Dr Kirit S. Parikh has a Doctor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master's Degree in Economics from MIT, USA. He has been a Professor of Economics since 1967. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and Fellow of the World Economic Forum, Davos. In 2003 he was made honorary life member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. He had been president of The Indian Econometric Society and Gujarat Economic Association. He is on the governing board of many development research Institutes in India. He has also been Chairman of some of these. Dr. Parikh had been in the past on the Board of Directors of a number of major industrial firms and financial institutions. Among these are Indian Petro¬chemicals Limited, Life Insurance Corporation, Industrial Development Bank of India and State Bank of India. In 1978 he was given the Vikram Sarabhai Award for Systems Analysis and Management. In 1999 he was given the "Vishweshwaraya Award" by the Engineers' Foundation in Kolhapur. He is also a recipient of Nayudamma Award for contribution to the welfare of mankind through developments in the fields of Economics & Energy, February 2005. In 1997-98, on sabbatical leave from the IGIDR where he was Founder Director from 1986 till 2000, he was Special Economic Adviser to the Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York. From 1980-86, as Program Leader of the Food and Agricultural Program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria, he directed a research programme involving 300 person years of efforts of more than 100 researchers from around the world. From 1960-80, he was Professor of Economics (and sometimes Head) of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), New Delhi. From 1969-71, as Director of Program Analysis Group (PAG), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, he set up PAG to provide economic, operation research and management advice to different units of the DAE. From 1964-67 he was a Research Associate at the Center for International Studies, MIT.
