Dr Shekhar Shah is the Director-General of NCAER. Prior to joining NCAER, Shah was the World Bank’s Regional Economic Adviser for South Asia and, earlier Sector Manager in the Bank’s research complex and a principal author of the 2004 World Development Report, Making Services Work for Poor People. During a career at the Bank spanning more than two decades, Shah served as the Bank’s Deputy Research Administrator, Sector Manager for Governance and Public Sector Management for Europe and Central Asia, South Asia Governance Adviser and Public Sector Coordinator, and Lead Economist for Bangladesh. Before joining the Bank in 1989, he was the Ford Foundation’s Program Officer for Economics for South Asia. He worked earlier in the financial services sector in Washington DC consulting for the Federal Reserve Board, FDIC, the OCC, and bank holding companies in the US. He received his BA in Economics from St Stephens College at Delhi University and his MA and PhD in Economics from Columbia University.