Prof. Alakh N. Sharma

Prof. Alakh N. Sharma, currently Prof and Director of the Institute for Human Development (IHD), New Delhi, is a well known development and labour economist of India. Earlier he has worked in the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi; V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, Noida; Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations, New Delhi; and A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna. Prof Sharma has extensively worked in the areas relating to livelihoods, political economy, regional development, employment, labour markets and human development issues. He has authored and edited a large number of books and papers in these areas. He is also the Editor of the Indian Journal of Labour Economics (IJLE), the quarterly journal of the Indian Society of Labour Economics.

Ms. Dagmar Walter

Director ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team for South Asia and Country Office for India Ms Dagmar Walter, a Swedish-Swiss national, was appointed Director of the ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team for South Asia and Country Office for India as of 22 February 2018. Ms Walter was Deputy Director of the ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean from July 2014.

As Head of the Management and Support Unit in the ILO Department of Statistics, Headquarters Geneva, 2009-2014, she played a key role in implementing a reform and change-management agenda From 2002 to 2009, Ms Walter served in the Policy Integration Department and subsequently the Employment Policy Department. She managed technical cooperation projects building the capacity of the ILO and its constituents to effectively implement Decent Work Country Programmes. She was engaged in national development frameworks, implementing the Millennium Development Goals and Poverty Reduction Strategies.

Ms Walter worked in inter-regional programmes and focus countries like Ghana, Kazakhstan, Madagascar and Tanzania in the context of UNDAFs and One UN exercises. Ms Walter started her ILO career in 1999 as Programme Officer in the ILO Pretoria office, managing and coordinating operations in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. She collaborated with the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Ms Walter holds a Master of Public Administration from the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP). She graduated in International Social Science from the Växjö University, Sweden.

Key areas included formalization, knowledge development through data and research, gender equality, inclusive workplace health promotion for productivity, child labour and youth employment, capacitated social partners, and just transition to environmental sustainability for climate resilience and a greener future of work.

Prof. Deepak Nayyar

Prof. Deepak Nayyar is Emeritus Prof of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He was Distinguished University Prof of Economics at the New School for Social Research, New York. Earlier, he taught at the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex, and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi, and as Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India. He is also currently President of the Indian Society of Labour Economics. His latest books, Resurgent Asia: Diversity in Development and Asian Transformations: An Inquiry into the Development of Nations, have been published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, in late 2019.

Dr. Gerry Rodgers

Visiting Prof, Institute for Human Development, (IHD), Delhi and Former Director, International Institute of Labour Studies, Geneva
Gerry Rodgers is currently Visiting Prof at the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. Formerly he was Director of the International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, and held a variety of other research and management positions with the International Labour Organization, including responsibility for policy integration on decent work. His work is mainly concerned with poverty, inequality, labour and employment in low and medium-income countries, especially in India and Latin America. Current and recent research projects include studies of rural development in Bihar, a comparison of the development paths of India and Brazil, and a study of economic and social change in Northeast Brazil. Recent publications include Growth and inequality: The contrasting trajectories of India and Brazil (co-author), New Delhi, Cambridge University Press, 2017; Patterns of inequality in the Indian labour market (co- author), New Delhi, Academic Foundation, 2016; The changing village in India: Insights from longitudinal research (co-editor and part author), New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2016; “Inequality in the Indian growth regime” in Indian Journal of Human Development, vol. 12, No. 2, August 2018; “Labour institutions and economic development in India – Back to the Future”, in Labour and Development: Essays in honour of Prof. T.S. Papola, eds. K.P.Kannan, R. Mamgain and P. Rustagi, New Delhi, Academic Foundation, 2017; and “Contrasts in development in Bihar: A tale of two villages”, in Journal of Development Studies, vol. 50, no. 9, September 2014 (co-author).

Prof. S. Mahandra Dev

Director and Vice-Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai. Prof. S. Mahendra Dev has been the Director and Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai, India since 2010. Prior to this position, he was Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture from 2008 to 2010. He was Director, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, India for 9 years from 1999 to 2008. He is Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C. He was Acting Chairman of the National Statistical Commission, Government of India. He received prestigious Malcolm Adiseshiah Award for outstanding research work on development studies.

He received his Ph.D. from the Delhi School of Economics and did his postdoctoral research at Yale University. His main areas of interest are development economics, employment, poverty, inequality, agriculture policies, rural development and social sector.

He has around 120 research publications in national and international journals. He has written or edited 19 books. He has been a member of several government committees in India, including the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Employment, member of the Committee on Financial inclusion, member of the Expert Group on Poverty chaired by Dr. C. Rangarajan. He is the Chairman of the Committee on Terms of Trade on Agriculture constituted by the Ministry of Agriculture. He has received honors for eminence in public service.

