Santosh Mehrotra

Last updated

Santosh K. Mehrotra
Born(1955-07-30)30 July 1955
Lucknow, UP, India)
NationalityIndian
Academic career
Institution Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India
Field Human development, economist
Alma mater Cambridge University
The New School (New York City)
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Allahabad University
La Martiniere College
Contributionshuman development economist
Website https://santoshmehrotraeco0


Santosh Mehrotra (Lucknow, U.P. India, 30 July 1955) is a development economist, whose research and writings have had most influence in the areas of labour, employment, skill development, on the relationship between human development and economic growth, child poverty, and the economics of education. He was an economic adviser in the United Nations system in New York City, Italy, and Thailand (1991–2006), and technocrat in the government of India (2006–2014), apart from making contributions to academic research since the mid-1980s. He has also in recent years established a reputation as an institution-builder in the field of research in India, despite facing difficult odds. He brings a combination of professional experience: with the Indian government as a policy maker and adviser, with international organisations as a technical expert, having lived on three continents and travelled to 63 countries providing technical advice to governments; and as an academic whose research work has been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German.

Contents

He is married to Sushma Kapoor, [1] who was the Deputy Regional Director, UNWOMEN, South Asia, and has a daughter, Pia Sukanya, who is a singer, music-maker, actress and film director. [2]

Early life and education

Mehrotra was the son of an officer of the Indian Administrative Service. He had most of his early education in schools in Lucknow, including the historic La Martiniere College. He finished his schooling in Allahabad, the university town. His mother, herself a poet in Hindi, from Allahabad, had grown up surrounded by stories of the nationalist movement against the British, and both parents imbued him with a deep sense of nationalism. She was the daughter of a distinguished lawyer, who was Mayor of Allahabad. Her father, KP Kakkar had defeated Motilal Nehru, the father of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in the city elections to the Mayor-ship in 1922.

After Mehrotra graduated from Allahabad University, his father expected him to join the Indian Administrative Service. However, he wanted to become an academic and won two fellowships to study abroad, first to obtain a master's degree in Economics at The New School for Social Research, New York city. Here he was taught by well-known economists, like Edward J. Nell, Robert Heilbroner, Ross Thomson, and Gita Sen. Mehrotra then moved to Cambridge University to do a PhD in Economics.

Professional life

Finishing the PhD in 1985 he returned to India to a life in academia. In 1988 he became associate professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

In 1991, Mehrotra was called away to the United Nations system in New York. From 1991 to 2006, he spent 15 years with two UN agencies – UNICEF [3] and UNDP. In the latter, he was the chief economist of the global Human Development Report (2002–05), New York. Before that he led the research programme on developing countries at UNICEF's global research institute, the Innocenti Research Center, Florence, Italy (1999–2002).

After an international career, he left the UN to return to India in September 2006 to head the Rural Development Division of Planning Commission (India), where he was also the Economic Adviser for the Social Sectors. He then headed Development Policy Division, Planning Commission (till August 2009). [4]

He was Director-General, National Institute of Labour Economics Research (earlier called Institute of Applied Manpower Research [5] ), Planning Commission (in the rank of Secretary, Government of India) [6] until August 2014.

He also held a three-year appointment as Parkin Visiting Professor at the Centre for International Development in the Faculty of Social Sciences, at the University of Bath, [7] UK (2010–13).

Mehrotra was till mid 2020 Professor of Economics, Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, [8]

Santosh Mehrotra is currently visiting professor, at the Centre for Development studies, University of Bath, UK.

Contributions

He was a lead author of several chapters in India's 11th Five Year Plan (Five-Year Plans of India) (2007–2012). For the 11th Plan, he led the team that authored several chapters related to watershed development; land reforms; and food security and nutrition. Later, for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012–17) he led the team that wrote the chapters on Employment and on Skill Development. [9] He was also the Team Leader of the second-ever national Human Development Report of India. [10]

In early 2011 he led the drafting of a National Vocational Education Qualification Framework for India, which is the basis of skill development now being implemented by the Government of India generally, and especially the Ministry of Human Resource Development. [11] The NVEQF (now called the National Skills Qualification Framework) [12] [13] is the basis of vocational education being introduced in class 9 in India, enabling 15-year-old children in schools in India to access vocational education. This was a change for India's school children, as millions of them drop out after completing 8 years of compulsory schooling. Currently he is a member of the National Steering Committee of National Skills Qualification Framework, MHRD

As Member-Secretary of the Expert Group on 'Development Challenges in Extremist-Affected Areas', he steered a landmark report to the Planning Commission, which became the basis of several policy initiatives by the Planning Commission for rural areas that are Maoist-affected districts. [14]

He was a member of the NC Saxena Committee on 'Criteria to Identify the Poor', and a member of its Drafting Committee. [15] He co-authored the research paper that became the basis of the methodology now adopted by the government of India in the Socio-Economic Census over 2011–2013 to identify the poor conducted.

