Global Thinker Award 2009
Citation
Lord Meghnad Desai
Prof Lord Desai, Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai was born in Vadodara, in India on 10th July 1940. A brilliant student, he has matriculated by the age of 14, was an Honour student before he was 18, had a Master’s degree from Bombay school of Economics before age of 20, won a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania and was a PhD at the age 22. Thereafter he joined the London School of Economics, an institution with which he had a distinguished involvement with several decades. He was the head of the Development Studies Institute during 1990-95 and the Director of the Centre for Study of Global Governance, which he founded in 1992. He is now Prof Emeritus of LSE apart from being Chairman of the Trustees Board for Training for Life, Chairman of the Management Board of City Roads and on the Board of Tribune magazine. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.
Prof Lord Desai has written extensively on a wide range of subjects. From 1984-1991, he was the co-editor of the Journal of Applied Economics. His widely acclaimed works include Marx’s Revenge:The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism – Divided by Democracy, Development and Nationhood, Essays in the Political Economy of South Asia, and Global Governance: Ethics and Economics of the World Order.
Prof Desai’s immense experience and sound knowledge of economic and governance issues have been utilized by the governments of the United Kingdom and Algeria among others and International organizations like FAO, UNCTAD, World Bank, UNITO, and the UNDP. Prof Desai has also adorned the chair and the Presidentship of the Ecliptic South and the Finsbury constituency of the Labor party in London. He was raised to peerage as Baron Desai, of St Clement Danes in the City of Westminster in 1991. In recognition of Prof Lord Desai’s outstanding contributions in diverse areas, he was honoured with the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman award as the most distinguished persons of the India origin in January 2004. Prof Lord Desai’s speeches and writing on a wide range of subjects including economics, societal challenges, politics, democracy, and governance have invariably been original, innovative, and stimulating and have made significant contribution to understanding the challenges and opportunities of our times.