Prof. Sudipto Mundle

Prof. Sudipto Mundle is Distinguished Fellow, NCAER, New Delhi. Formerly he was Emeritus Prof and Member of the Board of Governors of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi and and a Member of the14th Finance Commission, Government of India. He spent major part of his early career in the Asian Development Bank and retired in 2008 as a Director in the 60 Strategy and Policy Department of ADB. Prior to joining ADB, he served in several academic institutions in India, including the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum; and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi; where he was RBI Chair Prof. He has published several books and papers in professional journals in the fields of development economics, macroeconomic policy, and public finance.

Prof. Ajit Ghose

Ajit K. Ghose is currently a Visiting Prof with the Institute for Human Development (IHD) and a National Fellow at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). Prof Ghose has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK. He worked as a Research Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, UK, before joining the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1979. In 2009-10, he was a Visiting Senior Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK, and at the Centre for Development Studies, University of Cambridge, UK. He has authored several books and articles in professional journals on diverse issues pertaining to globalization, economic growth and development, employment and labour markets, and poverty and famines. His recent work is the India Employment Report 2016 published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute for Human Development (IHD), Delhi.

Mr. Mahesh Vyas

Mahesh Vyas is Managing Director and CEO of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt Ltd. He is the chief architect of three large databases created at CMIE. These are: Consumer Pyramids Household Survey -- a large, fast frequency and continuous survey of a panel of households in India. Prowess -- a standardised database of the performance of over 50,000 companies. CapEx -- a database that tracks investment intentions to create new capacities through their ultimate outcomes. Mahesh writes regularly for CMIE's Economic Outlook service and also a weekly column "On the Job" for Business Standard.

Prof. Kamala Sankaran

Kamala Sankaran is currently Prof, Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, and has been teaching Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence and Labour Law. She has previously served as the Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu National Law University at Tiruchirappalli and as Research Prof, Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. Her research interests include constitutional law, international labour standards, and the regulation of work. Her books include Freedom of Association in India and International Labour Standards (LexisnexisButterworthsWadhwa, 2009), Challenging the Legal Boundaries of Work Regulation (Fudge, McCrystal and Sankaran eds.) (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2012) and Affirmative Action: A View from the Global South (Dupper and Sankaran eds.) (SunMedia, Stellenbosch, 2014).

Prof. K.P. Kanan

KP Kannan, a development economist, has worked extensively in the area of labour, employment and development. Currently, he is an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum and Chairman of the Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies (LBCHS), Trivandrum, Kerala. He is a Member of the International Panel on Social Progress, a collective of social scientists across the globe, and is engaged in preparing a report on Society in the Twenty First Century. Earlier, he was a Professorial Fellow and Director at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum. He was also a Member of the erstwhile National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector.

Mr. Nomaan Majid

Nomaan Majid is a Senior Employment Specialist in the ILO’s Decent Work Team for South Asia. He has worked in the ILO since 1995 at ILO Headquarters in Geneva and in the field. His research interests are in the subjects of employment, labour markets, income distribution and poverty in developing countries. He has a D.Phil. in Economics from the University of Oxford, UK.

Prof. Sudha Narayanan

Sudha Narayanan is an Associate Prof at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai and obtained a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. Sudha's research interests straddle agriculture, food and nutrition policy, and human development in India. She is particularly interested in survey-based research using microeconometric approaches to understand broader questions of agrarian change and state delivery systems for nutrition security. Her current research focuses on contract farming, technology adoption in agriculture, public policies for food security and employment and agriculture-nutrition linkages.

Prof. R. Nagaraj

Educational qualification: Ph D (JNU, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum), 1989. Recent work experience: Visiting Prof, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, from February to June in 2007 and in 2008; taught a course on “Indian Economic Development” for senior undergraduate and graduate students. Teaching: (i) In the Masters’ programme at IGIDR: A one semester course on Indian Economy, since 2005, (ii) In IIM Calcutta: taught an optional course of 10 lectures on “Economics of Infrastructure: Growth and Policy Environment” in 2017 in the 2-year Post-Graduate Programme in Management. Policy related work: (i) Member of a working group on the IIP, constituted by the CSO (Chairman: (late) Dr. Soumitra Chaudhuri) (ii) Member of the sub-committee on private corporate Sector, set up by advisory committee on National Accounts Statistics. (iii) Member, working group on savings for the 12th Plan formulation, constituted by the Planning commission, (iv) worked for the National Statistical Commission on examining the ways to improve the quality of India's industrial statistics.

