Dr. Nagesh Kumar

Director and Chief Executive, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), India

Dr. Nagesh Kumar is the Director and Chief Executive of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), a New Delhi-based public-funded policy think-tank. In 2024, he was also appointed by the Government of India as an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, and of the Boston University Global Development Policy Centre, Boston, USA. Before joining ISID in May 2021, he served as Director at United Nations-ESCAP, Bangkok, for 12 years. During 2002-09, Nagesh served as the Director-General of the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a policy think-tank of the Indian Government. He has also served as an Economist at UNU/MERIT, Netherlands; on the Boards of the Export-Import Bank of India; ICTSD Geneva; and SACEPS Kathmandu, and as a consultant for the World Bank, ADB, ILO, and UNCTAD, among other international organisations. A PhD from the Delhi School of Economics, Nagesh received the Exim Bank’s first International Trade Research Award in 1990, GDN’s Research Medal in 2000, and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Delhi School of Economics in 2023. He has authored 18 books and over 120 peer-reviewed papers. He tweets @nageshkum