JNU professor to be new CDS director

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Amit Shovan Ray will be the new director of Kerala's premier research institution, Centre for Development Studies (CDS), here.

Speaking to IANS over telephone Monday, Ray said: "The date of joining will depend on getting my papers of deputation from JNU and such matters."

Set up in 1971 by professor K.N. Raj, the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) is a self-governing institution known for its cutting edge research in applied economics.

The economics professor, at the Centre for International Trade and Development (CITD) of the School of International Studies in JNU, Delhi, studied at the Presidency College, Calcutta, and did his D.Phil. in Economics from the University of Oxford in 1988.

Ray was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, London, in 2007 and is a member of the Independent Commission on Development and Health in India since 2008.