Mahendra P Lama is the Founding Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Sikkim in India. Central to his intellectual pursuits is development and cooperation in South and South East Asia. While teaching economic cooperation and integration in South Asia and India’s Foreign Economic Policy, he does extensive research with distinct policy slants.
Besides authoring and editing 15 books, he has extensively worked on the issues of human security, migration, refugees, trade, investment and energy cooperation in South Asia and has produced very widely acclaimed reports and studies. His most recent book is Human Security in India: Discourse, Practices and Policy Implications (2010).
Till very recently, he was Professor of South Asian Economies and the Chairman of the Centre for South, Central, South East Asia and South West Pacific Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He also served as the Chief Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister of Sikkim with a Cabinet Minister rank for seven years since 2002. Prof. Lama is presently a Member of the National Security Advisory Board.
He was the prestigious Asia Leadership Fellow in Japan (2001); Ford Foundation Fellow in the USA (1997) ; Visiting Professor in Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo( 2004-2005); Visiting Fellow in Calcutta University, Visiting Professor in Indian Institute of Advanced Studies; and was an India-China Fellow at the New School University, USA 2008-2010. He has lectured extensively both in India and abroad.