Shrawan Nigam
Senior Consultant
snigam@icrier.res.in

Brief Profile

Shrawan Nigam is a Senior Consultant at ICRIER, a premier policy think tank.

He is a Member of the Working Group for the Revision of the Wholesale Price Index.  He is also a Member of the Experts Committee on Development of Services Price Index.

During his previous assignment as Senior Adviser, Planning Commission, he was in-charge of the International Economics Division and Development Policy Division. He was Member-Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Reducing Barriers to Inter-State Trade.  He was also Member-Secretary of the Committee on Technical Innovation and Venture Capital.  He was the Team Leader for preparing a Development Plan for Nangarhar Province for the Afghanistan government.  He was responsible for organizing the Indian participation in the Seminar on Development Experiences for the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) seminar at Rio de Janeiro (2005).  He prepared the first draft of the paper on providing Independence to Regulatory Authorities (2006).

As Economic Adviser to Government of India, Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce & Industry (1998-2004), he initiated action to create a Services Price Index.  He was in the negotiating team to WTO for industrial tariffs (NAMA).

As Chief General Manger, Industrial Finance Corporation of India Ltd, he was in-charge of economic research and corporate communications. 

As Director (Planning & Research) in Mormugao Port Trust, Goa, he devised the system for the equitable allocation of the new mechanical ore handling plant (MOHP) and formulated the pricing strategy for the MOHP. 

He has been closely associated with India’s economic reforms.  In the Bureau of Industrial Costs & Prices he was the secretary of the Committee on the Tariff Policy for Capital Goods (1986).  In the Ministry of Finance, Dept. of Economic Affairs, he was the secretary of the High Level Committee on Rationalisation of Excise Duties (1987).  His Report (in MoF) on Industrial, Trade and Tariff Policies (1989), was the basis for the initial customs duty reductions in 1991, prior to Chelliah Committee Report on Customs Duty 1993.  In the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, he was involved with the reforms to withdraw the Administered Price Mechanism, and with the disinvestment of the oil & gas PSEs.

He has been on the Board of Directors of Gas Authority of India Ltd, Oil India Ltd, IBP Ltd, Engineering Projects India Ltd., HMT Ltd, HMT Watches Ltd, Risk Capital & Technology Corporation Ltd, Max India Ltd, DCM Ltd, Alpha Drugs Ltd and T-Series Industries Ltd and
on the Board of Governors of Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, Science & Technology Entrepreneurs’ Park, Kanpur, Gramin Vikas Nidhi, Guwahati, and RM Institute of Hospitality Management, New Delhi.

His interests include international relations, trade, industry, tax policy, petroleum & gas, transport & infrastructure and competition and regulatory issues.

He obtained MPA from Harvard University, M. Phil. from Glasgow University, and M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics.

Selected research work :