A. K. Shiva Kumar

A. K. Shiva Kumar (29 June 1956), is a development economist and professor. He teaches various courses at Harvard University, Indian School of Business and Young India Fellowship. He currently serves as the Director of the International Centre for Human Development (IC4HD), New Delhi. The IC4HD is a constituent of the United Nations and along with support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (India). In addition to serving as an advisor to UNICEF – India, he was a member of India's National Advisory Council constituted by the chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The council was set up in June 2004 to oversee the implementation of India's National Common Minimum Programme.

A. K. Shiva Kumar earned his postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and his MA in economics from Bangalore University. He also holds a master's degree in public administration and a PhD in political economy and government from Harvard University. At Harvard, Kumar's PhD supervisor was Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.

Kumar teaches economics and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and is a visiting professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. He has focused his research on poverty and human development, social sector analysis, and the impact of development policies on children and women. He is recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Mason Fellowship, and the Certificate of Excellence in Teaching from Harvard University. He serves as the President of the Board of Trustees of Sanskriti Foundation. Dr. Kumar is the convener of the Kolkata Group Meeting annual workshops which are organised by Pratichi (India) Trust, the Harvard Global Equity Initiative and UNICEF India – and supervised and led by Amartya Sen. He serves on the Academic Council of Ashoka University. Kumar is also a member of the Executive Board of India's leading environmental protection organisation – the Centre for Science and Environment. In 2011, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India constituted an Audit Advisory Board (AAB) of which Dr. Kumar was a member.

Kumar has been a regular contributor to UNDP's Annual Human Development Reports. He has also been associated with the preparation of national human development reports in a number of countries including Bhutan, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar and Serbia. He was appointed by the Government of Sikkim as advisor for formulating Sikkim's second Human Development Report. In 2003, Kumar co-edited the book Readings in Human Development. His other publications include the Public Report on Basic Education (PROBE) (Oxford University Press, 1999) and a co-authored report entitled, Women in India: How free? How Equal, for the UN System in India. He also put together The Oxford Handbook of Population and Development. Dr. Kumar released the Delhi Human Development Report 2013 along with Delhi CM Sheila Dixit and Vice-President Hamid Ansari.