His previous portfolios include- Minister of Coal (2014-19), Minister of State (I/C) for Power, New & Renewable Energy (2014-17), and Mines (2016-17). As Minister of Railways, over the last two years of his tenure Railways achieved its best ever safety record of zero passenger deaths in accidents. This was achieved through holistic measures such as elimination of Unmanned Level Crossings (UMLCs) from the broad gauge network, production of safer coaches etc. Additionally, Mr Goyal oversaw the launch of the first indigenous semi-high speed train Vande Bharat Express between Delhi and Varanasi. The Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy ministries led transformational changes in India’s power sector including the fast tracking of electrification of the nearly 18,000 unelectrified villages in some of the remotest and inaccessible parts of the country, the roll out of the most comprehensive power sector reform ever (UDAY), the success of the world’s largest LED bulb distribution programme (UJALA) for energy efficiency, and massive proliferation of renewable energy through the world’s largest renewable energy expansion programme. Other achievements include the elimination of coal shortages to improve the energy security of India and successful conduct of transparent e-auctions of coal blocks. He also received the 4th Annual Carnot Prize in 2018 recognising the pathbreaking transformations in India’s energy sector. During his 35 year long political career, Mr Goyal has held several important positions at different levels in the world’s largest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is in its National Executive. He has been the National Treasurer of the Party. In the 2019 Indian General Elections, he was a member of the Manifesto and Publicity Committees. He also headed the BJP’s Information Communication Campaign Committee for the Indian General Elections 2014. Mr Goyal has had a brilliant academic record – all-India second rank holder Chartered Accountant and second rank holder in Law in Mumbai University. He was a well-known investment banker and has advised top corporates on management strategy and growth. He also served on the Board of India’s largest commercial bank, the State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda. He was also nominated by the Government of India to the Task Force for Interlinking of Rivers in 2002. His father, Late Vedprakash Goyal was Union Minister of Shipping, and the National Treasurer of the BJP for over two decades. His mother Chandrakanta Goyal was elected thrice to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Mumbai. He is married to Seema, an active social worker, and has two children – Dhruv and Radhika, who have both graduated from Harvard University, USA.

Ruzbeh is the President – Group Human Resources & Communications since April 2020. He is also responsible for Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Services. He is a member of Mahindra’s Group Executive Board. Ruzbeh joined the Mahindra Group in 2007, as Executive Vice President – Corporate Strategy, heading the Group's Strategy function. He became the Chief Brand Officer of the Group. During that time he spearheaded Mahindra's entry into racing and led the development of the Group's brand position and core purpose, 'Rise'. He then moved to head International Operations for the Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors of M&M. Subsequentially he led Group Corporate Brand, PR and Communications, Ethics as well as Mahindra’s Racing team. Ruzbeh completed his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Bombay University in 1983. He went on to receive his Masters in Management Studies from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai in 1985. He is an alumnus of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.

Post his Master's degree, Ruzbeh worked with Hindustan Lever and Unilever for close to 22 years, across geographies, in marketing, customer management and general management. This included stints as Marketing Manager – Home and Personal Care (with Unilever Central Asia), Regional Manager – Western India (with Hindustan Lever), Vice President – Customer Development (with Unilever’s Africa Regional Group), and Customer Development Director on the Board of Unilever Maghreb.

Professor Stephany Griffith Jones (BA Chile, PhD Economics Cambridge), is currently Financial Markets Program Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University; Emeritus Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University; Non-Resident Fellow at the Centre for Global Development, Washington DC; Distinguished Fellow at ClimateWorks Foundation, San Francisco; Senior Research Associate at the Overseas Development Institute.

Economist working on global capital flows, with special reference to flows to emerging markets ; debt overhang, especially in Sub Saharan Africa and suggestions for linking debt relief to sustainable and inclusive growth and broad proposals for international financial reform; development finance, with a focus on development banks, (nationally, regionally and multilaterally) and their key roles, including in the green transition . Has written over twenty five books, including The Future of National Development Banks, co-edited with J.A. Ocampo and Time for the Visible Hand; Lessons from the 2008 World Financial Crisis, co-edited with J.A. Ocampo and J. E. Stiglitz, both published by OUP.

