Director, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Rupa Chanda is the Director, Trade, Investment, and Innovation Division at UN ESCAP. She has previously worked as a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, an Economist at the IMF in Washington, DC and briefly served as Head, UNESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia in New Delhi. 

Dr. Chanda received her PhD in Economics from Columbia University and B.A. from Harvard University. Her research interests include the WTO, services trade, regional integration, and migration. She has research and professional experience with international organizations, think tanks, and the government. She has published extensive literature, in the form of books, journal articles, book chapters, and reports.