Internationally Renowned Economist Joins OU

We're pleased to announce that renowned academic and long-standing OU collaborator Professor Sudip Chaudhuri has been appointed Visiting Professor in Economics and IKD. An industrial economist and pharmaceutical industry expert, Professor Chaudhuri is Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, in Kolkata and has been involved in many high-profile policy debates in India. A particular area of expertise concerns patents and their placing into a larger political and economic perspective.

Professor Chaudhuri has acted as a consultant for the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, and the Indian government amongst others, and his past collaboration with the OU includes the project Non-governmental Action to Improve the Access of the Poor to Good Quality Low Cost Drugs , which concentrated on problems of access by the poor in India and Tanzania to reliable drugs from Indian pharmaceutical companies. He has also produced a number of joint publications with IKD, such as Indian Generics Producers, Access to Essential Medicines and Local Production in Africa: an Argument with Reference to Tanzania and NGOs, Consumer Rights and Access to Essential Medicines: Non-governmental Public Action in a Low-income Market Context.

The hononary three-year position has been awarded to support joint publications and collaborative research development, and IKD Director Professor Maureen Mackintosh commented, 'Sudip is an internationally renowned industrial economist whose research has influenced policy both in India and internationally. IKD are delighted at the opportunity his appointment offers to learn from his expertise and to strengthen our ties with an outstanding collaborator.'