Naina Lal Kidwai is Chairman Advent India Advisory board; a Non-Executive Director on the boards of LafargeHolcim, Max Financial Services, CIPLA, Nayara Energy and Past President of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry). She retired on December 2015 as Executive Director on the board of HSBC Asia Pacific and Chairman HSBC India and in April 2018 from the global board of Nestle.

An MBA from Harvard Business School, she is the recipient of several awards and honours including the Padma Shri for her contribution to Trade and industry. She is engaged with institutions in environment, water and sanitation and has authored 3 books including the bestsellers “30 women in Power: Their Voices, Their Stories” and “Survive Or Sink: An Action Agenda for Sanitation, Water, Pollution, and Green Finance”.

She chairs the India Financial Services Working Group of the BRICs Business Council, and is a member of the INDO - ASEAN Business Council, the Investment Advisory Committee of the Army Group Insurance Fund, the Harvard Business School South Asia Advisory Board and the Standard Chartered International Advisory Council.

She has been a member of the Government of India’s Industry Task Force, the Prime Minister’s Trade and Industry Council, the National Manufacturing Council, the National Trade Council, the Working Group on Banking, Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission and the National Institute of Bank Management.

Dr. Rajiv Kumar is Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, in the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister. He also serves as the Chancellor of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune.

His earlier stint in Government was initially with the Ministry of Industry and subsequently in the Ministry of Finance, as Economic Advisor during the reform years of 1991-1994. He also served as an independent director on the Central Boards of the Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank India.

He has wide experience of having worked in government, academia, industry associations, well as in international financial institutions.

Dr. Kumar has a Ph.D. in Economics from Lucknow University, India and a D. Phil. From Oxford University, UK.

Ulka Kelkar is Director, Climate program, WRI India. She is an economist with two decades of experience in climate change research, capacity building and outreach. She leads WRI India’s work on climate policy which aims to support India’s pathway to a climate-resilient low-carbon economy through judicious national policies, carbon market mechanisms, and effective implementation in states and cities.

Before joining WRI India, Ulka worked as a consultant climate assessment specialist for the Asian Development Bank, and as a research fellow with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). She conducted field research in seven Indian states to assess how rural communities can adapt to climate change. She collaborated with architects and financial analysts to devise business models for low-cost climate-resilient housing in disaster-prone regions of Bangladesh and Nepal. She used behavioural economics to understand what might motivate urban households to switch to renewable energy technologies. She has worked with the corporate sector on measuring greenhouse gas emissions and developing clean development mechanism (CDM) projects. Her policy contributions include the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) roadmap for regional cooperation on climate change, National Strategy Study on CDM in India, Maharashtra State Action Plan on Climate Change, and the first national communications of India and Bhutan to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Her research has been published in journals like Annual Review of Environment & Resources, Global Environmental Change, Climate Policy, and Mitigation & Adaptation Strategies for Global Change.

She has a master’s degree in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Vincenzo De Luca Vincenzo De Luca took office on 1 February 2016 as Director-General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Italy, after having served in the same Directorate General as Deputy Director-General and Principal Director for the Internationalisation of the Italian Economic System (since January 2014). He has been a career diplomat since 1989 and has been given several assignments at the Foreign Ministry and at the diplomatic representations in Khartoum, Tunis, Paris (at the permanent Representation at the OECD) and in Shanghai. He has a long-standing expertise in the internationalisation of the economic system of the public and private sector, both in Central Offices, in the capacity of Diplomatic Advisor of the Ministries of Industry,Transports and Economic Development, and in large corporations like ENI and ENEL, where he served as Vice President for Institutional International Relations. During the past few years, he played a relevant role in the organisation of the EXPO Milano 2015 as President of the Foreign Ministry’s Task Force, capitalising on his experience as Consul General in Shanghai.

Deepak Mishra is the Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). Prior to joining ICRIER, he was the Practice Manager at the World Bank’s Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment Global Practice, responsible for East Asia and Pacific region. Deepak has held various positions at the World Bank, including the Co-director of the World Development Report 2016 (Digital Dividends), Country Economist for Ethiopia, Pakistan, Sudan and Vietnam. His research work has been published in various academic journals including the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of International Economics and the Journal of Agriculture Economics.

