PadmaShri awardee Dr. Nirupam Bajpai is
visiting Medak district from 15th April to 17th April.
Sri Nirupam Bajpai is a senior development advisor at the Earth Institute at Columbia University
in New York
and Director of the South Asian Program. He is also a member of the United
Nations Millennium Project on the Millennium Development Goals, the
internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by
the year 2015.
Dr.
Bajpai has been working at different U.S. universities beginning with
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1992. He worked at Harvard University
from 1995 to 2002 and since July 2002 till date at Columbia University .
Dr. Bajpai worked at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic
Relations before moving to the Economics Department at MIT. Prior to his
arrival at Columbia University , Dr. Bajpai worked for seven years at Harvard University ,
most recently at the Kennedy School of Government’s Center for International
Development leading the Harvard India Program and prior to that at the Harvard
Institute for International Development, Harvard University .
During this period, Dr. Bajpai also worked at MIT's Media Lab Asia (MLA) as a
Senior Fellow.
A macroeconomist by training, Dr.
Bajpai’s research interests include the links of health and development,
economic geography, globalization, emerging markets, economic development and
growth, global competitiveness, and macroeconomic policies in developing and
developed countries. His work focuses on economic policy reform in India , China ,
sub-Saharan Africa and the South and East
Asian regions. Currently, he is 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.
Dr. Bajpai is considered to be a
leading economic advisor of his generation. For almost two decades, Dr. Bajpai
has been studying the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation,
and globalization and advising governments, both at the federal and the state
levels. In India ,
Dr. Bajpai is also working towards combining economic development with
environmental sustainability to promote the mitigation of anthropogenic climate
change.
Since June 2004, Dr. Bajpai has had the
high honor and privilege of advising the Honorable Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime
Minister of India and several of his cabinet ministers, including the Minister
of Health and Family Welfare. Earlier, between 1999 and 2004, Dr. Bajpai served
as an economic advisor to the Honorable Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime
Minister of India and to several of his cabinet ministers, including the
Ministers of Finance, Commerce and Industry, and Information Technology.
Dr. Bajpai has led several teams of
social and physical scientists to conduct research and advice several State
Governments on “Scaling up Services in Rural India” wherein teams led by Dr.
Bajpai were working with Rural Communities in India . As far as his work in India is concerned, Dr Bajpai's work most
notably along with Professor Jeffrey Sachs has helped advice policymakers on a
variety of issues relating to the Indian economy and India ’s economic reforms, both at
the federal and state levels.
Dr. Bajpai is the recipient of several
honors and awards. On the eve of India’s 59th Republic Day on January 25, 2008,
Dr. Bajpai was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ by the President of India, which is a
high civilian honor bestowed by the Government of India. In the category of
‘Literature and Education’, Dr. Bajpai is the youngest awardee ever since the
Padma Awards were instituted in 1954 having been conferred the award at the age
of 45.
Padma Shri Dr. Bajpai is launching
education project in Medak district on 17th April. The district
administration of Medak welcomes Dr. Bajpai, with honor.