IKDHVAJ - Key Persons
Affiliate Professor, Center for International Trade in Forestry Dr Badri Narayanan is an economist, who advises and consults with organizations such as McKinsey, UN, World Bank, WHO, FAO, EU, several governments, startups, and think tanks. He is the founding director of Infinite Sum Modelling LLC, Seattle and is an affiliate faculty member with the University of Washington Seattle. He has published over 100 refereed papers and 5 books (cited over 4300 times), in several areas including international trade, public health, labor, public finance, energy, environment, development, technology and agriculture. He has developed several econometric and CGE models, particularly customized extensions of GTAP model for these purposes.
More recently, he has undertaken several projects on Covid such as the global economic impact of Covid-19 (published with ADB), Covid impact on tourism affecting the global economy (published with UNCTAD), trade impact of Covid in Asia (published with Nanyang Technological University), global supply chains in medical supplies (Commonwealth), decarbonization strategies for Covid recovery in South Asia (World Bank), Covid impact on remittances (ADB), digital transformation for Covid recovery (ADB), Covid impact on port-level trade in Colombia (IADB), impact of Covid on India's trade with the Commonwealth countries (Ikdhvaj and Commonwealth), etc. He has also several columns in popular media and webinars on this topic for organizations across the world including the USITC; some of his papers/articles are listed herein: https://sites.google.com/site/badrinarayanang
Former Deputy Director General, WTO Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh has extensive international and national experience on trade and investment matters. He will provide roughly 30 man days of his time over 3 months. His education includes a M.Phil and D.Phil in Economics from Oxford University, U.K., after an MA and BS (Hons) in Economics from Delhi University, India. He has worked for 20 years at the GATT/WTO in Geneva, and 8 years with the Telecom Regulatory Authority in India. He has taught in US, China and India, and been part of Think Tanks around the world. As Chairman, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP, he has co-ordinated the three projects described above which are directly relevant to the FCO study here. He will work on all aspects covered under Parts I and II of the ToR. His brief CV is given below.
Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh worked in WTO for over 20 years, including eight year as Deputy Director General (DDG). As the DDG, he supervised the divisions in the WTO on Agriculture, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Environment, and Services (including investment). Before becoming the DDG he had worked in the divisions on Economic Research, Trade Policy Review, Contingent Trade Protection, Trade and Environment, and Electronic Commerce. In India he was Economic Adviser and subsequently Secretary cum Principal Adviser to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from 1997 to 2005, the key years of telecom reform. Since October, 2013 he has been with national and international Think Tanks, Universities (Columbia, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, in the US and Nankai University in China), and member of national and international High Level Advisory/Expert Committees on trade, investment, competitiveness, regulatory issues and overlap between trade policy and internet policy.
Trade Expert for UNESCWA, UNESCAP, trade lawyer Dr. Jayant Dasgupta, India's Ambassador to the WTO from 2010 to 2014, retired from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) as Chief Adviser, Bihar State Planning Board (Sep. 2014). He had served earlier as Secretary, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (2009-10), and Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce (2004-2008), where he dealt with matters relating inter-alia to FTAs, SEZs and EOUs, Foreign Investment Promotion (including India's multi-brand retail policy), Commodity and Services Exports, Export Infrastructure and bilateral trade relations with the Americas. He was also Deputy Chief Negotiatior for India for all Doha Round negotiations between 2006 to 2008 and for framing India's negotiating stand on different WTO issues. Earlier as Director (Exports) in the Ministry of Textiles (1992-97), he was tasked with framing and implementing India's textiles and clothing quota policies, bilateral negotiations under the Multi Fibre Arrangement, GATT negotiations for the future Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) of the WTO and the implementation of the ATC after the establishment of the WTO. Ambassador Dasgupta has a Doctorate in Economics and Master's degrees in Physics, Economics, Business Administration and Social Policy & Planning and a Bachelor's degree in Law. He has also worked on an earlier EXIM project whose results will be used in this study too.
