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Faculty & Research

Faculty & Research

Abhiman Das

Area

Primary Area : Economics

Contact

Email : abhiman@iima.ac.in

Phone : +91-79-7152 4936

Secretary : Priyal Patel

Phone : +91-79-7152 7926

Website : Personal Website

Education

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics, Cambridge, US.

Ph.D, Population Studies, International Institute for Population Sciences, Bombay

M. Sc, Population Studies, International Institute for Population Sciences, Bombay - (Gold Medalist)

M. Sc, Statistics, Calcutta University - (Gold Medalist)

B. Sc., Honours in Statistics, with Mathematics and Physics, Calcutta University.

Teaching

MBA Courses

  • Macroeconomics
  • Managerial Econometrics
  • World Economy: Business, Government and International Economy

Ph. D. Courses

  • Econometrics 1 – Panel Data Econometrics
  • Advanced Econometrics
  • Mathematical Economics – Linear Algebra
  • Data Envelopment Analysis

Research Area

Monetary Economics

Applied Econometrics and Time Series Analysis

Theory of Firms

Banking Efficiency and Productivity Analysis using both Parametric and Nonparametric methods

Survey Data Analysis

Measurement of Macro-Economic Indicators

Economic Development

Current Research:

Transmission of Monetary Policy

Measurement of Inflation Expectations

Economic Development and Banking

Efficiency and Productivity of Banking

Academic Experience

Chairperson, Misra Centre for Financial Markets and Economy, April 2019 to April 2022

RBI Chair Professor in Finance and Economics, IIM Ahmedabad, April 2016 to April 2022

Chairperson, Doctoral (Ph. D.) Programme in Management, IIM Ahmedabad, April 2018 to March 2020

Chairperson, Economics Area, IIM Ahmedabad, April 2016 to March 2018

Professor, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, August 2015-Present

Recipient of Prof. C. R. Rao National Award in Statistics for Young Statisticians for 2012-13 in recognition of his outstanding contribution in the field of Statistics.

Recipient of the Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis Medal for 2008 instituted by the Indian Econometric Society for his outstanding contribution in Quantitative Economics.

Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB), 2006

CSIR-UGC NET Lecturer Fellowship, 1992.

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Professional Experience

Member of the Selection Committee of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, April 2018-Present

Member of the Governing Council of Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL), 2019

Worked in various capacities in the Department of Statistics and Information Management (Research Department) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for over two decades. Before Joining the IIMA, he was holding the post of Director(General Manager) at the RBI

Member , Indian Econometric Society.

Associate Editor, The Data Envelopment Analysis Journal

Member, Editorial Committee, Reserve Bank of India Working Paper Series, 2014-2015

Member, Editorial Committee, Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, 2010-2012

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Journals

Inflation expectations in India: Learning from household tendency surveys (with Kajal Lahiri and Yongchen Zhao), International Journal of Forecasting (2019), 35(3), 980-993.

Financial support vis-a-vis share of wind generation: Is there an inflection point? (with Dipti Gupta and Amit Garg), Energy (2019), 181, 1064-1074.

Mark-up and Efficiency of Indian Banks: An Input Distance Function Approach (with Subal Kumbhakar), Empirical Economics, 2016, 51:1689–1719, DOI 10.1007/s00181- 015-1062- 4.

Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM): The role of reference rate (with Ramesh Jangili), Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 2017, 33, 515–524, DOI 10.3233/SJI-160280.

Forecasting Inflation with Mixed Frequency Data in India (with Bikash Maji), Calcutta Statistical Association Bulletin, 2017, 68(1-2) 92–110. DOI: 10.1177/0008068316668421.

Nowcasting sales growth of manufacturing companies in India (with Anirban Sanyal), Applied Economics, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2017.1324613.

Effects of Derivatives usage and Financial Statement accounting items on Indian Banks' Stocks' Unsystematic and Systematic Risk Measures (with G. Banerjee, S. Shetty and K. Jana), Journal of Economics and Finance, 2016, DOI 10.1007/s12197-016- 9366-6.

