Brief Profile

Isher Judge Ahluwalia is currently Chairperson, Board of Governors of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and Member, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Government of India. She served as Director and Chief Executive of ICRIER from 1997 to 2001. Until recently, she was Vice Chairperson, Punjab State Planning Board, Government of Punjab and Chairperson, Board of Trustees of IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute).

Dr. Ahluwalia received her B.A. from Presidency College at Calcutta University, M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics, and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in economics. Her research has focused on industrial development and economic liberalization in India.  She is an author/co-author/editor of several books including India’s Economic Reforms and Development: Essays for Manmohan Singh, which she co-edited with Prof. I.M.D Little. Her book, Industrial Growth in India: Stagnation since the Mid-Sixties (OUP, 1985) received the Batheja Memorial Award for the best book on the Indian economy in 1987. Her blend of quantitative research and policy analysis in her book, Productivity and Growth in Indian Manufacturing (OUP, 1991) focused attention of the policy makers in India on the long standing problem of poor productivity performance in the manufacturing sector of India. Dr. Ahluwalia has published many articles in professional journals and also engaged actively in policy debate in India through writing in newspapers and magazines and participating in discussions in the electronic media.

Dr. Ahluwalia is on the boards of numerous research institutes in India including the NCAER (National Council of Applied Economic Research), and the Madras School of Economics. She is also Member, Board of Governors, Global Development Network, New Delhi; Member, Research Advisory Board, Institute of International Economics, Washington, D.C; and Member, Scientific Council, BRUEGEL (Brussels European and Global Economic Laboratory), Brussels.  She was a Member of the Eminent Persons Group under the Chairmanship of Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development of the Asian Development Bank which recently submitted its report, “Towards a New Asian Development Bank in a New Asia”. She was a member of the Commission on Macro-Economics and Health set up by the WHO in January 2000 under the chairmanship of Prof. Jeffrey Sachs.