Brief Profile of Dr Shailendra Kumar

Dr Shailendra Kumar is currently working as Joint Secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), Ministry of Finance, Government of India. For a little more than four years he worked as Additional Director General in PRASAR BHARATI: India’s public service broadcaster.

For three years and until November 2015 and he was Director (Drugs) in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare dealing with the CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation), Indian Pharmacopeia Commission (IPC), and National Institute of Biologicals (NIB). He also handled the drug related work of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) related issues and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the brownfield pharmaceutical companies.

He was awarded a Doctorate by the Department of Business Economics, University of Delhi on his thesis entitled: “Growth and Performance of India’s Services Exports: Select Sectors” in 2014.  He was on a two-year sabbatical for completing his doctoral thesis during 2011-2012. He worked as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Personnel & Training in 2009-2010. During October 2007- January 2009, he worked as Under Secretary (Europe II) in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. Before that he was in the United Kingdom pursuing a one-year MA in Governance and Development at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex. He also worked as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) at the Centre for WTO Studies in the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) from 2001 to 2005 and worked in various capacities in the Ministry of Commerce from 1995 to 2001. He qualified the 1992 Civil Services Examination and became a member of the Central Secretariat Service.

For over two and a half decades Dr Kumar has been working extensively on the multilateral trading system (WTO) with a particular emphasis on trade in services (General Agreement on Trade in Services – GATS).  For about five years when he was in the Ministry of Commerce, he dealt with trade in services and dispute settlement mechanism.  He continued to provide his inputs on services negotiations and actively participated in various meetings when he worked at the Centre for WTO Studies.

Since 2005 when he left IIFT he has been pursuing his passion of working on WTO on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce and the Centre for WTO Studies as an expert. He has so far contributed to the drafting of some of the negating proposals on services sub-sectors such as Computer and Related Services. He also wrote a detailed negotiating proposal on Mode 4. Recently he authored two reports on India’s Tourism Services and Computer Related Services for the current Doha Round. He has also written on India’s FTA negotiations on services with Singapore and some other trading partners. His chapters in the UNCTAD report are among the first writings on services for the SAFTA.

Publications

1. Dr Kumar authored a book in 2000 (in Hindi) “विश्व व्यापार संगठन: भारत के परिप्रेक्ष्य में” (“World Trade Organisation: An Indian Perspective”) which was accorded two National Awards including India’s best book in Hindi for the year 2000.
2. His second book (in English) “Trade in Services: Advantage India,” comprising 16 chapters and covering all relevant services sectors from India’s trade stand point provides a detailed account of a number of services sectors of particular interest to India, was published in 2005.
3. He completed a minor research project entitled “Movement of Service Providers: Challenges and Opportunities for India” for CENTAD-OXFAM India in 2006 which was published as part of an edited book “Trade in Services & India- Prospects and Strategies”. The book, edited by Rupa Chanda with a foreword by Prof Jagdeesh Bhagwati of Columbia University, was co-published by CENTAD and Wiley India and claims to fill a critical gap in the existing literature on trade in services and the Indian economy.
4. He completed a major research project entitled “Quantification of Benefits from Regional Cooperation in South Asia: Volume 2. Benefits from Deepening Integration: Trade in Services”for UNCTAD-India in 2007 which was published jointly by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and UNCTAD.
5. He completed two policy papers on “Computer Related Services” and “Tourism and Travel Services” for the Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute for Foreign Trade in 2014.
6. His research paper on “India’s Trade in Higher Education” was published by Springer, Netherlands in December 2014 in “Higher Education”, recognized as the leading international journal on higher education studies. Its print edition has been covered in the September 2015 issue.

Academic/Teaching Experience

Primarily a science graduate, Dr Kumar has studied various disciplines viz.  International Trade Management, Export Marketing, Economics, Governance and Development, Hindi language and literature, Russian language and literature and Spanish language at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT); Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); University of Delhi and IDS, University of Sussex, UK. In all, he has to his credit two undergraduate degrees, four postgraduate/equivalent degrees and a PhD degree apart from quite a few diplomas and certificates in various disciplines.

Recognizing his extensive involvement in the area of teaching and training, the Government of India has put his name on the List of Eminent Persons  and Guest Speakers vide an Office Memorandum issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on 24 March 2015.

Dr Kumar has lectured on WTO related issues in a number of programmes organized by IIFT; the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA); the Amity University, Noida, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI); the University of Delhi; Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); Jamia Millia Islamia, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), and Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM) Delhi; Bangalore University, Bangalore, Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad; Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Mysore, Dharwad Agriculture University, Hubli; Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad  and various management schools in India. He has also delivered talks to the international participants in the various programmes (including ITEC) organized by the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Commerce on WTO related issues. While pursuing his PhD, he taught MBE (Master of Business Economics) final year students and PhD students a full semester course on ‘Economics of Services’ consecutively for two years in the Department of Business Economics, University of Delhi. Once again in 2014 too he taught a full semester course to these students.

Special responsibility: Worked as Advisor to the WHO Director General in the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) on Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR). Attended all the five rounds of meetings at the WHO headquarters, Geneva during 2013-2018 and contributed to the successful completion of the Global Action Plan on AMR and attended the subsequent meetings also.