An Application of Quah and Vahey's Structural Vector Auto Regression Methodology for Estimating Core Inflation in India: A Note (with Joice John and Sanjay Singh), Journal of Quantitative Economics, DOI 10.1007/s40953-015-0023-2, 2015.

Sensitivity of Investment and Growth to Changes in Real Interest Rates in India (with S. Pattanaik, H. Behera, R. Kavediya, A. K. Shrivastava and H. Joshi), Prajnan (NIBM), Journal of Social and Management Sciences, XLIII (1), April-June 2014. An earlier version titled ‘Real Interest Rate impact on Investment and Growth – What the Empirical Evidence for India Suggests?' was published as RBI Project Research Study https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=15113.

Corporate Pricing Power, Inflation and IIP Growth: An Empirical Investigation (with Angshuman Hait and Joice John), RBI Working Paper Series, WPS(DEPR), 09/2013.

Estimation of Counterfeit Currency Notes in India – Alternative Methodologies, (with Sanjoy Bose), RBI Working Paper Series, WPS(DEPR), 03/2013.

Productivity and efficiency dynamics in Indian banking: an input distance function approach incorporating quality of inputs and outputs (with Subal Kumbhakar), Journal of Applied Econometrics 27, 2012.

Fan Chart: Methodology and its Application to Inflation Forecasting in India (with Nivedita Banerjee), RBI Working Paper Series, WPS(DEPR), 5/2011.

Real Time Business Conditions Index: A Statistically Optimal Framework for India (with Dipankar Biswas and Nivedita Banerjee), Reserve Bank of India Occasional Paper, 33(1 & 2), 2014. An earlier version in the same title was published in the RBI Working Paper Series, WPS(DEPR), 3/2011.

Distribution of Cost and Profit Efficiency of Indian Banking (with Subhash Ray), European Journal of Operations Research, 201, 2010.

Balance sheet accounting factors and capital market risk exposure (with G. Banerjee), International Journal of Finance, 22, 2010.

Hedonic Quality Adjustments for Real Estate Prices in India (with Manjusha Senapati and Joice John), Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, Summer, 30(1), 2009.

Impact of Agricultural Credit on Agricultural Production: An Empirical Analysis in India, (with Manjusha Senapati and Joice John), Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, Monsoon, 30(2), 2009.

Estimation of Potential Output in India, (with S. Bordoloi and R. Jangili), Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, Monsoon, 30(2), 2009.

Measuring Core Inflation in India (with Joice John and Sanjay Singh), Indian Economic Review, 44 (2), 2009.

Financial deregulation and profit efficiency: A nonparametric analysis of Indian banks (with Saibal Ghosh), Journal of Economics and Business, 61(6), 2009.

GDP Deflator vis-à-vis other Price Indices in India: An Exploratory Study (with Manjusha Senapati), The Journal of Income and Wealth, 29(1), 2008.

Determinants of Credit Risk in Indian State-owned Banks: An Empirical Investigation (with Saibal Ghosh), Economic Issues, 12(2), 2008.

State-wise Estimates of Financial Savings of Household Sector: An Exploratory Study" (with K. S. Ramachandra Rao and Ramesh Jangili), The Journal of Income and Wealth, 28(1), 2007.

Central Banks Output in GDP: Issues and Measurement, The Journal of Income and Wealth, 27 (1&2), 2007.

Banking Sector's Output in National Accounts: Measurement Issues in the Light of SNA Revision" (with A. B. Chakraborty), The Journal of Income and Wealth, 27 (1&2), 2007.

Banking Sector's Output in National Accounts: Measurement issues (with A. B. Chakraborty), Economic and Political Weekly, 42(37), 2007.

Demographic Statistics in India: Why Shall We Take the Electoral Roll Seriously? (with Kaushik Bhattacharya and Anujit Mitra), Demography India, 36(1), 2007.