He was also a member of the Expert Group of government of India to revamp the self-help groups based programme, SGSY (Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana), and convert it into the National Rural Livelihood Mission. NRLM has been taken to scale all over India, as a much improved programme to promote women's self-help groups.

He was a member of the inter-ministerial Expert Group that designed the first major Conditional Cash Transfer for the Govt of India (Ministry of Women and Child Development), giving cash transfers to pregnant and lactating mothers, 2009.

He was the only Indian economist on the international review panel of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation 2009–10. [16] He was a member of the World Bank's High Level Advisory Panel, Washington, DC, in 2011 to advise IDA/World Bank on criteria for selecting projects for conducting Impact Evaluations. For the World Bank he was invited by its Independent Evaluation Group prepare a paper on the state of evaluation in India. [17]

Mehrotra writes regularly for a number of English [18] and Hindi language newspapers on these issues. [19] He also appears regularly on Indian and international TV channels [20] as a poverty specialist and human development economist. [21]

Controversies

When in 2013 the data suggested that despite the fastest economic growth in the history of independent India, the growth was 'jobless', with manufacturing employment actually falling in absolute terms, he had no hesitation in so averring, despite heading a Planning Commission-funded research institute. Mehrotra was repeatedly interviewed by TV channels, and demonstrated that there had been jobless growth. [22] [23]

Mehrotra has also shown through his research that the government commitment to skilling 500 million people between 2012 and 2022 is based on an incorrect estimate, and the government's instruction to its ministries to plan skill development capacity accordingly risks wasting resources. He showed that the numbers to be skilled over 10 years was only about 200 million, a daunting enough task. [24]

Awards and fellowships

National advisory boards

He has been on a large number of advisory boards in India since 2006:

International advisory boards

Books and publications

He has written or edited eleven books, which are taught in universities around the world:

Research articles

Many other research articles can be found on this web page.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic development</span> Process and policies to improve economic well-being

In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and objectives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montek Singh Ahluwalia</span> Indian economist and civil servant

Montek Singh Ahluwalia is an Indian economist and civil servant who was the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, a position which carried the rank of a Cabinet Minister. He tendered his resignation for this post in May 2014 following the impending end of the UPA II regime at the center. He was previously the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at the International Monetary Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahbub ul Haq</span> Pakistani economist (1934–1998)

Mahbub ul-Haq was a Pakistani economist, international development theorist, and politician who served as the Minister of Finance of Pakistan from 10 April 1985 to 28 January 1986, and again from June to December 1988 as a caretaker. Regarded as one of the greatest economists of his time, Haq devised the Human Development Index, widely used to gauge the development of nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pakistan Institute of Development Economics</span>

The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics is a post-graduate research institute and a public policy think tank located in the vicinity of Islamabad, Pakistan.

The second goal in the United Nations Millennium Development Goal is to achieve Universal Primary Education, more specifically, to "ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be required to complete a full course of primary schooling." Education is vital to meeting all other Millennium Development Goals: "Educating children gives the next generation the tools to fight poverty and prevent disease, including malaria and AIDS." Despite the significance of investing in education, the recent report, Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All: Findings from the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children—produced by UNESCO Institute for Statistics and UNICEF found that the world has missed this 2015 target of universal primary education, and there are currently 58 million children, of primary school age, out of school worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arjun Kumar Sengupta</span> Indian economist and politician

Arjun Kumar Sengupta was an Indian economist. He served as a Member of the Parliament of India, representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha from 2006 until his death. In addition to being a Parliamentarian, he was one of India's most noted economists, and led a multifaceted career as an academician and economic policy administrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre for Development Studies</span> Indian research institution in Trivandrum, Kerala

The Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India is a premier Social Science research institute. It is also a higher education institution providing M.A. course in applied economics and PhD course in economics. The institute is internationally reputed for being a centre for advanced learning in economics. Its main objective is to promote research, teaching and training in disciplines relevant to development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sukhadeo Thorat</span> Indian economist

