Ram Upendra Das

He was born in Gorakhpur, eastern Uttar Pradesh, in north India where he received his early education under the guidance of his parents. His father Dr. R.J Das, a scholar, writer and teacher of English Literature[9][10][11][12] was also born in Gorakhpur, eastern Uttar Pradesh, in north India, and he retired as a principal of a postgraduate college and his mother S.J. Srivastava, who did masters in Hindi literature, is from Deoria, also in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

He is alumnus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. He obtained his PhD (Economics) and M.Phil. (Economics) degrees from the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and M.A. (Economics) from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. He received the National Merit Scholarship (1982); State Inter-Merit Scholarship (1982); National Merit Scholarship (1986).

He is married to Anuradha Das,[13] a singer and media personality.

He drafted the SAFTA and SATIS Agreements, served in the expert group meetings on the subject and conducted the studies on "SAARC Regional Study on Potential for Trade in Services under SAFTA"[14] (2009) and "Development of an Institutional Framework for Data Collection on Trade in Services". This was conducted as a lead consultant of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the SAARC Secretariat for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This work directly contributed to the policy-making of regional economic integration under SAARC monitored by the SAARC Commerce Ministers and Central Bank.[15] He was a member of the Track II Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia (CEPEA)[16] which was adopted at Fourth East Asia Summit by the highest level (Presidents/ Prime Ministers) Heads of States/ Governments of 16 countries including Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam. This led to mega regional grouping viz the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)[17] among the 16 Countries. He also contributed to the report between India and Thailand on "A Feasibility Study on a Free Trade Agreement between India and Thailand".[18][19] He has been panelist at various international business ties.[20] He is involved in various fields of regional and global economic issues including exchange rate,[1][21] South Asian economic integration,[22][23][24][25][26] WTO,[27][28] G20,[29][30] India-Asean,[31][32][33][34] Trade in Services,[31] India-Japan[35] and India-Pakistan.[2][36][37][38][39] In 2015 he put forth a new framework of regional economic integration for 'peace-creating prosperity'[40] which was presented at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City[41]

He is an alumnus of the Programme Presidential Friends of Indonesia held in 2009.[42] He participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on US Trade Policy organized by the US Department of State at Washington DC, New York City, Minneapolis, Seattle and Chicago in 2006. In 2005, he received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Minister of Planning and Development, Government of Maldives, for capacity building on macroeconomic forecasting (sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat) for the Maldivian Government Officers in Male. He has been Honorary Fellow, Academy for World Watch, Shanghai and Visiting Faculty, Birla Institute of Management Technology,[43] among others. He was recently made a non-resident senior fellow at the Hazar Strategy Institute, Istanbul.[44]

He has published numerous books and papers relevant to policy-discourse.