Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor at Columbia University, left, Lee C. Bollinger, President, Columbia University, center, and Professor Arvind Panagariya, who was named to fill the newly-endowed Jagdish Bhagwati Chair in Indian Political Economy at an event celebrating the endowment and the appointment at Columbia’s Kellogg Center on June 15. (Photo: Courtesy, Eileen Barroso, University Photographer)

Members of the Indian American community of New York joined Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger at Columbia’s Kellogg Center on June 15 in celebrating the newly endowed chair at the university, the Jagdish Bhagwati Chair in Indian Political Economy, and the appointment of Professor Arvind Panagariya to fill the chair.

“The university’s creation of this chair ensures ongoing scholarly attention to present-day India, which is not only one of the largest and most important countries in the world but one that is undergoing rapid change that we need to understand,” said Lisa Anderson, dean, School of International and Public Affairs, where the chair will be housed., in her welcome address. “Many of the chair’s strongest backers came from New York City’s Indian-American community, and I am delighted they recognized that the academic and policy worlds will greatly benefit from having a permanent position at Columbia to further research and teaching on the current politics and economy of the nation of India.”

The chair, endowed by over 1,000 Indian American donors, with lead donor Sreedhar Menon alone contributing $ 0.5 million, is named for Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor at Columbia University, and a leading theorist of international trade.

Born and raised in India, Bhagwati attended Cambridge University (where he was a contemporary of India’s present prime minister Manmohan Singh) and Oxford University. After coming to Columbia, he was named in 2001 the Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science.

After study in England and the United States, Bhagwati returned to India in 1961 as professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute and then professor of international trade at the Delhi School of Economics. He returned to MIT in 1968 and was named to Ford International Professor of Economics. In 1980, he came to Columbia.

Bhagwati has also served as economic policy adviser to the director-general, GATT; as special adviser to the U.N. on globalization; and as external adviser to the WTO. He has published more than 300 articles and 45 books. He is also the founder of the influential economic journals, the Journal of International Economics, and Economics and Policy. Bhagwati said he was “doubly flattered” that the university chose to name the chair after him. “It is an honor to have a chair named after oneself. And it is very unusual before retirement,” he said. Bhagwati is still an active faculty member at Columbia where he serves as University Professor.

Panagariya, who will be the first fulltime professor to fill the chair, was previously professor of economics and co-director at the Center for International Economics, University of Maryland, College Park.

Like Bhagwati, his special field is world trade. He was co-author with Bhagwati of an opinion piece on India’s elections and what they mean published the Wall Street Journal and News India-Times.

For some of those present at Kellogg Center on June 15, — like India Chair Campaign Committee co-chairs Thomas Abraham and Rajendra Bansal, and secretary Manjula Bansal, lead donor Sreedhar Menon, and leading India scholars Ainslie Embree and Philip Oldenburg of Columbia’s Southern Asian Institute – the event brought to fulfillment a 10-year campaign that had its ups and downs.