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About the Speakers

S. Mahendra Dev

Prof. S. Mahendra Dev is presently Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). He was the Director and Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai for 12 years during 2010-2022. Prior to this position, he was Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture from 2008 to 2010. He was Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, D.C. He was also member of the Board of IFPRI for seven years from 2013 to 2019. He was member and Acting Chairman of the National Statistical Commission, Government of India. He got the prestigious Malcolm Adisesaiah Award in 2016.

He is Chairman of the Institute for Development Studies, Andhra Pradesh and Distinguished Professor at ICFAI Faculty of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. He was independent director in Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. He is currently the Association President of the Indian Society of Agricultural Marketing.

His main areas of interest are development economics, agricultural economics Macroeconomics. He has around 150 research publications.He has written or edited 23 books. His book “Perspectives on Equitable Development” was released by the former Prime Minister of India. He is a Ph.D. from the Delhi School of Economics and post-doctoral from Yale University, USA.

Dr. Saurabh Garg

Dr. Saurabh Garg is a 1991-batch IAS officer of the Odisha Cadre currently serving as the Secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). A distinguished administrator, he has held pivotal leadership roles including CEO of UIDAI, where he strengthened the Aadhaar ecosystem, and Secretary of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Throughout his career, Dr. Garg has been instrumental in shaping India’s digital and financial landscape by leading the development of the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) program, the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), and frameworks for digital payments and FDI policy. His extensive experience spans international advisory at the World Bank, state-level innovation in agricultural technology in Odisha, and early career roots in the Tata Administrative Service. He holds a Ph.D. in International Economics and Development from Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, where he was a gold medalist, and a B.Tech from IIT Delhi, and he was also a Chevening Gurukul scholar at the London School of Economics.