About the Author

Rajiv Kumar is currently Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He is also on the board of several important government organisations including the National Security Advisory Board and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Dr. Kumar has completed his D.Phil. in Economics in 1982 from Oxford University. In a distinguished career spanning over 25 years, Dr. Kumar has held several key positions in a wide range of institutions. He served as a Professor at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. He has also worked as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India and in the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Projects, Ministry of Industry. From 2004 to January 2006, he was Chief Economist with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Prior to joining the CII, he had worked at the Asian Development Bank for nearly 10 years as a Principal Economist. He has several books and publications to his credit and contributes regularly to newspapers and journals. Abhijit Sen Gupta is a Fellow at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He holds a PhD in International Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. Sen Gupta has worked as a researcher in a number of international institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He has also taught for two years at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has published several articles in India as well as abroad and is a regular contributor to the popular press.