The Covid-19 pandemic and the Indian economy

About the speaker

Jayati Ghosh is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for nearly 35 years. She has authored and/or edited 19 books, including Never Done and Poorly Paid: Women’s Work in Globalising India (2009); the co-edited Elgar Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development (2014); Demonetisation Decoded (2017), and Women Workers in the Informal Economy (2020). Her newest book on the Covid-19 pandemic and the Indian economy, which she will launch at this KCL event.

She has received several prizes, including for distinguished contributions to the social sciences in India in 2015; the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work Research Prize for 2010; the NordSud Prize for Social Sciences 2010, Italy. She has advised governments in India and other countries, including as Chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Commission on Farmers’ Welfare in 2004, and Member of the National Knowledge Commission of India (2005-09). She is the Executive Secretary of International Development Economics Associates, an international network of heterodox development economists. She has consulted for international organizations including ILO, UNDP, UNCTAD, UN-DESA, UNRISD and UN Women and is a member of several international commissions, including the International Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) and the Commission for Global Economic Transformation of INET. She writes regularly for newspapers, journals and blogs.

Discussants

Sanchari Roy is Senior Lecturer in Development Economics at the Department of International Development, KCL. Sanchari's main area of research is development economics. In particular, her work focuses on examining the various types of constraints faced by developing countries in the process of poverty alleviation and economic development. One of the core themes of her research is to understand the role of gender constraints in perpetuating poverty, with special focus on female inheritance rights. A second theme of Sanchari’s research centres around examining the challenges faced in providing effective public service delivery in developing countries, with particular emphasis on the role of information constraints. A third theme of her research explores the role of psychological constraints in perpetuating poverty, focusing in particular on non-cognitive skills and mental health.

Alfredo Saad-Filho is Head of the Department of International Development at KCL and Professor of Political Economy and International Development.

Alfredo was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Medal from the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil in 2014 and the SOAS Director’s Teaching Prize in 2016. He has degrees in Economics from the University of Brasília (Brazil) and SOAS University of London and has taught in universities and research institutions in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mozambique, Switzerland and the UK.

His work ranges across critiques of the (Post-) Washington consensus; International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policies and pro-poor policy alternatives. They also include concrete analyses of fiscal, monetary, financial, balance of payments and employment policies, as well as inflation targeting, resource use (including ‘resource curse’ and Dutch Disease) and policy-making in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America (especially Brazil) and the Middle East.

Drinks reception to follow at the Terrace Cafe.