Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh
Former Deputy Director General, WTODr. Harsha Vardhana Singh has extensive international and national experience on trade and investment matters. He will provide roughly 30 man days of his time over 3 months. His education includes a M.Phil and D.Phil in Economics from Oxford University, U.K., after an MA and BS (Hons) in Economics from Delhi University, India. He has worked for 20 years at the GATT/WTO in Geneva, and 8 years with the Telecom Regulatory Authority in India. He has taught in US, China and India, and been part of Think Tanks around the world. As Chairman, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP, he has co-ordinated the three projects described above which are directly relevant to the FCO study here. He will work on all aspects covered under Parts I and II of the ToR. His brief CV is given below.
Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh worked in WTO for over 20 years, including eight year as Deputy Director General (DDG). As the DDG, he supervised the divisions in the WTO on Agriculture, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Environment, and Services (including investment). Before becoming the DDG he had worked in the divisions on Economic Research, Trade Policy Review, Contingent Trade Protection, Trade and Environment, and Electronic Commerce. In India he was Economic Adviser and subsequently Secretary cum Principal Adviser to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from 1997 to 2005, the key years of telecom reform. Since October, 2013 he has been with national and international Think Tanks, Universities (Columbia, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, in the US and Nankai University in China), and member of national and international High Level Advisory/Expert Committees on trade, investment, competitiveness, regulatory issues and overlap between trade policy and internet policy.
Recent examples of these High Level Committees or Advisory positions include: High Level Advisory Group on International Trade set up by the Minister of Commerce & Industry (Government of India); Competition Law Review Committee, set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (Government of India); CII’s International Trade Policy Council; Chairperson, Private Sustainability Standard (PSS) Platform (Government of India initiative with Quality Council of India); The Future of Trade Governance, set up by Bertelsmann Stiftung; Global Agenda Council (GAC) on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment, established by the World Economic Forum (2014-2016); Senior Advisor to the Task Force to Support India’s Accession to APEC (established by Asia Society Policy Institute, New York); Senior Advisor to UNCTAD for their World Investment Report 2018 (particularly Chapter 4 on “Investment and New Industrial Policy”), and Advisory Board of UNCTAD’s” Transnational Corporations Journal”.
Dr. Singh has focused on improving content and effectiveness of policies for international trade, investment, global value chains, regulatory regimes. He has also been instrumental in helping institutions/systems for implementing trade policy, and in emerging international trade regimes (including trade agreements). His projects have included extensive discussions with Indian industry/exporters across several sectors, and policy makers in different Ministries/Departments, industry associations. He has also held major discussions with policy makers and industry in major trade competitors of India, including China and Vietnam, and national/international experts. His work covers many industries, including textiles, apparel, cellular mobile phones and components, automotive products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, agricultural processing, and marine products. He and his expert partners have identified key policy improvements, a number of which are now part of Government policies.
Recent examples of his work since 2018 include two large projects each for the EXIM Bank of India and the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), and two projects for the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. His other trade and investment related projects were for the Export Inspection Council (Department of Commerce), Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Apparel Export Promotion Council of India (AEPC), Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council of India (TEXPROCIL), UNCTAD, Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Government of Bhutan.
These projects focused on identifying Indian policies that are obstacles to India’s exports, key priority improvements required by various industries/investors in India, policy strategies and initiatives for establishing export hubs in India. The major asks of large lead firms in global value chains, efficient implementation of National Electronics Policy 2019 were also part of his investigation in replacing India’s export subsidy policies by WTO-consistent measures. Along with industry associations and the private sector he has worked on mechanisms for improving effectiveness of trade policy implementation, collaborative approaches for gaining market access through bilateral initiatives, and identifying key non-tariff measures faced by Indian exports to major markets. He has also worked on a Unified Authority for regulating standards for Indian agriculture exports and imports. Along with the Confederation of Indian Industries he has worked on India’s strategy for participation in Foreign Trade Agreements (FTAs) and improving India’s Bilateral Investment Treaties. With the Commonwealth secretariat he has worked on assessing the impact of Covid-19 on India’s economy and trade. With the Government of Bhutan he has worked on understanding the emerging e-commerce regulatory regimes. With the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister he has worked on ways to improve India’s trade regulatory regimes, ease of doing business initiatives, and complementarity between Ministries of Commerce & Industry and External Affairs.
