Padma Desai Biography 
Padma Desai is a famous economist and professor of Gujarati origin. She is a naturalized American, known as a development economist and a Russia-specialist. She is married to noted economist and Padma Vibhushan recipient, Jagdish Bhagwati. She was also awarded Padma Bhushan in the year 2009. She currently serves as the director of the Center for Transition Economies at the Columbia University since 1999. She is a professor of Comparative economic systems. She is the daughter-in-law of Justice Natwarlal H. Bhagwati who served as a Supreme Court judge. Her brother-in-law P. N. Bhagwati is one of the finest and youngest judges the Supreme Court who was appointed as 17th Chief Justice of India at the age of only 51.
She was born in Surat, Gujarat in the year 1931. She was born and brought up by a traditional Gujarati family. She completed her graduation in economics from University of Mumbai in the year 1951 and also earned PG degree two years later. She completed her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1960. She got married to famous economist and Professor Jagdish Bhagwati who is three years younger to her. The couple has one daughter, Anuradha Kristina who serves as the Executive Director of Service Women's Action Network in US Military.
In 1970, the couple worked together and published the work, India: Planning for Industrialization, which was a noted work at that time. She started her professional career in the year 1957 in the Economics department in Harvard, where she worked for two years. Later the couple spent many years in India till 1968 and took teaching as profession. She served as associate professor of economics at Delhi School of Economics at University of Delhi. Later she moved to Massachusetts and continued with her professional career. She published her memoir in 2012 titled - Breaking Out: An Indian Woman's American Journey.
Published: N/A
Updated: May 29, 2016
