Current Visiting Researchers

As of 06 November 2009

• Swapan K. Bhattacharya - India
• Jacob George - India

Swapan K. Bhattacharya

Swapan K. Bhattacharya is a Visiting Researcher at the Asian Development Bank Institute. He is Associate Professor of International Trade at the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi, India. IIPA is one of the premier institutes in India imparting training to middle and senior level officials of All India Services and conducts research in different areas of public administration and issues relating to globalization and trade. He has wider experience in conducting empirical research in areas of international trade which include trade and environment, regional economic integration, Indo-Korea trade, trade among SAARC countries, India-EU trade, India-China trade, trade barriers analysis, intellectual property rights, India-BIMSTEC regional economic cooperation, India-Japan FTA, and quantification of trade gains under PTAs and FTA.

Bhattacharya had been a senior research fellow at the Centre for Economic Studies, Presidency College, Kolkata, obtained his M.A. degree in economics from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata and Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was Japan Foundation Postdoctoral fellow at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, from 2006 to 2007. He was a Visiting Researcher at the Korea Institute of International Economic Policy, Seoul. He has done independent research for many national and international institutions. He has also written country papers for ESCAP and UNIDO on different contemporary issues. He has contributed research papers to several national and international journals and has written a book on India-EU economic relations.

Current Research in ADBI
Regional Economic Integration among South Asian Economies: Measuring Impact of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA).

Jacob George

Jacob George, Chief Promoter of Strategic Economic Management Initiative in Governance (SEMIG), University of Delhi, is a new Visiting Researcher to ADBI. He is a recipient of the Senior Fellowship from the Indian Council of Social Science Research at the Institute of Economic Growth in the University of Delhi enclave. Before that he was Professor and Chair of the Faculty of Economics and Development Planning in Gurgaon, Haryana.

He obtained his doctoral degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics in the University of Delhi. He has been a visiting scholar to research institutions in France and UK.

George has addressed topics of strategic importance to developing countries in trade and safety regulation, intellectual property rights, and WTO in particular, and has published books and articles on these subjects. He has conducted research and consulting work for governmental agencies as well as international organizations.

He was involved as agriculture working group member for the preparation of the inclusive and faster growth agenda of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012). He has served as the National Convener, Core Incubating Group set up for the joint Indo-UK (DfID) project on poverty reduction. He is the founding Editor of the ezine "Public Service Delivery Capacity Building Chronicle".

He will conduct a research project on "Food Security and Safety Regime for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Asia Pacific" while at ADBI.

Current Research in ADBI
Food Security and Safety Regime for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Asia Pacific.