Deepak Nayyar is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He has taught at the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex, and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi, 2000-2005.
Born on 26 September 1946, Deepak Nayyar was educated at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi and the Delhi School of Economics. Thereafter, as a Rhodes Scholar, he went on to study at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he obtained a B. Phil and a D. Phil in Economics.
His professional life in academia has been interspersed with short periods in the government. He was, to start with, in the Indian Administrative Service, in the Uttar Pradesh cadre, 1969-1973. Subsequently, he was also engaged with the world of public policy. He was Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, 1983-1985. Later, he served as Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India and Secretary in the Ministry of Finance,1989-1991.
Prof. Nayyar has served as a member of many commissions, both national and international. He was on the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council in the United States, 2001-2007. He was Chairman of the Board of the World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, 2001-2008, and Advisory Council for the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, 2004-2007. He was a Member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, established by the ILO, 2002-2004. He was Vice President of the International Association of Universities, Paris, 2004-2008, and Distinguished University Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, New York, 2008-2012. He was Vice Chairman of the South Centre, Geneva, 2011-2014 and Member of its Board, 2005-2011.
He was a Member of the National Knowledge Commission in India, 2005-2009, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, 2014-2025. He was also President of the Indian Society for Labour Economics, 2014-2025. Nayyar is Chairman of the Sameeksha Trust, which publishes Economic and Political Weekly. He is, at present, Chairman of the Board for the Institute of Human Development, New Delhi.
Prof. Nayyar is Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, in Britain, since 2020. He was invited to the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South the United States Library of Congress, Washington DC, for the academic year 2022-23.
He has also served as a Director on the Board of several firms in the corporate sector in India: Press Trust of India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Steel Authority of India, ICRA (Indian Credit Rating Agency), Maruti Udyog, Export-Import Bank of India, State Bank of India, and State Trading Corporation of India.
He has received the VKRV Rao award for his contribution to research in Economics, and the Malcolm Adiseshiah award for his lifetime contribution to Development Studies.
His research interests are in the areas of international economics, development economics, macroeconomics, political economy and economic history. His publications include India's Exports and Export Policies in the 1960s, (CUP,1976); Migration, Remittances and Capital Flows: The Indian Experience, (OUP, 1994); Economic Liberalization in India: Analytics, Experience and Lessons, Orient Longman (1995); Trade and Globalization, (OUP, 2008); Liberalization and Development, (OUP, 2008); Catch Up: Developing Countries in the World Economy, (OUP, 2013); Employment, Growth and Development, (Routledge, 2017); and Resurgent Asia: Diversity in Development, (OUP, 2019).
About the Collection : Deepak Nayyar has donated a rich collection of his private papers spanning his distinguished career as an economist, teacher and academic administrator. This includes manuscripts of his books – Catch Up: Developing Countries in the World Economy, Migration, Remittances and Capital Flows: The Indian Experience, Governing Globalization: Issues and Institutions, and others – along with edited volumes, journal articles and book chapters. There are papers and correspondence relating to national and international conferences, lectures, symposiums, summits and expert group meetings of United Nations & International Labour Organisation Development Agenda, Industrial Policy and Development Africa Task Force, South Centre Expert Groups, Brussels Economic Forum, among others. The collection also comprises numerous press clippings which includes his interviews, articles and stories on economy. It also contains editorials, opinions and stories about his appointment as Vice Chancellor of Delhi University (May-June 2000), during his tenure (2000-2005) & on completion of tenure as VC (2005). Photographs from his tenure as VC of Delhi University and events attended in India and abroad also form a part of the collection. This collection is an invaluable resource for researchers interested in the study of international economics, macroeconomics, development economics & economic history. (Catalogue available)
Donor: Deepak Nayyar
Acquisition: 2025