16th International Conference on The Future of Asia

Born on July 6, 1951

Rajiv Kumar is currently the Director of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), one of India's leading independent economic policy think tanks. He is a non-executive member of the Central Board of Directors of State Bank of India, and part time Member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. He is a member of the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) Board of Trustees (2009-2010), and also on the Board of Directors for the United States-India Educational Foundation.

He was a member of the National Security Advisory Board for two years until October 2008. Dr. Kumar was a Professor at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (1987-1989); worked in the Government of India from 1989 to 1995, first in the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Projects, Ministry of Industry (1989-1991) and then as Economic Adviser in the Department of Economic Affairs Ministry of Finance (1991-1995). He worked at the Asian Development Bank, Manila for nearly ten years (1995-2005) and was the Chief Economist at the Confederation of Indian Industries, New Delhi during 2004-2006. He has a D.Phil. in Economics from Oxford University and Ph.D from Lucknow University and has several books and publications to his credit. He is also an active columnist.