President

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Prof. Kirit S. Parikh is the Founder Director of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India, and currently, Chairman of the Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADE), New Delhi. He has been the President of the Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR), Ahmedabad since 1992. He has served as Senior Economic Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme from October 1997 to September 1998. He has been a member of the Economic Advisory Council for many Prime Ministers of India including Shri Rajiv Gandhi, Shri V.P.Singh, Shri Chandrashekhar, Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao, and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He obtained a B.E. in Civil Engineering from Gujarat University, India in 1956. In 1957, he did his M.Tech. (Structures) from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He has a D.Sc. in Civil Engineering and a Master's degree in Economics from MIT, USA. He has been Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India. He has been the editor of India Development Reports which provide a non-governmental assessment of India's development and policy options.

He has authored and co-authored more than 15 books in the areas of planning, water resource management, appropriate technology for housing, the optimum requirement for fertilizers, energy systems, national and international food policies, trade policies, general equilibrium modeling and natural resources accounting. He has also published numerous articles. The Government of India has awarded him the third highest civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in 2009, for his contributions to public affairs.