S. Mahendra Dev

Prof. S. Mahendra Dev, Ph.D., is currently the Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research since 2010. Prof. Dev has considerable experience in agricultural sector and rural economy. He is Consultant and Adviser to many international organizations, such as the United Development Programme, the World Bank, the International Labor Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He has also conducted collaborative projects with IFPRI on food security and poverty. 

Prof. Dev was the Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture, in the rank of Secretary to Government of India from 2008 to 2010. He was Acting Chairman of the National Statistical Commission of India in the rank of Minister of State. From 1999 to 2008, he was Director of the Centre for Economic and Social Studies in Hyderabad, India. He was a faculty member at IGIDR for 11 years during 1988 to 1999. 

He is President of the Indian Economic Association for three years from January 2018. He was the Conference President of the 59th Annual conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics in 2017. He is the President-elect for the 78th Annual conference of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, 2018. He got the prestigious Malcolm Adisesaiah Award in 2016. He is Fellow of The Indian Society of Agricultural Economics.

Prof. Dev has been an Independent Non-Executive Director at Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited since March 15, 2013. He serves as a Trustee of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He is presently Vice Chairman of Board of Trustees of IFPRI. He is the Chairman of the Committee on Terms of Trade on Agriculture constituted by the Indian Ministry of Agriculture. He is a member of several government committees, including the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Employment and the Committee on Financial Inclusion. He is also member of the government’s newly constituted Expert Panel on poverty estimates. He was a member of working groups for India’s 9th, 10th and 11th Five -Year Plans. 

Prof Dev. has around 120 research publications in national and international journals in the areas of agricultural development, poverty and public policy, food security, employment guarantee schemes, social security and farm and nonfarm employment. He has written or edited 21 books. Oxford University Press, published his book Inclusive Growth in India: Agriculture, Poverty and Human Development. His book Perspectives on Equitable Development was released by the former Prime Minister of India. He has received honors for eminence in public service and awards for teaching economics and making outstanding contributions to education. Prof. Dev has a Ph.D. from the Delhi School of Economics and did postdoctoral research at Yale University.