Mr. Atul Kaushik

GDC Fellow

Mr Atul Kaushik is a Fellow at Global Development Centre at the RIS. He has worked in the Government of India for 35 years dealing with export promotion, bilateral and multilateral trade policy, cabinet office, petroleum, environment and climate change, justice, and the Parliament. He has been India’s negotiator at the WTO and the UNFCCC, and has served at the Permanent Mission of India to the WTO in Geneva. He has delivered large scale projects of the government on ICT enablement of courts and access to justice. On a sabbatical from the government, he delivered multiple development cooperation projects in Africa and trade capacity building of developing country Missions in Geneva.

After retirement, He has served as the Vice-Chairman of the Committee for Advanced Trade Research of the Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI). He is an Advisor at the Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals (BRIEF) and the Centre of Geoeconomics for the Global South (COGGS), and is on the Governing Board of the Centre for International Trade Law of the National Law University Odisha (NLUO) and the National Intellectual Property Organisation (NIPO). He has co-edited two books, has contributed chapters in a dozen books, and several articles in various journals. Currently at RIS he steers the work of the Global Development Centre (GDC) and DAKSHIN and contributes to the trade related work.

Ongoing work projects

Supporting the trade and investment pillars of RIS with legal and practitioner’s inputs
Supporting capacity building by RIS in development cooperation and international trade
Researching international trade law, IPRs, and the global development compact

Recent publications

‘Dispute Settlement and Efficacy of the Multilateral Trading System: A Dysfunctional Appellate Body Erodes the Credibility of the WTO’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 59, Issue 46, 2024
‘Infusing LiFE in the Global South’ Development Cooperation Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024
‘Role of IPRs in increasing India’s participation in GVCs’ India Trade & Business Magazine, Trade Promotion Council of India, 2022
Co-edited Book ‘Transforming India – Governance for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, also wrote its introduction and chapter ‘India’s Commitment to Sustainable Development and Climate Change’, 2022
‘An Integrated Approach to TRIPS Flexibilities in the Post-Pandemic Era’, Policy Brief, RIS 2020
‘Global Institutions and Covid19’ RIS Dairy-3^rd Special Issue on Covid-19, 2020
‘India’s Tryst with Free Trade Agreements, The Economic Times, 10 July 2020
‘India's Dilemma in Negotiating Rules on E-commerce in the WTO’, Journal of World Trade 53, no. 6 (2019): 1021–1040), 2019
‘Parliament and the SDGs’ in book “2030 Agenda and India: Moving from Quantity to Quality – Exploring Convergence and Transcendence”, Springer, 2019
Working Paper ‘Competition Law and Digital Economy: Addressing Emerging Challenges’, Centre for WTO Studies, 2019
Chapter ‘Bringing the ‘E’ to Judicial Efficiency: Implementing the eCourts System in India’ in book “State of the Indian Judiciary”, Eastern Book Company, 2016
Chapter ‘WTO Dispute on EC-Tariff Preferences: Systemic Implications’ in book “WTO Dispute Settlement at Twenty – Insiders' Reflections on India's Participation”, Springer, 2016
Chapter ‘India’s Negotiating Agenda on Trade and Energy’ in book “Trade, WTO and Energy Security: Mapping the Linkages for India”, Springer, 2015
Co-edited Book “Reflections from the Frontline: Developing Country Negotiators in the WTO”, Academic Foundation, 2012
Co-authored ‘India’s development cooperation - opportunities and challenges for international development cooperation’, German Development Institute, Bonn 2009
Chapter ‘LDC priorities for improved global trade governance” in book “Making Global Trade Governance Work for Development”, Ed. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Cambridge University Press, 2011
Study ‘Reassessing the Scope and Mandate of Enhanced Integrated Framework’, EIF, 2010
‘The Emerging Role of LDCs in WTO Decision-making Process’ Trade Hot Topics, Issue 66, Commonwealth Secretariat, 2009
‘Compulsory Licenses and the Anti-competitive Effects of Patents for Pharmaceutical Products: from a developing countries’ perspective’ presented in the Fourth Annual Garnet Conference, Rome, 2009
‘Dispute Settlement System at the World Trade Organisation’ Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 43, Issue 02, 2008