Scale Economies, Cost Complementarities and Technical Progress in Indian Banking: Evidence from Fourier Flexible Functional Form, (with Sangeeta Das), Applied Economics, 39(5), 2007.

Estimation of Stable Fertility Rate of Indian States: An Application of Population Evolution Model, Demography India, 35(4), 2007.

Labour-use Efficiency in Indian Banking: A Branch-level Analysis (with Subhash Ray and Ashok K. Nag), Omega,International Journal of Management Science, 37(2), 2007.

Profitability of Indian Corporate Sector: Productivity, Price or Growth? (with Manjusha Senapati), Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, Winter, 28(3), 2007.

Financial Deregulation and Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis of Indian Banks during the Post Reform Period (with Saibal Ghosh), Review of Financial Economics, 15(3), 2007.

Commercial Banks' Lending to Small Scale Industry – An Account (with K. S. Ramachandra Rao and A. K. Singh), Economic and Political Weekly, March 2006.

Size, Non-performing Loan, Capital and Productivity Change: Evidence from in Indian State-owned Banks (with Saibal Ghosh), Journal of Quantitative Economics, 18(3), 2005.

Dynamics of Market Structure and Competitiveness of the Banking Sector in India and its Impact on Outputs and Prices of Banking Services (with Kaushik Bhattacharya), Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, 2005.

Examining Excess Capacity in Regional Rural Banks: Some Empirical Insights for India (with Saibal Ghosh), Prajnan, Vol. XXXIII (4), NIBM, January – March, 2005.

Liberalization, Ownership, and Efficiency in Indian Banking: A Nonparametric Approach (with Subhash Ray and A. K. Nag), Economic and Political Weekly, 40(12), 2005.

Market Discipline, Capital Adequacy and Bank Behaviour, (with Saibal Ghosh) in Economic and Political Weekly, 40(12), 2005.

Depositor Discipline in the Banking Sector in India: An Empirical Investigation (with Saibal Ghosh), Journal of Quantitative Economics, 19(1), 2005.

Corporate Governance in Indian Banking System: An Empirical Investigation (with Saibal Ghosh), Economic and Political Weekly, Special issue, March 2004.

Non-performing Loan, Capital and Productivity Change: Evidence from Indian State-owned Banks, (with Saibal Ghosh), Global Journal of Finance and Economics, 1(1), March 2004.

Efficiency of Indian Commercial Banks during the Reform Period (with S. Rangasamy), Applied Financial Economics, 14, 2004.

Risk, Capital and Operating Efficiency: Evidence from Indian Public Sector Banks (with Saibal Ghosh), Indian Journal of Economics and Business, 1(1), June 2004.

Market Discipline in Indian Banking: An Empirical Exploration (with Saibal Ghosh), NSE Research Initiative No. 82, 2003, NSE: Mumbai.

Market Discipline in Indian Bank: Does the Data Tell a Story, (with Saibal Ghosh), NSE Newsletters, April 2003.

The Relationship between Risk and Capital: Evidence from Indian Public Sector Banks (with Saibal Ghosh), Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, Summer, Monsoon, Winter, 2003.

Risk and Productivity Change of Indian Public Sector Banks, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.XXXVII, February 2-8, 2002.

Credit Growth and Response to Capital Requirements: Evidence from Indian Public Sector Banks (with A. K. Nag), Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.XXXXII, August 1-7, 2002.

Fertility Transition and Threshold Estimation, Journal of Social and Economic Development, 3(2), July-December 2001.

Bootstrap Confidence Interval of the Efficiency Estimate of Commercial Banks in India (with T. V. Ramanathan), International Journal for Development Banking, December 2000.

Profitability of Public Sector Banks in India: A Decomposition Model, Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, Summer, 1999.

An Approach to Evaluate the Performance of Public sector Banks in India (with P. C. Sarker), Journal of Applied Economics- International Quarterly, October-December, 1999.