Job Titles:
- CEO, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP
CEO, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP Dr Veena Jha is a well trained and experienced Economist with several decades of accumulated competency on the study of Trade. She got her Ph.D from University College, London, and started her career with work on trade and rural employment in Africa for the ILO in 1985. She has worked with various International organisations for over 40 years. She was the Coordinator of a very large Ministry of Commerce, Government of India-DFID-UNCTAD initiative on Strategies and Preparedness for Trade and Globalisation in India. She was also a member of the United Nations Secretary General's task force on trade and millennium development goals. Her 13 books and articles on trade is a testimony of her expertise in this area. Specifically her thesis is that in a rapidly evolving global trade scenario, demand side issues have to be considered in any assessment of an individual country's trade strategy. She has extensive expertise in Cumulative General Equilibrium Modelling, Survey Analysis, WTO rules, and can draw upon a network of global experts as well as consultancy firms who would add a lot of knowledge to this project. She has advised Trade ministries and senior policy makers on dealing with disruptive trade practices and ways of dealing with them. She has coordinated large projects on export promotion policies.
MoEA in Bhutan Mr. Achyut Bhandari, a Bhutanese national, is a former diplomat (1976-1992), Director, Policy & Planning Division, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) (1992-1999) and Director-General of Trade (1999-2004), MoEA in Bhutan. He was also a member of the erstwhile Planning Commission (now GNH Commission) and Private Sector Development Committee in the second half of 1990s. Between 2000 and 2004, he was the national coordinator of Bhutan's preparation for accession to WTO (Bhutan however decided to postpone the accession in 2008). He has worked as a consultant since 2008 for UNDP, UNCTAD, DANIDA and ADB, among others. His expertise are in broad areas of economic, industrial and trade policies in Bhutan as well as bilateral, regional and international cooperation in trade and multilateral matters. Of late, he has worked under ADB for Bhutan on a range of trade facilitation issues in South Asia. Mr. Bhandari therefore brings rich national expertise to the team of consultants for the proposed project.
Driver, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP Mr. Prem Kumar is working as Driver cum Messenger for IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP. He did his schooling from Senior Secondary Government School, Uttar Pradesh and also a training program for AC technician. He has driven cars for private Ltd Company, Tour and Travels and his own commercial vehicle for the past 10 years. He has a fair deal of knowledge of electronic repair work. He has a pleasant nature and is courteous and respectful and does his duty meticulously.
Lead expert for all investment issues in the project Mr. Ramesh Abhishek will be the lead expert for all investment issues in the project. In addition, with his extensive knowledge on the problems faced by industries in India (including exporters) and relevant industrial policy issues that need to be addressed by India to develop international competitiveness. He has worked in India and internationally, and developed a deep perspective which combines policy options and a knowledge of factors that are relevant for India's investment and industrial policy. His experience as Secretary of DPIIT provides him a very strong understanding of the major concerns of firms and policy makers. Mr. Ramesh Abhishek has managed and implemented several initiatives covered by this project. and has had leadership roles in the Government of India. His management of Make in India and Ease of Doing Business initiatives are good examples of his strong base as an expert in this project. Likewise, another example is that as Secretary he had co-chaired along with British High Commissioner to India the Fast Track Mechanism between India and UK to resolve the problem faced by investors in India, and got an MoU signed between the two countries on collaborating to improve ease of doing business. His CV is a testimony of his expertise and leadership skills as well as his convening capacity.
Job Titles:
- Principal Adviser With ASL
Principal Adviser, APJ-SLG Law Offices Vishwanath is an expert in bilateral, multilateral and trade policy issues He began his career as an economic journalist from the mid-1980s covering trade and economic policy issues for some leading Indian economic dailies - The Economic Times, Financial Express and the Hindu Business Line. He also joined thehe International Trade Policy Division in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in 1999, and worked with industry in India on bilateral, multilateral and trade policy issues. From 2003 to 2005 he was the Head of the Geneva Office of CII and then Senior Director and Head of CII's International and Trade Policy Divisions based in New Delhi.
