1994 — Dr Raja J. Chelliah is Professor Emeritus, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, and Chairperson, Madras School of Economics. (In 1994 he was Fiscal Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.) He has been a highly influential policy economist and has held several important positions in the Government of India and world bodies. As one of India’s leading fiscal experts, Dr Chelliah has exerted the foremost important influence in fiscal policy reforms in India. After completing his post-graduate degree from Madras University, Dr Chelliah obtained his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, as a Fullbright Scholar. He worked as a Senior Economist at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi before becoming Professor of Economics at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur and later at Osmania University, Hyderabad. He joined the International Monetary Fund and headed the Fiscal Analysis Division of the Fiscal Affairs Department from 1969 to 1975. After his return to India in 1975, Dr Chelliah played a very active role in the design and reform of fiscal policy in the country. He founded the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in 1976 which became a premier research institute for work on fiscal policy. He served as: Honorary Consultant to the Ministry of Finance; Member of the Economic Administration Reforms Commission, New Delhi (1982–83); Member of the Planning Commission (1985–89); Member of the Ninth Finance Commission and Fiscal Adviser with the rank of Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, Government of India (1992–95). He was invited to become the Chairman of the Tax Reforms Commission by the Government of Zimbabwe (1984–85). In his capacities as Chairman, Consultant and Member of various taxation enquiry committees, study groups and tax missions, he made significant contributions and gave policy directions not only to the Central and State governments of India but also to the Governments of Papua New Guinea, Peru and Zimbabwe. During his illustrious career, Dr Chelliah worked on several UN sponsored research projects and carried out and supervised research work in public economics extensively. He has authored several books and research papers. He was elected as the President of the Indian Economic Association in 1994.
1995 — Professor U R Rao, a Member of the Space Commission of India is a world renowned space scientist known for his original contributions to space science, for the establishment and development of space technology in India and for its extensive application to development problems in India. He has worked tirelessly towards the use of space technology for the development of India, in particular to benefit weaker groups in society. Satellites have initiated a total communications revolution in India, providing human connectivity to the remotest areas. They have had a dramatic impact in the expansion of TV with a talk-back facility. Perhaps his most significant contribution has been in evolving a highly innovative integrated resource management strategy leading to the development of sustainable management of the micro level to meet present and future needs without affecting ecological balance. As Vice-President of the International Astronautical Association he has taken strong initiatives in promoting the use of space technology in developing countries.
1996 — Professor Jagdish Bhagwati is the Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, New York. He is regarded as one of the foremost international trade theorists of his generation and he recently served as Economic Policy Adviser to the Director-General, GATT (1991–93). He has also made major contributions to development theory and policy, public finance, and to the new theory of political economy. His early books are acknowledged to have provided the intellectual case for the major economic reforms now under way in India. He was recently an adviser to India’s Finance Minister on India’s recent economic reforms. His most recent book India in Transition is highly regarded for its contribution to the ongoing reform process.
1999 — Mr P Chidambaram is from Tamil Nadu where he graduated with Science and Law degrees before receiving an MBA at Harvard. He is the Minister of Finance in the Government of India. (In 1999 he was a senior advocate in the Chennai High Court and has established a successful law practice in the Supreme Court of India and in various High Courts.) Mr Chidambaram was first elected to the Lok Sabha (Lower House) of the Indian Parliament in 1984 and was re-elected in the four subsequent general elections through to 1998. He was inducted in 1985 as a Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Commerce and of Personnel. He was elevated to Minister of State of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, and of Home Affairs in 1986 until elections in 1989. Following general elections in 1991, he was Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Chairman, Board of Trade in 1991–92, and again in 1995–96. He held the portfolio of Finance Minister from June 1996 until March 1998. He is a founder-member of the Tamil Maanila Congress and was leader of the regional Tamil Maanila Group in the Lok Sabha from 1998. Mr Chidambaram was one of the architects of the New Economic Policy initiated by the Narasimha Rao government in 1991. He was also a member of the United Front Sub-Committee which drafted the UF’s Common Minimum Programme in June 1996. Mr Chidambaram was rated as Asia’s best Finance Minister in 1997 by the London-based ‘Euromoney’ publication. He has attended the annual sessions of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. He was leader of the Indian Delegation to the India–Australia Joint Ministerial Meetings in New Delhi in 1992 and 1995.
2001 — Dr C Rangarajan is Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. He was Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Chair of the National Statistical Commission designed to oversee a review of India’s statistical infrastructure since November 1997 to 2003. From 1992 to 1997, he was Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and guided the reforms through its comprehensive program of economic liberalisation and reforms. During his tenure as Governor, he was responsible for initiating widespread reforms in India’s financial and monetary sector including the current account convertibility of the rupee. The rapid economic growth (almost double the average rate achieved during 1950 to 1990) and macroeconomic stability enjoyed by the country earned him the respect of the international financial community, which, in 1997, earned him one of the best central bankers in the world. Dr Rangarajan has a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, he has taught at Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania; Graduate School of Business, New York University and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad — India’s premier business school.
