Arvind Virmani

Arvind Virmani, b. June 22, 1949, is Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, USA (1975). His thesis supervisor was Nobel Laureate Prof. Kenneth Arrow.

Dr. Virmani is currently Principal Advisor, Planning Commission, Government of India. He also serves as Chairman, Board of Trustees of SBI Mutual Fund, Member of the Board of Life Insurance Corporation of India and Member, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). He is a Member of the Task Force on “Global Strategic Developments: Implications and Suggested Response” set up by National Security Council Secretariat.

He is a Member of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on Money, Foreign Exchange and Government Securities Markets, Reserve Bank of India, February 2004. He was Director and Chief Executive, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi.

He has served as Senior Economic Advisor in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

He was Advisor (Policy Planning) to Finance Minister in 1991-92 and 1992-93. Before joining the government he was Senior Economist at the World Bank and was acting chief of the Public Economics Division for a part of this tenure.

He chaired the Working Group on Public Debt Management (middle office) and Inter-Ministerial Group on Customs Duty Reform and was Member-Secretary of the Steering Group on Foreign Investment.

He was a Member of the Joint Study Group (JSG) on India-China (and India-Korea) trade and economic cooperation.

He served as member of the Appellate Tribunal for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Depositories Act. He has served as Director, Punjab National Bank and Allahabad Bank, and Trustee, Unit Trust of India (UTI).

Dr. Virmani was Member of the RBI Technical Advisory Group on Money and Government Security markets, the Steering Group on International Financial Standards and Codes and the UTI committee on reform and stabilisation of the US-64 scheme.

He has researched on Macroeconomics and Growth, International Trade and Tariffs and Credit Markets. He has advised and written extensively on all aspects of economic reforms including the book, Accelerating Growth and Poverty Reduction: A Policy Framework for India's Development (Academic Foundation, 2004).