Efficiency of Public Sector Banks: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Model, Prajnan, National Institute of Bank Management, July-September 1999.

Socio-Economic Development in India: A Regional Analysis, Development and Society, 28, Dec.1999.

Temporal Causality between Government Taxes and Spending: An Application of Error Models (with Sangeeta Das), Prajnan, National Institute for Bank Management, April-June, 1998.

Portfolio Risks and Economies of Scale in Banking: The Indian Case, International Journal for Development Banking, July-December, 1998.

Technical, Allocative and Scale Efficiency of Public Sector Banks in India, Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, June, 1997.

Development of Composite Index of Banking Efficiency – The Indian Case (with P. C. Sarker), Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, December, 1997.

Measurement of Productive Efficiency and its Decomposition in Indian Banking Firms, The Asian Economic Review, December 1997.

Structural Changes and Asset-liability Mismatch of Commercial Banks in India, Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, December, 1996.

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Chapters

Market Discipline in Indian Banking: Does the Data Tell a Story?", DE-NOVA Publications, NY.

Bubbles and Monetary Policy: A Perspective, "Bubbles and Monetary Policy: A Perspective", (with Joice John) United Nations Statistics Division, unstats.un.org/unsd/Identifying_ Bubbles/Identifying_Bubbles.htm, 2011.

Competition in Metropolitan Banking Market in India: Are Public and Private Sector Banks Doing Equally Well? (with Kaushik Bhattacharyya) in "Competitiveness in India", etd. by Shailendra Singh (IIM Lucknow), MacMillan, 2011.

Profitability of Indian Corporate Sector: Productivity, Price or Growth? (with Manjusha Senapati), in Economic Developments in India, 135, Academic Foundation, 2009. An earlier version of the same article appeared in Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, Winter, 28(3), 2007.

Determinants of Interest Spread of Indian Scheduled Commercial Banks: Quantile Regression Approach", Models and Methods in Econometrics, Proceedings of 39th Annual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society, Oxford University Press.

Examining the Relationship among Capital, Risk and Productivity: Evidence from Indian Public Sector Banks", in Trade, Finance and Development, edited by Biswajit Chatterjee and Ajitava Raychaudhuri. New Delhi, Deep and Deep, 2004.

Technical, Allocative and Scale Efficiency of Public Sector Banks in India", in "Money, Finance and Banking", Vasudevan A. (edt.), Academic Foundation, 2003.

Portfolio Management: Behaviour of Major Banking Aggregates in India", (with Anupam Prakash), BECON 2001, Special Volume.

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Professional Conferences

Asymmetries in Inflation Expectations: A Study Using IESH Quantitative Survey Data –Seminar at SUNY Albany, NY, May 2, 2017, Albany.

Asymmetries in Inflation Expectations: A Study Using IESH Quantitative Survey Data –IMF Workshop on Forecasting, April 26-27, 2017, Washington DC.

Financial Deregulation, Efficiency and Productivity Dynamics of Indian Banks (with Subhash Ray and Kankana Mukherjee), International DEA Conference, Prague, June 27-29, 2017.

Labor-Cost Efficiency with Indivisible Outputs and Inputs: A Study of Indian Bank Branches, 14 th International Conference on Data Envelopment Analysis, Wuhan,China – May 23 to 26, 2016

Inflation Expectations and Phillips Curve for India. Presented at the Delhi ISI Macro Conference February 2013.

Bubbles and Monetary Policy: A Perspective. Presented at the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Statistics, New Delhi, 2011.

India's growth prospects. Presented from RBI at the STEP conference, OECD, October 25-26, 2010 Paris.

Quality of inputs, outputs and efficiency of banks. Presented at the 47th Annual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society, January 6-8, 2010 Indore.

Profit Efficiency and Return on Equity: Evidence from Indian Banking. Presented in the DEA Symposium, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, January 5-7, 2007.

