Shekhar Shah: Economic Research
Director General, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)
A witness to the transformation during early years of liberalisation, rapid economic growth and greater attention to social and development issues in health and education and service delivery are few attributes that Shekhar Shah inculcated in NCAER when he took over as its Director General. Three aspects that Shekhar always lays emphasis on are quality, relevance and impact. These are evident across all his works. Under his leadership, NCAER has taken research lead in infrastructure, agriculture, decentralisation, human development, health and education and macro economy. As World Bank's Regional Economic Advisor earlier he was part of Bank's development research and authored the 2004 World Development Report. Shekhar believes that all research has to be based on strong methodologies, be robust, defensible as well as comprehensible and this should solve the real problems of the world, particularly poverty.