Dr. Manas R. Das, born in 1959, is a gold medallist in Bachelor of Arts with Economics Honours from the Utkal University, followed by Master in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics (DSE) and Doctorate in Economics from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE). He is a National Scholarship holder throughout his career. He is also a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB). He has over 30 years of experience as an economist in two large commercial banks: the State Bank of India (SBI) where he worked for nearly 26 years and the Punjab National Bank where he started his professional career. He took voluntary retirement from SBI in 2012 after being in the capacity of Assistant General Manager for over 12 years. He has served as a member of the RBI committees on Deposit Insurance and worked in Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (DICGCI) on deputation. He was a member of the Indian delegation comprising officials from the Ministry of Finance, RBI and DICGCI that visited the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to study the US Deposit Insurance System (2002). Post-retirement, he was an Honorary Adviser in the Research Advisory Committee, Strategic Training Unit, SBI. He has been the recipient of The Diamond Jubilee Overseas Banking Research Fellowship of The Indian Institute of Bankers (1993) and The C.H. Bhabha Fellowship of The Indian Banks’ Association (2003). As part of the former, he had short stints at FDIC and Federal Reserve Board in connection with a project on “Bank Failures and Role of Deposit Insurance in USA.” He was a leading member in the team from State Bank Staff College which received the Macro Research Award from the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF) in 2011. As an economist, he has worked in various macro and micro areas of importance to the banking sector in general and the above-mentioned two banks in particular, including training. He has to his credit two research books on Banking and over 400 articles on Banking and Economy in his personal capacity, besides several official reports. In addition to contributing papers to both national and international conferences, he regularly writes in newspapers, magazines and journals. Many of his papers have received awards. He is an Alumnus at DSE and GIPE, and a Life Member of IIBF. Currently, Dr. Das resides in Pune and is devoted to independent research and other knowledge-based activities.