Course on Value-chain Analysis for the BIMSTEC Region

Ms. Rupa Chanda is the Director of Trade, Investment and Innovation. Prior to that, she was a Professor of Economics at IIM Bangalore and the Dean of Programmes at the institute. She has worked as an Economist at the IMF and briefly served as Head, UNESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia in New Delhi. Prof. Chanda received her PhD in Economics from Columbia University and her Bachelor’s from Harvard University. She teaches Macroeconomics and International Trade and has received teaching awards. Her research interests include the WTO, trade in services, regional integration and migration. She has undertaken research and professional assignments for international and Indian organizations and has published extensively in the form of books, journal articles, book chapters, and reports. She is active professionally as a research guide, reviewer, and member of several expert committees. She was member of the WHO’s Review Committee on the functioning of the International Health Regulations (2015-16) and  the WHO’s Expert Advisory Group, International Recruitment of Health Personnel (2019-20).

Mr. Biswajit Nag is a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi. Involved in empirical economic research for more than two decades, he also has teaching experience in Germany, Italy, Tanzania and Ukraine. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), Japan (2018-19). Earlier, he served the Poverty and Development Division of the UN-ESCAP, Bangkok (2003-04). He was also Chair Professor of India Studies in Ukraine sponsored by Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in Jan-Feb 2014.

Currently, he is one of the advisors on Global Value Chain at Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network (ARTNet) and advisory board member of UN-ESCAP’s E-learning courses on Trade and SDGs. He is also one of the advisory members to Infinite Sum Modelling, a US based Research Company and Deft Advisory and Research Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Prof Nag has authored two books, edited two and wrote number of research papers in peer reviewed journals. He has completed number of projects for Government of India, international agencies (UN, IFC/World Bank, WTO, EU, JICA, DFID, and ADB etc.) and private sector. Prof Nag is currently specialising in Global Value Chain, Trade & Technology and Implication of Trade on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He teaches International Economics, Trade Analytics, Advance topics in Macroeconomics and Econometrics.

Dr. Prabir De is a Professor at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi. He is also the Coordinator of the ASEAN-India Centre (AIC) at RIS. He has over three decades of full-time research and teaching experiences in India and abroad. He works in the field of international economics and has research interests in international trade and development. He has been conducting policy research for the Government of India and several national and international organisations including several UN agencies and multilateral development organisations. Graduated from the Scottish Church College in Calcutta, he did his Masters in economics from the Calcutta University and Ph.D. in economics from the Jadavpur University, Calcutta. He was a Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO), Japan; Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo; Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), Seoul; and Visiting Senior Fellow of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Bangkok. He has contributed several research papers in international journals and written books on trade and development. His recent book includes Act East to Act Indo-Pacific: India’s Expanding Neighbourhood, published by the Knowledge World in 2020. He is the Founding Editor of the Journal of Asian Economic Integration, published by Sage. 

Nihal Pitigala is an economist with over 20 years of experience providing analytical and advisory work to promote sustainable trade and market-led development in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Dr. Pitigala brings extensive expertise in diagnosing and assessing the impacts of regional trade agreements and trade policy reforms (including qualitative and quantitative modelling), regional and global value chains and standards and has published numerous peer reviewed articles. Dr. Pitigala is currently engaged by the World Bank to develop a strategy for the regional integration of four Sahel countries in West Africa. He was previously engaged as the Lead Economist for a USAID/State Department contracted initiative on Pan African regional integration program. He has similar experience in across South, Central and East Asia. At the World Bank, Dr. Pitigala supported both research (Development Economics Research Group) and operational work (PREM Trade Group)—this included several policy papers on trade policy as part of CEM or PRSP and through recent Diagnostic Trade Integration Strategies in Asia and Africa. He also helped the development of the World Bank Group’s (Prem-Trade) Trade Strategy, 2011-2021. He obtained a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex. His selected areas of expertise and recent experience include:

• Regional and Multilateral Trade Analysis and Negotiations—Diagnostics of regional trade integration, including regional communities in Africa (EAC, COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS, EU-EPAs), in Asia include (SAFTA, ASEAN, APTA, BIMSTEC, TPP and bilateral FTAs), MENA (GAFTA, Agadir), and Latin America (MERCOSUR). Co-manager of the World Bank’s technical assistance to developing countries in preparation for the WTO Doha and Uruguay Rounds.

• Trade Facilitation: diagnostics of trade frictions across trade and transport corridors in Central Asia. Programs facilitating the implementation of WTO TFA. Recent lecture series for policy-makers in East Asia on the implementation of the WTO TFA.

• Trade Competitiveness—analytical/empirical and policy work on trade policy reforms, export competitiveness, and trade diagnostics (DTISs) and development strategies, analytical/empirical work on vertical integration (of regional and global value chains) and export diversification.

• Investment policy and business enabling environment of SMEs—policy, legal, regulatory and institutional reforms to improve investment climate/business enabling environment.

• Other skills: Stata, SPSS, Experience in econometric analysis using GTAP, Partial Equilibrium, gravity modelling. a proven track record of effective communication and liaison with senior government officials. Training of government staff on trade integration, strategic trade and export policies and trade and investment regulatory reform.