Nirupam Bajpai

Dr. Nirupam Bajpai is Director of the Columbia Global Centers | South Asia and a Senior Development Advisor at the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York. 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.

Over the last two decades, Dr. Bajpai has been working at different U.S. universities beginning at the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1992; Harvard University from 1995 to 2002 and since July 2002 at Columbia University. Prior to his arrival at Columbia, he worked for seven years at Harvard University, most recently at the Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. Bajpai is considered to be a leading economic advisor of his generation. For over two decades, he has been studying the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and globalization and the impact of anthropogenic climate change and advising governments.

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, he 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 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 national 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.

Source: University Programs and Events Planning Resources, September 2013