Shanta devarajan biography channel

By W. A Wijewardena –

An economist with academic training and practical training 

For me, Shanta Devarajan, formerly the Acting Chief Economist of the World Bank Group succeeding the Nobel Laureate Paul Romer and presently Professor at Georgetown University, USA, was a legend by himself. When I met him in early part of the new millennium in Colombo, he was the Chief Economist of the World Bank Group overlooking the affairs in the South Asian region. He came to the Central Bank for a conference and I instantly got impressed by his ability to articulate his wisdom convincingly to a disbelieving audience.

Since then, I met him many times in Washington DC when I attended the Joint Annual Meetings of the WB and IMF and in Colombo when he came over here to deliver lectures or negotiate aid assistance to Sri Lanka. After retirement from the World Bank Group in late , he has now returned to his most preferred profession, the academia. He is now a profes