Currently,Vishwanath is Principal Adviser with ASL (APJ-SLG Law Offices), New Delhi since 2009. ASL has been retained by the Department of Commerce, Government of India to assist on matters related to the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) where Vishwanath works closely with all stakeholders to assist the responses of government agencies to global regulations and standards that have an impact on companies/sectors in India. At ASL, Viswanath works closely with different departments of the Indian government across industry sectors on issues related to bilateral, regional and multilateral trade and investment agreements. He also manages the firm's work on trade and competitiveness issues. Vishwanath assists industry across sectors to provide strategic inputs on issues of competitiveness including global economic, trade and regulatory policies. He is an occasional columnist, and writes on trade and economic issues in various financial dailies in India.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP
Research Assistant, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP Mr. Vipin Kumar holds a master's degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and B.A. in economics from SRCC. Currently, he is a statistical research assistant with IKDHVAJ ADVISERS LLP. He possessed in-depth knowledge of economic concepts, mathematics, econometrics and adept at applying theories and ideas in real-world situations. He has a strong understanding of econometric software such as STATA and R and excellent in data manipulation. He has experience with several trade-related databases, verifying the accuracy of data and making sure that the data is clean before it is used to perform econometric analysis. His key role in the company is to compile data, preliminary research, data mining and find solutions for problems related to international economics. He has worked on projects on trade policy and institutional arrangements in the Government of India. He is presently involved in framing the National E-Commerce Policy for the Royal Government of Bhutan and a project on replacing MEIS by WTO-consistent support schemes to implement the National Policy on Electronics 2019. He has also published a paper on "India's position in international economic order" (co-authored with Dr. Veena Jha and Ms. Pankhuri Bansal) in "Global Trade and Customs Journal".
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP
Executive Assistant, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP Ms. Celine Fernandes is working as an Executive Assistant at IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP. She has worked for Inter-Governmental and Private Sector in the past. She did her education from Mater Dei School and Secretarial Course and Office management skills from YMCA, Delhi. Was involved with UNCTAD-DFID- MOIC, Government of India project for approximately ₤ 8,000,000 for Strategies and Preparedness for trade and globalization in India. Took care of the administration, accounts and travel. In the private sector was in charge of media selection and for identifying right mediums for maximum mileage for the brand. Her present job involves monthly GST submission, filing, travel, arranging meetings, and a bit of research work. She is always eager to take up new opportunities and has a positive frame of mind and never says no to any work assigned to her. She was the Vice-Caption of her school Volley Ball team and is interested in singing and is an active member of the choir group of the church. She is also interested in cooking, reading and watching sports.
A Swiss and Indian resident Ms. Mala Prasad, a Swiss and Indian resident, is consultant with more than 28 years of experiences in Non-Life Insurance Sector. She has experience on cyber risk and data security. She has also worked on intellectual property and cyber insurance. In E-commerce she has worked on instruments which hedge against loss of internet connectivity, cyber-attack caused by malware and phishing.
Distinguished Fellow, RIS and Former Commerce Secretary, Government of India Rajeev Kher is a respected expert in international trade issues, and superannuated as Commerce Secretary, Government of India in 2015. He is credited with bringing in the first comprehensive Foreign Trade Policy for India, by leading trade agreements with major blocks such as EU, EFTA, RCEP and ASEAN. He has held positions in several government departments, including the Department of Trade and Commerce, the Ministry of Environment and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Delhi,senior level assignments in the Departments of Renewable Energy, Finance, Planning and Science and Technology, and administrator to two very challenging charges of District Magistrates. He also served as Chief Negotiator for India to the W.T.O, and was instrumental in securing subsidies paid to farmers in procurements for food security and protecting India's interest in the Multilateral Trade Facilitation Agreement. Kher also contributed in a significant manner to the country's first National Environment Policy, by leading Indian initiatives in preparation of a National Strategy on Sustainable Development and preparing stakeholders for Regulatory Impact Assessments. He lectures in various institutions, and has been on consultancy assignments with several multilateral, inter-governmental and bilateral institutions. He has published work on India's Patent Policy, Trade Policy, WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Product standards and Technical Regulations and several other related areas.