Prof. Ashwini Deshpande

Ashwini Deshpande's Ph.D. and early publications have been on the international debt crisis of the 1980s. Subsequently, she has been working on the economics of discrimination and affirmative action, with a focus on caste and gender in India. She is the author of "Grammar of Caste: economic discrimination in contemporary India", Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2011 (Hardcover) and 2017 (Paperback); and "Affirmative Action in India', Oxford University Press, New Delhi, Oxford India Short Introductions series, 2013. She is the editor of "Boundaries of Clan and Color: Transnational Comparisons of Inter-Group Disparity" (along with William Darity, Jr.), Routledge, London, 2003; "Globalization and Development: A Handbook of New Perspectives", Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2007 (Hardcover) and 2010 (Paperback); "Capital Without Borders: Challenges to Development", Anthem Press, UK, 2010 (Hardcover) and 2012 (Paperback) and "Global Economic Crisis and the Developing World" (with Keith Nurse), Routledge, London, 2012. She received the EXIM Bank award for outstanding dissertation (now called the IERA Award) in 1994, and the 2007 VKRV Rao Award for Indian economists under 45.

Prof. Ravi Srivastava

Prof Ravi Srivastava is a former Prof of Economics, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is currently Director, Centre of Employment Studies, Institute of Human Development, Delhi. He is a leading researcher on labour migration, employment, and the informal economy, and was a full-time member of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, Government of India.

Prof. Jeemol Unni

Jeemol Unni is Prof of Economics and Chair of the Masters of Arts in Economics Programme at the Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad. Earlier she was the Director, Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). She holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Economics and was a post-doctoral Fellow at Economic Growth Center, Yale University. She is currently a member of the Standing Committee on Economic Statistics, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. She is a Labour Economist and her research focuses on informal employment, returns to education, social protection and women entrepreneurship. She is on the Editorial Board of the Indian Journal of Labour Economics.

Dr. Sangheon Lee

Sangheon LEE is the Director of the Employment Policy Department (EMPLOYMENT) of the ILO which leads ILO’s action for promoting full and productive employment by developing integrated employment, development and skills policies. Before his current position, he was the Special Adviser to the Deputy Director-General for Policy on Economic and Social Issues (2014-18), providing advice on analytical work, policy development and advocacy across a range of economic, employment and social issues as well as coordinating ILO’s work at multilateral fora such as G20, G7, and BRICS. Mr. Lee has written extensively on economic, employment and labour issues, including articles in the International Labour Review and Socio-Economic Review, as well as editing volumes under the global research project of Regulating for Decent Work (Palgrave Macmillan) and other research projects. He is also one of the main authors of ILO flagship reports such as the Global Wage Report and the World Employment and Social Outlook. He co-authored Working Time around the World (2007 Routledge). Mr Lee holds a PhD in Economics from Cambridge University.

Mr. K.S. Jomo

Jomo Kwame Sundaram is Senior Adviser at the Khazanah Research Institute. He was a member of the Economic Action Council, chaired by the seventh Malaysian Prime Minister, and the 5-member Council of Eminent Persons appointed by him, Prof, University of Malaya (1986-2004), Founder-Chair of International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs), UN Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development (2005-2012), Assistant Director General for Economic and Social Development, Food and Agriculture Organization (2012-2015) and third Tun Hussein Onn Chair at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia (2016-2017). He received the 2007 Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.

Ms. Marty Chen

Martha (Marty) Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Co-Founder, Emeritus International Coordinator and Senior Advisor of the global network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (www.wiego.org). An experienced development practitioner and scholar, her areas of specialization are employment, gender and poverty with a focus on the working poor in the informal economy. Before joining Harvard in 1987, she had two decades of resident work experience in Bangladesh and in India. Dr. Chen co-founded and, for twenty years, led the WIEGO network which is well known worldwide for its work to improve the status of the working poor in the informal economy through stronger organizations, improved statistics and research and a more favorable policy environment. Dr. Chen received a PhD in South Asia Regional Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded a high civilian award, the Padma Shri, by the Government of India in April 2011; and a Friends of Bangladesh Liberation War award by the Government of Bangladesh in December 2012.

Prof. Kunal Sen

Prof Kunal Sen has over three decades of experience in academic and applied development economics research. He is the author of eight books and the editor of five volumes on the economics and political economy of development. From 2019 he is the Director of UNU-WIDER, and he is a Prof of development economics at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. Prof Sen is a leading international expert on the political economy of growth and development. He has performed extensive research on international finance, the political economy determinants of inclusive growth, the dynamics of poverty, social exclusion, female labour force participation, and the informal sector in developing economies. His research has focused on India, East Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Prof Sen’s books include The Political Economy of India’s Growth Episodes (2016), The Process of Financial Liberalization in India (1997), and the Economic Restructuring in East Asia and India: Perspectives on Policy Reform (1995). His is a co-editor of Deals and Development: The Political Dynamics of Growth Episodes (2018) and The Politics of Inclusive Development (2016). And has also written twenty-five chapters in other volumes and published more than ninety peer-reviewed journal articles on topics in his field.

