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C S Mohapatra

Dr. C. S. Mohapatra is a former Indian Economic Service officer of the 1986 batch and an expert in financial sector development and reforms, economic administration, planning and policy.

Presently, he is the IEPF Chair Professor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), and he heads the Investor Education and Protection Fund Chair Unit. The IEPF Chair at NCAER organises seminars and workshops, conducts research, analyse regulatory issues & provide policy suggestions in the area of investor education and protection, as mandated by IEPFA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Dr. Mohapatra, a career bureaucrat turned Professor, has served in the Ministry of Finance in senior positions from August 2007 till May 2022 besides various other Ministries/Departments during his 36-year long career in the Government of India. Prior to joining the Government, he taught Economics and was a Banker. He held several wide-ranging responsibilities and undertook important assignments primarily in financial sector policy and reforms space before retiring as Principal Adviser in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India. As Adviser and subsequently as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, he was responsible for critical deliverables pertaining to financial stability and cyber security, financial sector reforms, policy and institution-building. He was Secretary to the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC). Handled matters related to the RBI Board, bilateral cooperation, sustainable finance, international economic relations, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council Secretariat, and matters relating to international institutions, including IMF, the World Bank, G20, BRICS Financial Stability Board, the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP), Asian Development Bank, JICA, and UNDP, among others.

He has also worked for capital market development, including implementation of the SEBI Act, SCRA, and the Depositories Act, and was associated with several policy reforms, including examination and implementation of the recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission. He has been Chairman/Member/Convener of various financial sector-related Committees/Groups, and served as Chairperson of the Task Force on Sustainable Finance and Standing Committee for the Indian Development and Economic Assistance Programme, and as Co-chair of the Screening Committee for Bilateral and Multilateral projects. He has also been Member of the Early Warning Group, Technical Group on Financial Inclusion & Financial Literacy, Secondary Market Advisory Committee of SEBI, Working Group on Promoting Foreign Investment in India, Task Force on Financial Data Management Centre, Convener of the Macro Financial Monitoring Group of the Ministry of Finance, and of the Working Group for setting up of CERT-Fin. He was involved in setting up of the National Centre for Financial Education, and in initiatives for taking forward the National Strategy on Financial Education. He has participated extensively in seminars/workshops, conducted faculty interactive sessions, panel discussions in Doordarshan, contributed Op-eds in prominent dailies etc. in the broad area of financial sector policy and reforms besides representing the Government of India in international fora, during his illustrious career.

He has a PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and an MA in Analytical and Applied Economics from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. In addition, he has received training from various reputed institutions in India and abroad on economic policy, planning, financial stability and reforms, banking, and economic administration and public policy, including the Indian Institutes of Management, Lucknow and Bangalore; the IMF Training Institute, Singapore and the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

In recognition of his exceptional contributions to investor awareness and education, Dr. C. S. Mohapatra was honored with the Investor Education & Awareness Award 2024 by SEBI and AMFI and Bharat Vikas Award, 2025, by the Institute of Self-Reliance.

 

Mahima Vasishth

Mahima Vasishth is a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Irvine. She will join as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Laboratory for Effective Anti-poverty Policies, Bocconi University, in September 2023. Her research interests lie in the fields of Labour, Development, and Public Economics. She specialises in understanding the factors that shape women’s economic and social participation, and the criminal justice system in developing economies. She worked at the International Monetary Fund in the summer of 2020 as a Fund Intern, wherein she co-authored a paper on the participation of women in the Fintech industry across countries, as users and leaders. Mahima has also published on the role of a mismatch between the mother tongue and medium of instruction in schools on linguistic minorities in India.

Mukta Kaushik

Ms. Mukta holds M.A. degree in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics. Her core competencies lies in designing the study, finalizing the survey tools, program implementation, and writing reports, concept notes and developing business.  She is well versed in handling large scale qualitative data. Mukta has previously worked with Delhi Government and institutes of strategic importance like Institute of Economic Growth and Indian Institute of Management-Ahemdabad. She has also collaborated with Professors from International Institutes like John Hopkins University, Harvard and Yale University. She has hands-on experience of development of survey tools, protocol, assuring data quality, and report writing. She has worked in various domains such as education, health, public policy and etc. While working with Institute of Economic Growth, she has successfully contributed to a longitudinal ageing study, whose main focus was to understand the financial, emotional and health issues faced by ageing population in India.  Also, contributed in strategic planning and implementation of various programs implemented by Delhi Government like “Setting up of Anganwadi Hubs”, “Non-PDS Ration Distribution during times of COVID” and etc.

Divya Singh

Ms Divya Singh is the Head of Finance and Administration at NCAER.

Prior to joining NCAER, she was working as an Assistant General Manager, Finance and Internal Audit, at ATS Infrastructure, Noida, UP. She has also worked at Paarth Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. in their Corporate Operations and Internal Audit team; as Senior Accounts Officer with the Airforce Naval Housing Board, Delhi; as Audit Assistant with the CA firm, Sanjay Shyam Garg and Company; and, as an Assistant Manager with the ICICI Bank.

She has a Master’s degree in Business Administration (Finance) from the Institute of Management Studies, Ghaziabad, and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from RG Degree College, Meerut.

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