Dr Amitendu Palit is an economist specialising in India’s trade, investment, bilateral and regional economic engagements, comparative dimensions of Indian and Chinese economic policies and Asian integration. He also works on socio-economic aspects of India’s elections. Dr Palit belongs to the Indian Economic Service and spent nearly ten years in India’s Ministry of Finance handling policies and operational issues relating to balance of payments, foreign exchange reserves, exchange rate and capital flows. He has also worked in the Ministries of Industry and Civil Supplies of the Government of India. He figured on the Advisory Committee of India’s Planning Commission on foreign savings as well as on Technical Committee of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on India’s small enterprises.

Prior to his current assignment at ISAS, Dr Palit was a Visiting Fellow at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Delhi. A PhD in international economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India, he was educated at Presidency College, University of Calcutta. A columnist for Financial Express (India), Dr Palit is a visiting faculty for India’s leading business schools. He also writes regularly for The Straits Times and The Business Times and features as an expert on Singaporean and Indian television and radio networks. He has several academic publications to his credit and has authored a book on ‘Special Economic Zones in India: Myths and Realities’ (2008).