Deepak has also served as the World Bank’s Country Economist for India, based in New Delhi, and working closely with the Government of India and with several state governments. Prior to joining the World Bank, Deepak worked at Tata Motors, Federal Reserve Board and the University of Maryland. Deepak received his M.A. (Economics) from the Delhi School of Economics and Ph.D. (Economics) from the University of Maryland.

Mr. Peter Max Rimmele , Resident Representative to India, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

Peter Max Rimmele is currently the Resident Representative of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Office, India. He has a First Law Degree from Freiburg University, as well as a Second Law Degree from the Ministry of Justice Baden Württemberg, Germany and a M.A. in Geography. After working as a jurist, judge and lecturer, he took public office as Ministerialrat, Head of Division at the State Ministry of the Interior in Saxony, Germany, from November 1991 on until 2000. There he first served in the Police and Security and later in the Local Government Department. On behalf of the German Foreign Ministry he served in East Timor as Registrar General, Head of Civil Registry and Notary Services (UNTAET), and became later the principal Advisor for Governance Reform for GIZ (German International Cooperation) to the Ministry of Administrative Reform and the Anti-Corruption-Commission of the Republic of Indonesia, where he served for 7 years. He then moved to Rwanda, also as Principal Advisor Good Governance/Justice Program. Earlier he was Resident Representative Lebanon, Director of Rule of Law Program Middle East North Africa, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

Nirmala Sitharaman , is an Indian economist and politician serving as the current Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India. She is a member of the Rajya Sabha, upper house of the Indian Parliament, since 2014. Sitharaman formerly served as the Defence Minister of India, thereby becoming India's second female defence minister and also the second female finance minister after Indira Gandhi and first full-time female Finance Minister. She has served as the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance and the Minister for Commerce and Industry with independent charge. Prior to that, she served as a national spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sitharaman featured in the Forbes 2020 list of 100 most powerful women and ranked the 41st in the world.

Dr. Alina Sorgner is Assistant Professor of Applied Data Analytics and Chair of the Department of Business Administration at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy, Research Fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) and Research Affiliate at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). She received her doctoral degree in economics from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany. Her research work in the field of digitalization and labor markets, gender equality, entrepreneurship, and regional studies was published in peer-reviewed journals and discussed in leading newspapers including Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine and La Nación. More information about Dr. Alina Sorgner can be found on her personal website: sorgner.eu.

Dr. Alina Sorgner is Assistant Professor of Applied Data Analytics and Chair of the Department of Business Administration at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy, Research Fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) and Research Affiliate at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). She received her doctoral degree in economics from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany. Her research work in the field of digitalization and labor markets, gender equality, entrepreneurship, and regional studies was published in peer-reviewed journals and discussed in leading newspapers including Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine and La Nación. More information about Dr. Alina Sorgner can be found on her personal website: sorgner.eu.

Tetsushi Sonobe is the Dean and CEO of the ADB Institute (ADBI), the Tokyo-based think tank of the Asian Development Bank. Previously he was Vice President of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan. He is a development economist and holds a PhD in economics from Yale University.

Dr. K V Subramanian , currently Chief Economic Advisor to Government of India, is a leading expert on economic policy, banking and corporate governance. A PhD from Chicago Booth and a top-ranking IIT- IIM alumnus, he authored the path-breaking Economic Survey that commends "Ethical Wealth Creation” for a prosperous India. By integrating India's rich economic and spiritual heritage with modern economic ideas, he advocates ethical wealth creation through a marriage of the invisible hand of the market with the hand of trust.

The 2019 Economic Survey – again authored by Dr Subramanian - laid out the Strategic Blueprint for India to become a $5 trillion economy by generating a “virtuous cycle” where private investment, growth, and consumption feed into each other. In the 2021 Economic Survey, he advocated counter-cyclical fiscal policy using public capital expenditure to trigger the “virtuous cycle” following the Covid crisis. Drawing on the ideas advocated in his three Economic Surveys, India’s economic policy toward a self-reliant India is now characterised by: (i) sharp focus on economic growth to complement efficient welfare by generating the resources to fund the welfare programs; (ii) growth via private sector occupying the commanding heights of the economy; and (iii) “virtuous cycle” of growth via public investment and structural reforms to enhance both aggregate supply and aggregate demand. The slew of reforms implemented by the Government draw on the ideas advocated by Dr. Subramanian.

