About the Speaker:

Dr. Arvind Panagariya is the Chairman of the Sixteenth Finance Commission of India, and Professor of Economics and the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University.

From January 2015 to August 2017, Dr. Panagariya served as the first Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, Government of India in the rank of a Cabinet Minister. During these years, he also served as India’s G20 Sherpa and led the Indian teams that negotiated the G20 Communiqués during presidencies of Turkey (2015), China (2016) and Germany (2017).

Professor Panagariya has authored more than fifteen books. His book India: The Emerging Giant (2008, OUP, New York) was listed as a top pick of 2008 by The Economist and described as the “definitive book on the Indian economy” by Fareed Zakaria of the CNN. The Economist has described his book, Why Growth Matters, (with Jagdish Bhagwati) as “a manifesto for policymakers and analysts.”

His most recent book The Nehru Development Model: History and Its Lasting Impact was published by Penguin Random House in September 2024.  

Scientific papers by Professor Panagariya have appeared in the top economics journals such as the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies and International Economic Review while policy papers by him have appeared in the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. He writes a monthly column in the Times of India and his guest columns have appeared in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and India Today.

In March 2012, the Government of India honored Professor Panagariya with Padma Bhusan, the third highest civilian honors the country bestows in any field.