2002 — Lord Meghnad J. Desai is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the LSE. He is founder of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance. From 1990 to 1995 he was Director of LSE’s Development Studies Institute and has been at the LSE for over 30 years. His latest book is Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism. He was born in Baroda, India in 1940. He is a British subject, but Indian by origin and was created Lord Desai of St Clement Danes in April 1991. He has a BA (Hons) from the University of Bombay (1958), a MA from the University of Bombay (1960) and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania (1964) as well as honorary doctorates from the University of Kingston, Duniv University of Middlesex, Duniv University of East London, and London Guildhall University. Recent publications include: ‘Seattle: A Tragi-comedy’, in After Seattle: Globalisation and its discontents, Gunnell, B & D Timms (eds) Catalyst, Aldgate Press, 2000; ‘Communalism, Secularism and the Dilemma of Indian Nationhood’, in Asian Nationalism, M Leifer (ed.), Routledge, 2000; ‘Globalisation: Neither Ideology nor Utopia’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, autumn/winter 2000 volume XIV/1; ‘Well being or Welfare?’ in Public Policy for the 21st Century: Social and Economic Essays in Memory of Henry Neuberger, Fraser, N & J Hills (eds) Policy Press; London, 2001; Marx’s Revenge; The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism (Verso; London, New York), 2002
2003 — Professor Pranab Bardhan is Professor of Economics in the University of California at Berkeley. He has been at the faculty at MIT, Delhi School of Economics and Indian Statistical Institute. He is the Chief Editor of the Journal of Development Economics, and co-chair of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Inequality and Economic Performance. He is the author of nine books and numerous journal articles in the areas of political economy, agrarian institutions, economic development, and international trade. Two collections of his selected articles have been published in early 2003: International Trade, Growth, and Development (Blackwell) and Poverty, Agrarian Structure, and Political Economy in India (Oxford University Press).
2004 — Dr Vijay Kelkar is Advisor to the Minister of Finance in the rank of a Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi. He has more than 30 years of post-PhD experience at high level economic policy-making relating to both national and international economic policy issues, and in disseminating experiences through seminars and teaching at graduate level on development economics, international trade and finance and globalization. Dr Kelkar has served with the Tariff Commission; the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas; Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Economic Policy & Planning, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas; Ministry of Commerce; and Planning Division, in the Planning Commission. He was Chairman of the Bureau of Industrial Costs & Prices and Secretary to the Government of India; Director and Coordinator of the International Trade Division, UNCTAD, Geneva, and a consultant at the Office of the Secretary General, United Nations, UNCTAD, Geneva. Educated at the University of Pune, India; the University of Minnesota; and the University of California at Berkeley, USA, his publications include: ‘South Asia in 2020: Economic Outlook’, in Chambers (ed.), South Asia in 2020: Future Strategic Balances and Alliances; ‘India’s Reforms Agenda: Micro, Meso and Macro Economic Reforms’, Annual Fellows Lecture, University of Pennsylvania, 2001; ‘Transforming India’s Oil Industry — The Agenda Beyond Pricing Reforms’, Second Vasant J. Sheth Memorial Lecture, 1997; India: Development Policy Imperatives, Vijay Kelkar & Bhanoji Rao (eds), Tata Mcgraw-Hill, New Delhi, 1996; ‘Strategies of Privatisation: An Approach to the Oil Industry’, in Rothermund (ed.), Liberalising India — Progress and Problems, New Delhi, 1996; India’s Oil Policy in the Coming Century’, 3rd Lovraj Kuma Memorial Lecture, Indian Society for chemicals Engineers, 1996; and ‘Efficiency of Public Sector Enterprises’, the Eighth Dr Deepak K Marchant Memorial Lecture, Bombay, 1991.
2005 — Professor M S Swaminathan has been acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of the 20th century and one of only three from India, the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. He has been described by the United Nations Environment Programme as ‘the Father of Economic Ecology’ and by Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the United Nations, as ‘a living legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction’. He was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee set up in1980 to take follow-up action on the Vienna Plan of Action. He has also served as Independent Chairman of the FAO Council and President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. He is the current President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Professor Swaminathan’s contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India have led to his being widely referred to as the scientific leader of the green revolution movement. His advocacy of sustainable agriculture leading to an evergreen revolution makes him an acknowledged world leader in the field of sustainable food security. The International Association of Women and Development conferred on him the first international award for significant contributions to promoting the knowledge, skill, and technological empowerment of women in agriculture and for his pioneering role in mainstreaming gender considerations in agriculture and rural development. Professor Swaminathan was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1971, the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986, and the first World Food Prize in 1987. Professor Swaminathan is a Fellow of many of the leading scientific academies of India and the world, including the Royal Society of London and the US National Academy of Sciences. He has received 46 honorary doctorate degrees from universities around the world.
2006 — Dr K. Kasturirangan, in 1976–83 was Project Director, Bhaskar-I and II, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satellite Centre, Bangalore. In 1980–89 was Project Director, IRS-1A, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. From 1984–86 was Deputy Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. From 1986–89, Associate Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. 1990 to March 1994 Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. From April 1994 to Aug. 2003, Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India/Chairman, ISRO Chairman, Space Commission Chairman, Governing Body, National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad Chairman, Antrix Corporation Limited, Bangalore. Aug. 2003 Nominated to Rajya Sabha. Jan.–Feb. and Oct. 2004 onwards Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Jan. 2004–Feb. 2004 Member, Committee on Energy and Aug. 2004 onwards Member, Library Committee. Oct. 2005 onwards Member, Parliamentary Forum on Water Conservation and Management. Dr Kasturirangan has a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Physics, M.Sc. (Physics) with specialization in Electronics, and a Ph.D. (Astronomy and Astrophysics). He was educated at Bombay University, Mumbai and Physical Research Laboratory, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad.