Dr. M. Govinda Rao is the Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, India (since January 2003). He is also a Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. His past positions include Director, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore (1998-2002) and Fellow, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (1995-98).

After completing his doctoral degree in Economics in India, Dr. Rao undertook his post-doctoral research at University of Maryland, College Park, Md. He has had visiting assignments at University of Maryland, College Park, University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Toronto and University of Montreal.

Dr, Govinda Rao has a number of advisory roles, besides being a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. These include, Member, International Advisory Panel on Governance, UNDP Regional Office, Bangkok, Member, Expert Committee on Multilevel Planning, Planning Commission, Government of India; Chairman. Chairman, Expert Group on Taxation of Services (2000-01); Chairman, Technical Experts Committee on VAT; and Member, Consultative Group of Inter-State Council, Government of India; He is also a Member of the Taxation Policy Group in the Initiative for Policy Dialogue led by Prof. Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University. He is also a member of Steering Committee for the South Asia Network of Economic Research Institutions (SANEI).

Dr. Rao’s research interests include public finance and fiscal policy, fiscal federalism and State and Local finance. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and the UNDP on issues relating Tax Policy and Reforms, Public Expenditure Management and Fiscal Decentralisation in Cambodia, China, Laos, Pakistan and Vietnam. He has published technical articles extensively in a number of reputed journals besides 12 books and monographs on various aspects of Public Finance. His recent books include, Political Economy of Federalism in India, Oxford University Press, 2005, Sustainable Fiscal Policy for India: An International Perspective (edited with Peter Heller), Oxford University Press, (2005) and Poverty, Development and Fiscal Policy, Oxford University Press, 2002 (Paperback, 2004)