Sukhadeo Thorat an Indian economist, educationist, professor and writer. He is the former chairman of the University Grants Commission. He is professor emeritus in Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is an expert on B. R. Ambedkar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deepak Nayyar</span> Indian economist

Deepak Nayyar is an Indian economist and academician. He is a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Chairperson of the Board of Governors of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) New Delhi. He has taught at the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), and the New School for Social Research, New York City. He was Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi from 2000 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labour in India</span> Child labour

A significant proportion of children in India are engaged in child labour. In 2011, the national census of India found that the total number of child labourers, aged [5–14], to be at 10.12 million, out of the total of 259.64 million children in that age group. The child labour problem is not unique to India; worldwide, about 217 million children work, many full-time.

Amir Ullah Khan is a professional economist and professor who works on development issues primarily in the health, education, and agriculture sectors. Prof. Khan has worked for the Ministry of Finance, Government of India and the UNDP at Project LARGE. He is a former Deputy Director and policy advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prof. Khan writes a regular column for the business news publication livemint.com and for the newspaper etemaaddaily.com He is also a visiting professor at the Indian School of Business and at NALSAR in Hyderabad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Jolly</span>

Sir Arthur "Richard" Jolly, is a leading development economist who was named one of the fifty key thinkers globally in this field of economics.

Renana Jhabvala is an Indian social worker based in Ahmedabad, India, who has been active for decades in organising women into organisations and trade unions in India, and has been extensively involved in policy issues relating to poor women and the informal economy. She is best known for her long association with the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), India, and for her writings on issues of women in the informal economy.

Naila Kabeer is an Indian-born British Bangladeshi social economist, research fellow, writer and Professor at the London School of Economics. She was also president of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) from 2018 to 2019. She is on the editorial committee of journals such as Feminist Economist, Development and Change, Gender and Development, Third World Quarterly and the Canadian Journal of Development Studies. She works primarily on poverty, gender and social policy issues. Her research interests include gender, poverty, social exclusion, labour markets and livelihoods, social protection, focused on South and South East Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolph van der Hoeven</span>

Rolph Eric van der Hoeven is emeritus professor on employment and development economics at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and was appointed in 2009 as a member of the Committee on Development Cooperation of the International Advisory Council (AIV) to the Dutch Government. Dr. van der Hoeven is a member of the Board of Trustees of the KNCV Tuberculosis Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute of Economic Growth</span> Indian economic research institute

The Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) is an autonomous, multidisciplinary Centre for advanced research and training. Established in 1958, its faculty of about 23 social scientists and a large body of supporting research staff focus on areas of social and policy concern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Council of Applied Economic Research</span>

National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) is India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research think tank. Established in New Delhi in 1956, it acquired considerable national and international standing within only a few decades of its founding. It is one of a handful of think tanks globally that combine rigorous analysis and policy outreach with deep data collection capabilities, especially for household surveys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. M. Khusro</span>

Dr. Syed Ali Mohammad Hussain a.k.a. A. M. Khusro was born in a noble family of Hyderabad. He was also related to the Royal family Nizam of Hyderabad. He served as the Vice-Chancellor Aligarh Muslim University (1974–79), a diplomat, head of charitable Institutions – Aga Khan Foundation (India), President, Federation of Indo-German Societies in India and Chairman of The Eleventh Finance Commission of India. One of interviews of him - Click

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenia and the United Nations</span> Armenia at the United Nations

Armenia was admitted into the United Nations on 2 March 1992, following its independence from the Soviet Union. In December 1992, the UN opened its first office in Yerevan. Since then, Armenia has signed and ratified several international treaties. There are 20 specialized agencies, programs, and funds operating in the country under the supervision of the UN Resident Coordinator. Armenia strengthened its relations with the UN by cooperating with various UN agencies and bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Food Programme, and with the financial institutions of the UN. Armenia is a candidate to preside as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2031.

Mohanlal Lallubhai Dantwala (1909–1998) was an Indian agricultural economist, academic and writer, considered by many as the father of Indian agricultural economics. He was a Gandhian and an Indian independence activist and he suffered incarceration for over six years during the Indian freedom struggle. He authored several books and articles on the agricultural sector of India and was the founder chairperson of the Centre For Development Alternatives (CFDA), a research centre promoting development studies. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1969, for his contributions to Indian science and technology.

