Jaimini Bhagwati Joins CSEP As Distinguished Fellow

The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) announced today that Ambassador Jaimini Bhagwati joins the New Delhi-based public policy think tank as a Distinguished Fellow from July 1, 2021. 

Jaimini Bhagwati is a 1976-batch Indian Foreign Service officer and is also a financial sector specialist. He was appointed as India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in 2011. Immediately prior to this appointment, Bhagwati was India’s ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg. Bhagwati was Joint Secretary (Capital Markets and Pension Reforms) in the Ministry of Finance from 1999-2002. He worked for eleven years in the World Bank Treasury in Washington DC and his responsibilities included issuance of IBRD bonds and pricing of associated derivatives transactions.

Bhagwati did his Master’s in Physics from St Stephen’s college in Delhi and holds a Master’s in Finance from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and PhD from Tufts University. In 2019, he authored The Promise of India: How Prime Ministers Nehru to Modi Shaped the Nation (1947– 2019). This book offers a fascinating analysis on the decision making of prime ministers since independence and the consequent economic and foreign policy fallout. Bhagwati has been writing a monthly column in the Business Standard newspaper since 2005. 

Bhagwati was the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) from 2014 till end 2018. He is currently a Board member of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) Limited and Chairman of Trustee IDFC Asset Management Company.  

“I take great pleasure in welcoming Dr Jaimini Bhagwati to CSEP. Our research work across the strands of economic development and foreign policy and security will benefit from his vast and varied experience. In his role as a Distinguished Fellow, Bhagwati will help push CSEP’s work and thinking in the areas of macroeconomics, financial sector and foreign policy and will provide mentorship and guidance to CSEP’s younger researchers,” said Rakesh Mohan, President, CSEP.

Ambassador Bhagwati responded, “It was my privilege to work closely with Rakesh Mohan in the Ministry of Finance and Shivshankar Menon in the Ministry of External Affairs. I was also fortunate to have had several opportunities to interact with Montek Singh Ahluwalia on economic and financial sector issues. I am looking forward to working with them and younger colleagues at CSEP. Vikram Mehta was my contemporary at College in Delhi and I am sure we will have occasion to exchange thoughts while I am at CSEP.”