Dr Rajiv Kumar
Dr Rajiv Kumar is a leading Indian economist and the former Vice-Chairperson of NITI Aayog, the chief policy think tank of the Government of India. He is the author of several books on India’s economy and national security. His latest books are Modi & His Challenges (2016), Resurgent India: Ideas and Priorities (2015), and Exploding Aspirations: Unlocking India’s Future (2014). He is a widely recognized columnist and a leading speaker on issues in the Indian political economy.
He is also the founding director of Pahle India Foundation (PIF), Delhi, a non-profit think tank that focuses on facilitating economic policy change based on objective and rigorous research.
He has served as the Government of India’s nominated independent director on the central board of the Reserve Bank of India, and as a member of the international board of management of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Riyadh (chaired by Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy), as Director, Institute of Human Development, Delhi, as Director, V V Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow, as an independent director on the Board of DHFL, and as a member, the advisory board of CISCO, India.
He has also been the Government of India nominee (in a full and part-time capacity) on the Boards of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and Asia (ERIA), Jakarta, the central board of the State Bank of India, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi, the National Security Advisory Board and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
He has been a Senior Fellow at the Centre of Policy Research, a chief think-tank in Delhi, the Secretary-General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Director & Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), the Chief Economist at the Confederation of India Industries (CII), the Principal Economist at Asian Development Bank, Manila, and Economic Advisor in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
Dr Kumar has a D.Phil. in Economics from Oxford University (1982) and a PhD from Lucknow University (1978).