Dr. Veena Jha
CEO, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLPDr Veena Jha is a well trained and experienced Economist with several decades of accumulated competency on the study of Trade. She got her Ph.D from University College, London, and started her career with work on trade and rural employment in Africa for the ILO in 1985. She has worked with various International organisations for over 40 years. She was the Coordinator of a very large Ministry of Commerce, Government of India-DFID-UNCTAD initiative on Strategies and Preparedness for Trade and Globalisation in India. She was also a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s task force on trade and millennium development goals. Her 13 books and articles on trade is a testimony of her expertise in this area. Specifically her thesis is that in a rapidly evolving global trade scenario, demand side issues have to be considered in any assessment of an individual country’s trade strategy. She has extensive expertise in Cumulative General Equilibrium Modelling, Survey Analysis, WTO rules, and can draw upon a network of global experts as well as consultancy firms who would add a lot of knowledge to this project. She has advised Trade ministries and senior policy makers on dealing with disruptive trade practices and ways of dealing with them. She has coordinated large projects on export promotion policies.
Mr. Vipin Kumar
Research Assistant, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLPMr. Vipin Kumar holds a master’s degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and B.A. in economics from SRCC. Currently, he is a statistical research assistant with IKDHVAJ ADVISERS LLP. He possessed in-depth knowledge of economic concepts, mathematics, econometrics and adept at applying theories and ideas in real-world situations. He has a strong understanding of econometric software such as STATA and R and excellent in data manipulation. He has experience with several trade-related databases, verifying the accuracy of data and making sure that the data is clean before it is used to perform econometric analysis. His key role in the company is to compile data, preliminary research, data mining and find solutions for problems related to international economics. He has worked on projects on trade policy and institutional arrangements in the Government of India. He is presently involved in framing the National E-Commerce Policy for the Royal Government of Bhutan and a project on replacing MEIS by WTO-consistent support schemes to implement the National Policy on Electronics 2019. He has also published a paper on “India’s position in international economic order” (co-authored with Dr. Veena Jha and Ms. Pankhuri Bansal) in “Global Trade and Customs Journal”.
Ms. Celine Fernandes
Executive Assistant, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLPMs. Celine Fernandes is working as an Executive Assistant at IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP. She has worked for Inter-Governmental and Private Sector in the past. She did her education from Mater Dei School and Secretarial Course and Office management skills from YMCA, Delhi. Was involved with UNCTAD-DFID- MOIC, Government of India project for approximately ₤ 8,000,000 for Strategies and Preparedness for trade and globalization in India. Took care of the administration, accounts and travel. In the private sector was in charge of media selection and for identifying right mediums for maximum mileage for the brand. Her present job involves monthly GST submission, filing, travel, arranging meetings, and a bit of research work. She is always eager to take up new opportunities and has a positive frame of mind and never says no to any work assigned to her. She was the Vice-Caption of her school Volley Ball team and is interested in singing and is an active member of the choir group of the church. She is also interested in cooking, reading and watching sports.
Mr. Prem Kumar
Driver, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLPMr. Prem Kumar is working as Driver cum Messenger for IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP. He did his schooling from Senior Secondary Government School, Uttar Pradesh and also a training program for AC technician. He has driven cars for private Ltd Company, Tour and Travels and his own commercial vehicle for the past 10 years. He has a fair deal of knowledge of electronic repair work. He has a pleasant nature and is courteous and respectful and does his duty meticulously.