Dr. Laveesh Bhandari
Laveesh Bhandari completed his Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University. His Ph.D. dissertation was on the success and failure of international alliances. His thesis received the Best Thesis in International Economics award for his work on International finance by the EXIM Bank of India in 1996. He was also awarded Hite Fellowship by Hite Foundation for his research in International Financial Markets. He was awarded Teaching and Graduate by Boston University He completed his MA in Economics specializing in Finance and Industrial Organization from the same university.
He began his career working on the valuation methodologies of derivative securities in a US based fund. He joined the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi, as a Senior Economist in 1996. At NCAER he led research teams for various studies on Indian industry and infrastructure. He then taught economics at IIT Delhi, and was the Managing Editor of the Journal of Emerging Market Finance. Since 2001 he has been heading Indicus Analytics, India's leading economics research firm. He has worked on a range of areas including economic geography and regional economics, impact of laws on the economy, social progress for the underprivileged, infrastructure development, etc.
His work on inequality, education and India's progress is frequently referred to in the policy debate in India. His joint work with Bibek Debroy is behind the annual State of the States awards to Chief Ministers to the best performing states of India. He has authored and co-authored numerous publications on socio-economic development, health, education, poverty, inequality, etc. He writes frequently for newspapers such as Business Standard and Indian Express.
Dr. Bhandari is also mentoring and investing in ventures aimed at facilitating Internet access for India's masses. Juxt Consult has within a short span of time India's leading online research firm. Raftaar.com is experimenting with Hindi search technologies aimed at making the Internet accessible to the non-English speaker.
