Isher Judge Ahluwalia is the Chairperson of the Board of Governors for the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). Prior to this, she served as ICRIER’s Director and Chief Executive.

She is the appointed chair of the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure of the Ministry of Urban Development. Dr Ahluwalia is also a member of the Government of India’s National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council; is on the boards of a number of premier research institutes in India, and was Vice-Chairperson of the Punjab State Planning Board from 2005 to 2007.

Dr Ahluwalia, a former Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the International Food Policy Research Institute, was a member of the Eminent Persons Group of the Asian Development Bank, which submitted its report entitled Towards a New Asian Development Bank in a New Asia in 2008. She is currently a member of the External Review and Advisory Board to the Asian Development Bank on its flagship study Institutions for Regionalism.

In 2009, Dr Ahluwalia received the Padma Bhushan award from the President of India for her services to the fields of education and literature. She received a BA in economics from Presidency College, Calcutta University, an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.