The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) hosted a seminar titled “Decoding State Growth” on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. The seminar featured a presentation by Rishita Sachdeva, Associate Fellow, CSEP. The presentation was followed by a moderated discussion with Rana Hasan, Regional Lead Economist for South Asia, Economic Research and Development Impact Department, Asian Development Bank; Rakesh Mohan, President Emeritus & Distinguished Fellow, CSEP and Former Deputy Governor, RBI; and Shishir Gupta, Senior Fellow, CSEP. The session was chaired by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Distinguished Fellow, CSEP and Former Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India.

About the event

Prime Minister Modi has given a clarion call for India to achieve a developed country status by 2047. This requires per capita GDP to grow at 7.3% annually, much higher than the 5% rate we have achieved post the 1991 reforms. There is near-unanimity that India’s states will drive the future reform agenda. Thus, achieving the Viksit Bharat goal requires understanding why some states have managed to grow their per capita GDP at around 6.5 percent per annum over the last 30 years, and some at just about 3 percent. Is it because of the differences in their human capital or physical capital, or the quality of governance? What is the role of large cities in driving state growth? Should states focus on developing the existing cities or building greenfield cities? Finally, does it mean the same strategy for all the states?

 Chair

Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Montek Singh Ahluwalia is a Distinguished Fellow at CSEP. An economist and civil servant, he was former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Government of India. He joined the Government in 1979 as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, after which he held a series of positions including Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; Commerce Secretary; Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs; Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance; Member of the Planning Commission and Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. In 2001, he was appointed as the first Director of the newly created Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund. He resigned from that position in 2004 to take up the position of Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission which he held from 2004 to 2014.

Mr Ahluwalia has been a key figure in Indian economic policy. He writes on various aspects of development economics and has been published in prominent Indian and international journals and books. He co-authored Re-distribution with Growth: An Approach to Policy, which, published in 1975, was a path-breaking book on income distribution. In February 2020, he published his book, Backstage: The Story Behind India’s High Growth Years, an insider’s account of policymaking from 1985 to 2014.

For his outstanding contribution to economic policy and public service, he was conferred the prestigious ‘Padma Vibhushan’ in 2011, India’s 2^nd highest civilian award for exceptional and distinguished service.

Mr Ahluwalia graduated from Delhi University and holds an MA and an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College Oxford.

Presenter

Rishita Sachdeva 

Rishita Sachdeva is an Associate Fellow with the Economic Growth and Development vertical. She has an Msc. in Development Economics from University of Sussex. Previously, she has interned with UNDP and NITI Aayog. She is currently working on India’s economic growth project. She is interested in development economics and politics.

Discussants

Rana Hasan 

Rana Hasan is Regional Lead Economist for South Asia in Asian Development Bank’s Economic Research and Development Impact Department. His research areas and interests include industrial development, labor economics, urban economics, and poverty and inequality. He has previously served as a director in ADB’s research department and as Fellow at the East-West Center (USA). Rana has published in various journals including the Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, and World Development. He has co-edited two volumes on trade and labor related issues. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland and a Masters’ degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.

Rakesh Mohan 

Rakesh Mohan is President Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow at CSEP.

Prior to this, he was President and Distinguished Fellow, CSEP from October 2020 till May 2023. In March 2024, he was appointed to serve on the World Bank Group’s Economic Advisory Panel. He has been a part of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM) since October 2021.

Prior to joining CSEP, Dr Mohan was Senior Fellow in the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University and was also Professor in the Practice of International Economics and Finance at the School of Management at Yale University, 2010-12. He has also served as Distinguished Consulting Professor at Stanford University in 2009. Dr Mohan was also a Distinguished Fellow with Brookings India.

He has been closely associated with the Indian economic reforms process from the late 1980s. He was Executive Director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Secretary, Economic Affairs, and Chief Economic Adviser of the Indian Ministry of Finance, and Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Industry.

He was also Chairman of Government committees that produced the influential reports on infrastructure: The India Infrastructure Report (1996), The Indian Railways Report (2001) and The India Transport Report (2014).

After the North Atlantic Financial Crisis, he co-chaired the G20 Working Group “Enhancing Sound Regulation and Strengthening Transparency” (2009), and the CGFS/BIS Working Group on “Capital Flows and Emerging Market Economies” (2009).

He has authored three books on urban economics and urban development; two on monetary policy: ‘Monetary Policy in a Globalized Economy: A Practitioner’s View’ (2009), and “Growth with Financial Stability: Central Banking in an Emerging Market”. His most recent book (edited) is “India Transformed: 25 Years of Economic Reforms”.

He has a BSc (Eng) from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London (1969), a BA from Yale University (1971) and an MA and PhD in economics from Princeton University.

Shishir Gupta

Shishir Gupta is a Senior Fellow at CSEP. His work focuses on many aspects of the Indian economy, including economic growth, governance and institutions, urbanisation, and sub-national reforms, among others. Before joining CSEP in August 2020, Shishir was a Fellow with the McKinsey Global Institute for 14 years, where he led multi-ethnic teams in India and the US on policy research and client studies across multiple domains. He has written widely on these topics in MGI reports and research papers as well as in popular media. He is an economist by education, with an MA and MPhil from the Delhi School of Economics.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.

Please contact Manmeet Ahuja at MAhuja@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.