References

  1. ↑ "United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)". unwomen-eseasia.org.
  2. ↑ "Pia Sukanya". Twitter.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. 1 2 "Santosh Mehrotra". crop.org.
  5. ↑ "IAMR". iamrindia.gov.in.
  6. ↑ Planning Commission document [ dead link ]
  7. 1 2 "David Parkin Visiting Professorship 2012/13". bath.ac.uk.
  8. ↑ "Show Profile". Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Planning Commission document [ dead link ]
  10. ↑ "Untitled Page". iamrindia.gov.in.
  11. ↑ "Print Release". pib.nic.in.
  12. ↑ "Haryana State Government Directorate of School Education along with Wadhwani Foundation unveils pilot for the National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework (NVEQF) programme". lotsbuzz.com.
  13. ↑ Executive order Ministry of Human Resource Development
  14. ↑ Planning Commission document [ dead link ]
  15. ↑ "PRSIndia" (PDF). Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  16. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 October 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ↑ Evaluation Capacity Development World Bank
  18. ↑ "A fuel's errand". The Indian Express. 4 February 2015.
  19. ↑ Mehrotra, Santosh (17 April 2014). "'Jobless growth' no more". The Hindu.
  20. ↑ "Dr. Santosh Mehrotra, Director General IAMR in MEDIA". iamrindia.gov.in.
  21. 1 2 "Santosh Mehrotra Policies to Achieve Inclusive Growth in India: Seizing the Demographic Dividend". 19 December 2013 – via YouTube.
  22. ↑ "Error- National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (Formerly Institute of Applied Manpower Research), an Autonomous Institute under NITI Aayog, Government of India" (PDF).
  23. ↑ "Jobless growth is now official – The Smart Investor". Business Standard.
  24. ↑ "Estimating India's Skill Gap on a Realistic Basis for 2022". epw.in.
  25. ↑ "Comparative Research Programme on Poverty". sourcewatch.org.
  26. ↑ "The Rockefeller Foundation". rockefellerfoundation.org.
  27. ↑ "Santosh K. Mehrotra". rockefellerfoundation.org.
  28. 1 2 "Error- National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (Formerly Institute of Applied Manpower Research), an Autonomous Institute under NITI Aayog, Government of India" (PDF).
  29. ↑ "International Advisory Board – Young Lives". younglives.org.uk. Archived from the original on 5 July 2012.
  30. ↑ Human Development Report [ dead link ]
  31. ↑ "Edit user – Intranet PEP Research Network". pep-net.org.
  32. ↑ "SAGE: Countering Naxalism with Development: Challenges of Social Justice and State Security: Santosh Mehrotra: 9788132113935". SAGE. 20 September 2021.
  33. ↑ Santosh Mehrotra, Ajit Kumar Singh. "Land Policies for Equity and Growth: Transforming the Agrarian Structure in Uttar Pradesh". alibris.com.
  34. ↑ India's Skills Challenge. 30 December 2014. ISBN   978-0-19-945277-4.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  35. ↑ "India's Skills Challenge: Reforming Vocational Education and Training to Harness the Demographic Div – Economics – Development-Economics". oup.co.in.
  36. ↑ "Eliminating Human Poverty: Macroeconomic and Social Policies for Equitable Growth, Mehrotra, Delamonica". Archived from the original on 8 June 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  37. ↑ "Cambridge University Press India". cambridgeindia.org.
  38. ↑ "SAGE: The Economics of Elementary Education in India: The Challenge of Public Finance, Private Provision and Household Costs: Santosh Mehrotra: 9780761934196". SAGE. 19 September 2021.
  39. ↑ Et, Mehrotra S. "Le Developpement a Visage Humain: La Voie Qui Mene Au Developpement Social Et La Croissance economique". alibris.com.
  40. ↑ "Development with a Human Face: Experiences in Social Achievement and Economic Growth – UNICEF Publications – UNICEF". UNICEF. 28 April 2003.
  41. ↑ Development with a Human Face. 20 July 2000. ISBN   978-0-19-829657-7.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  42. ↑ Mehrotra, Santosh K. (1991). India and the Soviet Union. cambridge.org. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511559884. ISBN   978-0-521-36202-3.
  43. ↑ "Explaining Employment Trends in the Indian Economy: 1993–94 to 2011–12". epw.in.
  44. ↑ "International Experience with National Training Funds". epw.in.
  45. ↑ "The Reformed 'Planning Commission'". epw.in.
  46. ↑ Innocenti Working Paper unicef-irc.org
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.