Dr. Nirupam Bajpai is a Senior Development Advisor at CGSD and Director of the South Asia Program. He is also a member of the U.N. Millennium Project. Before joining Columbia University in July 2002, Dr. Bajpai worked at the Center for International Development at Harvard University from 2000 to 2002, and prior to that at the Harvard Institute for International Development from 1995 to 2000. Dr. Bajpai held a postdoctoral position in the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and also worked at MIT's Media Lab Asia as a Senior Fellow. Currently, he is also an Associate Editor of the journal Asian Economic Papers, published by MIT Press and is also on the Editorial Board of the journal Economic Change and Restructuring published by Springer. A macroeconomist by training, his current research interests include economic growth and development, information technology, and the relationship between geography, demography, and economic growth. His current work focuses on economic policy reform in India, China, and the South and East Asian regions. In India, his work is focused primarily at the sub-national level with a view to achieve rapid economic growth in the states via continued reforms that improve institutions and economic policies.
Since October 1999, Dr. Bajpai has been informally advising the Prime Ministers of India. He was an economic advisor to the Honorable Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India from 1999 to 2004, and several of his Cabinet Ministers, including the Ministers of Finance, Commerce and Industry, and Information Technology. Since June 2004, Dr. Bajpai has been advising the Honorable Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India and several of his Cabinet Ministers, including the Ministers of Health and Family Welfare, Finance, and Information Technology and Communications.
Dr. Bajpai has led several teams of social and physical scientists to conduct research and advise the State Government of Tamil Nadu from 1998 to 2002 and the State Government of Gujarat from 2003 to 2005. Currently, he leads a team of social and physical scientists working on a project on scaling up services in rural India.
Dr. Bajpai is the author or co-author of numerous articles on a variety of issues relating to economic reforms in developing countries. He has written extensively on macroeconomic policy and management focusing on fiscal policy, and on the role of trade and foreign direct investment policies on growth and development. In 1998, he co-edited a volume entitled "India in the Era of Economic Reforms" along with Jeffrey Sachs and Ashutosh Varshney which was published by Oxford University Press. His most recent work focuses on scaling up health and education services in rural India, global services outsourcing analyzing issues relating to cost and quality. For the U.N. Millennium Project, his recent papers include "Reaching the Millennium Development Goals in South Asia" and "Primary Health Care in India: Issues of Coverage and Quality."
Dr. Bajpai’s research interests include the links of health and development, economic geography, globalization, economic development and growth, global competitiveness, and macroeconomic policies in developing and developed countries.
India Honors Earth Institute Economist Nirupam Bajpai for Development Work - On the eve of India's 59th Republic Day on January 25, 2008, the President of India has conferred on Dr. Bajpai one of the country's high civilian award, the 'Padma Shri'.
 |
 |
The Gujarat Project on Sustainable Development
Strategic Advising to Policymakers in India
Selected Articles in Newspapers and Magazines
Tel: 212-854-9494
Fax: 212-854-5637
Email: nb2046@columbia.edu
Return to People