About the Author:

Dr. Parthasarathi Shome is Chairman, Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC), Government of India, from August 2013. He was Adviser to the Indian Finance Minister, 2012-14. Earlier, he was Director and Chief Executive, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, 2011-12. Prior to that, he was Chief Economist, Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC), UK, 2008-11 and Adviser to the Indian Finance Minister, 2004-08. He has been Member, Prime Minister's Trade & Economic Relations Committee, and Permanent Invitee, Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers for VAT and GST. He was Chairman, Tax Policy and Tax Administration Advisory Group, India's Tenth Five Year Plan (2000-01), as well as Ninth Plan (1996-97). From 1999 to 2001, he was Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor, ICRIER, and Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, 1995-97. Between 1983-2004, he served in various positions at the IMF, including Director, IMF Regional Training Institute, Singapore, 1999-2001. He began his professional career at American University, Washington DC, 1975-83, where he rose to be Professor. He has authored, edited and co-edited books including Taxation Principles and Applications: A Compendium, LexisNexis, Indian Tax Administration: A Dialogue, Orient Blackswan, The G20 Macroeconomic Agenda - India and the Emerging Economies, Cambridge University Press, Tax Shastra: Administrative Reforms in India, United Kingdom and Brazil, Business Standard Book, Tax Policy and Administration in South and South East Asia, Routledge, India's Fiscal Matters, Oxford University Press, Tax Policy Handbook, IMF, among others, and has over 50 refereed articles in journals including Journal of Economic Theory, Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, IMF Staff Papers, Journal of Public Economics, National Tax Journal, Public Finance, Journal of Developing Economies, Labor and Society, and International Social Security Review. For his contributions to tax reform in Brazil, in 2000, he was conferred "Commander of the Order of the Southern Cross", the highest civilian honour of the Brazilian Government.

Dr. Pooja Sharma is Senior Fellow, ICRIER, New Delhi since 2010. Previously she was Global Leaders Fellow, Princeton University, USA, September 2009-August 2010 and the University of Oxford, UK, 2008-2009. She was Fellow at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, 2006-2008, Visiting Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), New Delhi, 2004-2006 and Senior Consultant, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi, 2001-2004. She is associated with the University of Oxford's Global Economic Governance Programme and is a member of the Purdue University based Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), a global network of researchers and policymakers conducting quantitative analysis of global economic issues within an economy-wide framework. Her research has focused on international economics, including quantitative analysis of international trade agreements, trade costs and the role of rules and relational forms of governance in institutions of global economic governance. Her work has been published in refereed international and national journals, edited books, flagship reports and other periodicals. Her paper "Political economy of conditional aid in a federal economy", was published in international journal Review of Development Economics in 2008. Her co-authored works include: India (Chapter), in the book National Strategies for Regional Integration, Anthem Press; Agriculture at the WTO in the World Trade and Development Report by Oxford University Press.