Central Banks Output in GDP: Issues and Measurement. Presented at the conference of the Indian Association for Research in National Income and Wealth (IARNIW) held at Bhubaneswar during December 15-16, 2006.

State-wise estimates of financial savings of household sector - An exploratory study. Presented at conference of the Indian Association for Research in National Income and Wealth (IARNIW) held at Bhubaneswar during December 15-16, 2006.

Bank Efficiency and Accounting Ratios. Presented in the 8th Annual Conference on Money, Models and Methods in Economics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, January 27-29, 2006.

Banking Sector's Output in National Accounts - Measurement Issues in the light of SNA Revision. Presented in the seminar jointly organized by Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) and Economic and Political Weekly Research Foundation (EPWRF) on March 29, 2006.

Cost and Profit Efficiency: Evidence from Indian Banking. Presented in the North American Productivity Workshop (NAPW), held at Stern Business School, New York University during June 28 – June 30, 2006.

Efficiency of Indian Banks during Post-Reform Period: A DEA Approach. Presented in the International Conference on Operations Research, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, January 8 to 10, 2004.

State-wise Estimates of Financial Savings of Household Sector: An Exploratory Study. Presented in the Conference of Indian Association in Research and National Income and Wealth (IARNIW), Jaipur, January 16-18, 2004.

Homogeneity in Performance: An empirical exploration on Indian Banking. Presented in the 40th Annual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society, Bangalore, 2004.

District-Level Development of Maharashtra: A Peripheral View from Banking Perspective. Presented in the Seminar on Perspectives on Maharashtra's Economy, Department of Economics, Mumbai University, March 11 and 12, 2004.

Determinants of Interest Spread of Indian Scheduled Commercial Banks: Quantile Regression Approach. Presented in the 39th Annual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society, Baroda, 2003.

Determinants of Credit Risk of Indian State-owned Banks: An Empirical Investigation. Presented in the 4thInternational Conference on Money, Investment and Risk, the Nottingham Trent University, UK, 2003.

Capital, Non-performing Loan and Productivity: Empirical Evidence from Indian Public Sector Banks. Presented in the Annual Conference on Contemporary Issues in Development Economics, Jadavpur University, 2001.

SAS "Users Group International Conference" during September 20 to September 22 1999, Sydney, Australia.

Bootstrap Confidence Interval of the Efficiency Estimate of Commercial Banks in India. Presented in the 35thAnnual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society, Indore, 1999.

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Working Papers & Projects

The MPSS and Target Setting for Optimal Scale of Indian Bank Branches (with Subhash Ray and Kankana Mukherjee)

Financial Deregulation, Efficiency and Productivity Dynamics of Indian Banks (with Subhash Ray and Kankana Mukherjee).

Monetary Policy in a Channel Framework (with Joice John)

Monetary policy and Taylor rule in India (with Joice John).

Profit Efficiency and Return on Equity of Indian Banks.

Role of Inflation Expectations in Estimating a Phillips Curve for India.

Transmission of Monetary Policy in India – A Disaggregated Analysis (with P. Mitra and Joice John).

The complementarity between infrastructure investment and finance – evidence from the GQ highway system (with Ramana Nanda and others).

Monetary Policy, Payment System and Financial Stability (with R. Townsend).

Financial Deregulation, Efficiency and Productivity Dynamics of Indian Banks (with Subhash Ray and Kankana Mukherjee).

Heterogeneity, Persistence and Time Varying Efficiency of Indian Banks (with Subal Kumbhakar).

Corporate Social Responsibility, Firm Ownership, and Performance (with Saibal Ghosh).

A Note on the Dynamics of the Components of Wholesale Price Index in India (with A. Ghosh Roy).

Mark-up, Efficiency and Financial Stability: Evidence from Indian Banking (with Subal Kumbhakar).

