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A. K. Shiva Kumar

Indian economist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ4648037 ↗
Source-derived summary

A. K. Shiva Kumar (29 June 1956), is a development economist, policy advisor, and evaluator, who has over the past 40 years, taught economics, undertaken evaluations, conducted research and policy analysis, worked closely with governments, international agencies, and civil society organisations to advocate for changes in public policy and legislation. He teaches various courses at Harvard University, Indian School of Business, BITS School of Management, Young India Fellowship, S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research and Ashoka University.

He is a board member of the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children, co-chair of Know in Violence in Childhood, and a member of the leadership councils of both the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Global Women's Institute, The George Washington University, Washington DC. In addition to serving as a senior policy adviser UNICEF – India (1992-2017), he was a member of India's National Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, constituted by the Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The council was set up in June 2004 to oversee the implementation of India's National Common Minimum Programme.

Early life

Kumar earned his postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and his MA in economics from Bangalore University. He also holds a master's degree in public administration and a Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard University. At Harvard, Kumar's Ph.D. supervisor was Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.

Career

Kumar teaches economics and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and is a visiting professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University and S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai. He has focused his research on poverty and human development, social sector analysis, and the impact of development policies on children and women. He is recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Mason Fellowship, and the Certificate of Excellence in Teaching from Harvard University.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “A. K. Shiva Kumar” as indian economist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1956, 1992, 2017, 2004—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1956-06-29. The account is most persuasive where Shiva, Kumar and Indian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as indian economist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4648037. VIAF identifies the subject as 61037421. The Library of Congress control number is nb98047493. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1956, 1992, 2017 and 2004.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “A. K. Shiva Kumar”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow A. K. Shiva Kumar primary sources, A. K. Shiva Kumar archive and Shiva research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “A. K. Shiva Kumar”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “A. K. Shiva Kumar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.