In addition to his work as a Prof of development economics, Kunal Sen has been the Joint Research Director of the Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) research centre, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Labor Economics in Bonn. He has also served in advisory roles with national governments and bilateral and multilateral development agencies, including the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

He has been awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize in 2006 and Dudley Seers Prize in 2003 for his publications.

Mr. Ian Prates

Ian Prates is the Co-Coordinator of the Labor Market and Social Policies Research Projects of the Solidarity Research Network Covid19: Public Policies and Society’s responses. He is a Researcher at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP) and a Research Fellow at the Social Accountability International (SAI). His research has focused on social inequalities (with a focus on labor market, social protection, poverty, and social stratification) and the political economy of China and Latina America relations. Ian has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of São Paulo.

Mr. Rogerio Barbosa

Rogerio J Barbosa is the Co-Coordinator of the Labor Market and Social Policies Research Projects of the Solidarity Research Network Covid19: Public Policies and Society’s responses. He is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for the Metropolitan Studies of the University of São Paulo (CEM/USP) and a researcher at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). His research has focused on income inequalities, poverty and welfare in the long run with quantitative methodological innovations. Rogerio is a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of São Paulo.

Prof. Dev Nathan

Dev Nathan, an economist, is Visiting Prof at the Institute for Human Development. He also works with the Society for Labour and Development and the Gender and Development Centre for Research and Innovation. His research areas include global value chains, labour, gender and development issues of indigenous peoples. He is co-editor of the Cambridge University Press series on Development Trajectories in Global Value Chains. He is co-editor of Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia (2016), Upgrading and Innovation in Asia (2018). He is also co-author of Witch Hunts: Culture, Patriarchy and Structural Transformation, the print release of which has been delayed by the lockdown. He is currently working on a book on Oligopolies and Subsidies: Labour and Environmental Justice in Global Production.

Ms. Uma Rani

Uma Rani is Senior Economist at the Research Department, ILO. She holds a PhD in Development Economics from the University of Hyderabad, India. Her current research focuses on digital platforms, global supply chains in the electronics sector, minimum wages, and income inequality, wherein she explores how labour and social institutions interact with public policies. She has recently published and co-authored a report on Digital labour platforms and the future of work: Towards decent work in the online world.

Ms. Reema Nanavaty

Reema Nanavaty is the director of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), where she has been active since 1984. Elected as its fourth General Secretary in 1999, Ms Nanavaty has taken SEWA’s membership to new heights, making it the single largest union of informal sector workers. She has helped establish thousands of women workers’ federations, associations, cooperatives, museums, retail chain companies, trade facilitation centres, digital clinics and management schools across India as well as in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, in areas ranging from traditional handicrafts, agri-products, sustainable livelihoods and rural enterprise to forestry, water harvesting, solar energy and green finance. In recognition of her work, in 2013 she was decorated with India’s national honour, Padma Shri.

Prof. Dipankar Gupta

Prof. Dipankar Gupta taught for nearly three decades in JNU’s School of Social Science and was also a Prof between 1991 and 1993 in the Delhi School of Economics. He has authored and edited 20 books. Most recently authored books are: “QED: India Tests Social Theory”, (OUP 2018) and “From People to Citizens: India’s Must Take Road” (Routledge/ Social Science Press, 2017) He was the Co-Editor of Contributions to Indian Sociology for over 15 years, and served on several Boards and was earlier Independent Director of both RBI and NABARD. He received his Ph.D from JNU. Currently interested in the sociological study of public policy and citizenship. He was awarded the Knighthood of Arts and Letters by the French Government. He is also a recipient of Honoris Causa from University of Burdwan; Krishna Bharadwaj-Eric Wolf Award; Malcolm Adeseshia Award; and Emeritus Prof, Jamia Millia Islamia.

Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is currently University Prof. at Ashoka University. He has previously taught at Harvard, NYU Law School and briefly at JNU. He was previously President of the Centre for Policy Research, and Vice- Chancellor, Ashoka University. He has published widely in the fields of Indian politics, political theory, constitutional law. His most recent book is the co-edited Oxford Companion to the Indian Constitution. He has also served as Member Convenor, Prime Minister of India, National Knowledge Commission, and Member of National Security Advisory Board. In addition to his academic and institutional roles, he is prolific contributor to public debates. He is Editorial Consultant to Indian Express. He is the winner of the Malcolm Adisheshiah Award, and the Infosys Prize.

Prof. Ashwani Saith

Ashwani Saith is Emeritus Professor at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Netherlands. He has held positions at the Delhi School of Economics; Faculty of Economics, Cambridge University, where he took his PhD; Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University; and at the London School of Economics where he was the first Chair of Development Studies and Director of its Development Studies Institute. He has served on the editorial boards of several leading academic journals, and published extensively on the political economy of development and on economic history.