Isher Judge Ahluwalia

An economist with high credentials, Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia is also the wife of Montek Singh Ahluwalia. She holds a Ph.D. from MIT, a M.A. from Delhi School of Economics, and a B.A. with Honors from University of Calcutta.

She has been the Chairperson of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) from 2005.

She joined the Maryland School of Public Affairs faculty in fall 2002. As a visiting professor, she teaches courses in the fields of macroeconomics, international economic policy, and international economic development. She was a Senior Fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and an economist at the International Monetary Fund.

She has been awarded the Mahila Shiromani Award for distinguished contributions to the development of India and achieving outstanding excellence in economics; the Batheja Memorial Award for best book on the Indian Economy (1987); and the L.N. Gupta Memorial Award for Social Sciences (Economics, 1986). She has also served as the chairpserson for the board of Trustees of the International Food Policy Research Institute. 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.