The Anatomy of a Banking Panic (with Nirupama Kulkarni, N. Prabhala and P. Mishra) Abhiman-14985.pdf

The Transmission of Monetary Policy within Banks: Evidence from India (with N. Prabhala and P. Mishra) 472016123541PM-Das_Mishra_Prabhala_Papera0e8.pdf

Asymmetries in Inflation Expectations: A Study Using IESH Quantitative Survey Data (with Kajal Lahiri, Y. Zhao) (Asymmetries in Inflation Expectations- PDF File). Das2ba3.pdf

Labor-Cost Efficiency with Indivisible Outputs and Inputs: A Study of Indian Bank Branches (with Subhash Ray and Kankana Mukherjee).

Infrastructure and Finance: Evidence from India's GQ Highway Network (with Syed Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami, William Kerr and Ramana Nanda): World Bank Policy Research Papers, Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 8885. June 2019, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/729281560437538266/Infrastructure-and-Finance-Evidence-from-Indias-GQ-Highway-NetworkHarvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-121, June 2019. Also available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3399447 19-121_886f6738-8299-444d-82f4-b2378eb32a85.pdf

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Other Publications

Member of the Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, 2019.

Member of the Working Group of NSS 77th Round Survey, NSSO, MOSPI, 2018.

Member of the Committee on Online Data Reporting, National Statistical Commission,2017.

Member of the Expert Committee on WPI (2011-12), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 2017.

Member of the Core Group from RBI for compilation of PPI, Government of India, 2015.

Member of the Sub-Committee for the development of methodology for compilation of Index of Service Production for Insurance Sector, CSO, 2015.

Member of the Internal Working Group to Revisit the Existing Priority Sector Lending Guidelines, RBI, 2015.

Member of the Committee on Data and Information Management in the Reserve Bank of India, 2014.

Internal Technical Group member from RBI for the Expert Committee to Revise and Strengthen the Monetary Policy Framework (Chairman: Urjit Patel), 2014.

Internal Technical Group member from RBI for the Working Group on Operative Procedures of Monetary Policy (Chairman: Deepak Mohanty), 2011.

Member of the G-20 Study Group on Commodity Price Volatility, 2011.

Member of the Working Group on De-Seasonalisation of Price Index series, set up by CSO, 2010.

Internal Group member from RBI for the RBI-SEBI Technical Committee on Interest Rate Futures, 2009.

Internal Technical Group member from RBI for the ‘Service Sector Price Index' set up Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Office of the Economic Adviser.

Internal Technical Group member from RBI for the Working Group on the Revision of Wholesale Price Index, various revisions.

Internal Technical Group member from RBI for the High Level Committee on Saving and Capital Formation (Chairman: C. Rangarajan), 2008.

Internal Group member from RBI for the RBI-SEBI Technical Committee on Currency Futures, 2008.

Internal Technical Group member from RBI for the Sub-Group on the integration of CPI(U) and CPI(UNME) under TAC on SPCL, 2006.

Internal Technical Group member from RBI the committee on 'Estimation of GDP and FISIM in respect of UTI and other Mutual Funds' set up by CSO, 2005.

Internal Technical Group member from RBI on financial sector for "National Statistical Commission", 1999-2000.

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Consulting

Development of Integrity Index of Public Sector Undertakings for (CVC) Central Vigilance Commission (2016-18).

Awards & Honors

1992 - Gold medal (First Class First) for Master's in Statistics

1992 - CSIR-UGC NET Lecturer Fellowship

1994 - Gold medal (First Class First) for Master's in Population Studies

2004 - Golden Jubilee Fellowship, Reserve Bank of India

2006 - Best research paper award by the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance

2006 - Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Banks (CAIIB)

2008 - Recipient of the Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis Medal for 2008 instituted by the Indian Econometric Society for outstanding contribution in Quantitative Economics.

2012-13 - Recipient of Prof. C. R. Rao National Award in Statistics for Young Statisticians for 2012-13 in recognition of outstanding contribution in the field of Statistics, Government of India.

IIMA