Ila Patnaik


Ila Patnaik is an Indian economist. and former Principal Economic Advisor to the Government of India. During this time, she prepared the Economic Survey of India, 2013-14 and contributed to numerous Government of India committees and task forces. In 2014, she was the only female economist ranked within the top ten in India, along with the likes of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and former RBI governors Y V Reddy, Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel. She also writes regular columns for the Indian Express. She is a well known to be outspokenly opposed to the Government of India's controversial policy on demonetisation, having written on it for Indian Express within just three days of the announcement.
After months of opposing the decision clearly in the public, she was invited as an expert on the topic in various international media platforms, including Bloomberg and interviews with the UK's BBC. Her thoughts on the subject were also reflected as a book chapter titled "Demonetisation: The Economists Speak".
She is currently a professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.

Early life

Ila Patnaik was born in New Delhi. She did her B.A. in Economics, Hindu College, University of Delhi, Delhi; M.A. in Economics, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; M.Phil. in Economics, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Ph.D. in Economics, University of Surrey, Guildford, U.K.

Career

Ila Patnaik was an Economics Editor, Indian Express. She wrote a Fortnightly column in Business Standard. She also worked as Editor, Macro Track, A Quarterly Update on the Indian Economy, NCAER, New Delhi, 1997-2001. She did a program on NDTV, Policy with Patnaik from 2007 to 2009.