Dr. Prabir De is  Professor at the Centre for Maritime Economy and Connectivity (CMEC) at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi. He has over three decades of full-time research and teaching experiences in India and abroad. He works in the field of international economics and has research interests in international trade and development. He has been conducting policy research for the Government of India and several national and international organisations including several UN agencies and multilateral development organisations. Graduated from the Scottish Church College in Calcutta, he did his Masters in economics from the Calcutta University and Ph.D. in economics from the Jadavpur University, Calcutta. He was a Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO), Japan; Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo; Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), Seoul; and Visiting Senior Fellow of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Bangkok. He has contributed several research papers in international journals and written books on trade and development. His recent book includes Act East to Act Indo-Pacific: India’s Expanding Neighbourhood, published by the Knowledge World in 2020. He is the Founding Editor of the Journal of Asian Economic Integration, published by Sage.