Deepak Nayyar is Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).

He is also Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He was Distinguished University Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, New York, from 2008 to 2012. And he was Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, from 1986 to 2011. Earlier he has taught economics at the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex, and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi from 2000 to 2005.

He served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki from 2001 to 2008, as Vice President of the International Association of Universities, Paris, from 2004 to 2008, and on the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council in the United States from 2001 to 2007.

He has received the VKRV Rao award for his contribution to research in Economics and the Malcolm Adiseshiah award for his lifetime contribution to Development Studies. He has been President of the Indian Economic Association. He is also on the Editorial Board of several professional journals.

His research interests are primarily in the areas of international economics, macroeconomics, development economics and economic history. He has published papers and books on a wide range of subjects, including economic growth, macroeconomic theory, macro policies, macroeconomic stabilization, structural adjustment, trade theory, trade policies, industrialization strategies, industrial policy, economic liberalization, human development, employment, international migration, multilateral trading system, globalization, and the world economy. In addition, he has written extensively on economic development in India. His most recent work is on the remarkable economic transformation, and rise, of Asia during the past fifty years.