Santosh Kumar Mehrotra
Professor of Economics, Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University

He was Director-General, Institute of Applied Manpower Research, Planning Commission (in the rank of Secretary, Government of India) (2009-2014).

He is a human development economist, whose research and writings have had most influence in the areas of labour/ employment, skill development, child poverty, and the economics of education. He brings a combination of professional experience: with the Indian government as a policy maker and adviser, with international organisations as a technical expert, having lived on three continents and travelled to 63 countries providing technical advice to governments; and as an academic whose research work has been translated into Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German.

Dr S Mehrotra has an MA in Economics from the New School for Social Research, New School University, New York (1981), and Phd in Economics in Cambridge (1985). Was Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 1988-91.

From 1991 to 2006, he spent 15 years with two UN agencies – UNICEF and UNDP (Chief economist of UNDP's global Human Development Report (2002-05), New York; led the research programme on developing countries at Unicef's global research institute, the Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, Italy (1999-2002).

He returned to India in September 2006 to head the Rural Development Division, and then head, Development Policy Division, Planning Commission (till August 2009). An author of several chapters in India's 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012), and the 12th Five Year Plan. Team leader, second national Human Development Report (Oxford, 2011). He held a three-year appointment as Parkin Visiting Professor at the Centre for International Development in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Bath University, UK (2010-13).

Publications: .Written or edited 11 books, which are taught in universities around the world:

1. Seizing the Demographic Dividend. Policies to Achieve Inclusive Growth in India (Cambridge University Press, 2015);

2. India's Skills Challenge: Reforming Vocational Education and Training to Harness the Demographic Dividend, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2014;

3. Land Policies for Growth with Equity:Transforming the Agrarian Structure in Uttar Pradesh (Sage, 2014);

4. Countering Naxalism with Development: The Challenge of State Security with Social Justice (Sage, 2014).

5. Development with a Human Face.Experiences in Social Achievement and Economic Growth (Clarendon Press, 1997 and Oxford, 2000);

6. Le Developpement a Visage Humain, Economica, Paris, 2001;

7. The Economics of Elementary Education in India, Sage Publications, 2006;

8. Universalizing Elementary Education in India. Uncaging the Tiger Economy (Oxford, 2005);

9. Asian Informal Workers. Global Risks, Local Protection (Routledge, London, 2007), and

10. Eliminating Human Poverty: Macro-economic Policies for Equitable Growth (Zed, London, 2007).

11. India and the Soviet Union: Trade and Technology Transfer, Cambridge University Press, 1990).