Subramanian has brought several ideas to implement welfare programs effectively. His push for the behavioural economics of ‘Nudge’ is acknowledged for its potential to bring behavioural change in India. His idea of Thalinomics – what a common person pays for a vegetarian or non-vegetarian thali – has been acclaimed as the Indian Big Mac Index. Combined with the idea of The Bare Necessities index to measure the reach of water, sanitation, a healthy environment to the common citizen, these ideas enable robust measurement of the reach of welfare programs across India’s large population.

Dr Subramanian is on leave from the Indian School of Business, where he is a Professor of Finance. Dr Subramanian has been conferred the Distinguished Alumnus award by his alma mater IIT-Kanpur. Apart from being the youngest Chief Economic Adviser, Subramanian is among the youngest to receive this honour from his alma mater. His research in banking, law and finance, innovation and economic growth, and corporate governance has been published in the world's leading journals.

Baijayant "Jay" Panda is the National Vice-President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prabhari of Assam & New Delhi BJP Units. He has been a four time Member of Parliament of India, elected twice each to the Rajya Sabha (2000 and 2006) and the Lok Sabha (2009 and 2014). He had been a member of BJP National core group to articulate and communicate the rationale for amending article 370 of the Indian Constitution relating to Jammu & Kashmir.

Jay Panda graduated from the Michigan Technological University and, with a background in Engineering and Management, worked in the corporate sector before joining politics. He had helped to form the erstwhile Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) and was its Convener. He has also been associated with the India-USA Forum of Parliamentarians from its founding in 2001 and was its Chairman for fifteen years. He was awarded the “Bharat Asmita National Award” for best parliamentary practices by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India in 2008. Since its inception in 2007, he has been associated with the ‘Citizens’ Alliance Against Malnutrition’, an advocacy group including many parliamentarians across parties, civil society activists and non-governmental organizations, Bollywood actors and celebrities. The Citizens’ Alliance has undertaken numerous initiatives to battle child malnutrition in India, including field visits to rural districts in several states, continual engagement with media organizations to highlight the issue, repeated interactions with the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition, Chief Ministers and other political leaders to raise the priority given to this critical issue.

In his earlier corporate career, Jay Panda was active in industry organizations like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the International Chromium Development Association. In the past he has also been associated with the Govt. of Odisha’s Industrial Advisory Committee and been a Director on the Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha (IPICOL). As a parliamentarian, he has been a member of many important committees like the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Finance, Home, Energy, Urban Development and Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Finance.

In Parliament and public life, Jay Panda passionately espouses the cause of his home state Odisha, as well as other national issues close to his heart, such as economic development, education, information technology and Data Privacy. He frequently participates in national television discussions and writes op-ed pieces in newspapers. He has also authored a book by the name “LUTYENS’ MAVERICK”. He holds a Private Pilot’s License for aircraft and helicopters and enjoys adventure sports like skydiving and bungee jumping.

Rohini Pande is the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center, Yale University. She is a co-editor of American Economic Review: Insights. Pande’s research is largely focused on how formal and informal institutions shape power relationships and patterns of economic and political advantage in society, particularly in developing countries. She is interested the role of public policy in providing the poor and disadvantaged political and economic power, and how notions of economic justice and human rights can help justify and enable such change.

Her most recent work focuses on testing innovative ways to make the state more accountable to its citizens, such as strengthening women’s economic and political opportunities, ensuring that environmental regulations reduce harmful emissions, and providing citizens effective means to voice their demand for state services.

In 2018, Pande received the Carolyn Bell Shaw Award from the American Economic Association for promoting the success of women in the economics profession. She is the co-chair of the Political Economy and Government Group at Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a Board member of Bureau of Research on Economic Development (BREAD) and a former co-editor of The Review of Economics and Statistics. Before coming to Yale, Pande was the Rafik Harriri Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School, where she co-founded Evidence for Policy Design.

Pande received a PhD in economics from London School of Economics, a BA/MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and a BA in Economics from Delhi University.