Professor Sachin Kumar Sharma

Prof. Sharma brings over two decades of expertise in international trade, development cooperation, and multilateral and regional negotiations. His research, advocacy, and capacity-building work have shaped discussions on trade and development, agricultural subsidies, investment, food security, sustainability, market access, trade disputes, transparency, LDC graduation, Aid for Trade, and negotiations at the WTO, FAO, G20, and in regional trade agreements. 

He holds an M.Phil. and a PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, with a specialisation in the WTO, international trade, quantitative techniques, and agricultural policy. He is skilled in econometrics, Computable General Equilibrium (GTAP), Partial Equilibrium Modelling, and statistical tools, with extensive experience in trade analytics.

A prolific scholar, Prof. Sharma has authored six books, numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, several working papers, and book chapters, in addition to regularly contributing to policy debates through articles in leading newspapers and participating in global forums.

Before joining RIS, he served as a Professor at the Centre for WTO Studies (CWS) at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. At CWS, he led and supervised a multidisciplinary team of economists, lawyers, and officials, working on a wide range of economic, development, and legal issues. His evidence-based policy inputs, analysis, and recommendations were extensively utilised by many developing countries and LDCs to comply with WTO obligations and to advance negotiations on agriculture and sustainability, including securing the perpetual peace clause on food security and shaping disciplines on domestic support.

Through knowledge sharing, critical inputs on proposals, and capacity-building initiatives, he also coordinated with key members of the G-33 to develop and advocate common negotiating positions among high-level policymakers of developing countries and LDCs. 

Representing India, he made significant contributions to South-South Cooperation through WTO proposals on domestic support, sustainability, food security, cotton, Special and Differential Treatment, and several other issues, many of which were co-sponsored by 75 countries from the G-33, OACPS, and the African Group. His initiatives played a pivotal role in invoking the Bali Peace Clause, thereby safeguarding India’s public stockholding programs for food security from WTO disputes. As an integral member of the Indian delegation, he played a crucial role in negotiations at the last five WTO Ministerial Conferences. He has conducted numerous training programmes on trade issues to strengthen South-South cooperation and collaborated with leading organisations, think tanks, and UN agencies.

As Director General of RIS, Prof. Sharma envisions strengthening RIS as the premier institution of the Global South, providing cutting-edge, development-oriented research and policy dialogue on contemporary global economic challenges. He aims to further RIS’s mission of fostering South-South cooperation, supporting evidence-based policymaking, and ensuring that the voices of developing countries are strongly represented in the international economic discourse.