[8] In 2014, she was the only female economist ranked within the top ten in India, along with the likes of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and former RBI governors Y V Reddy, Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel.
[3] Ila Patnaik has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, from Hindu College, University of Delhi (1985).
She also worked as Editor, Macro Track, A Quarterly Update on the Indian Economy, NCAER, New Delhi, 1997-2001.
She has done research in many areas including issues related to capital flows, exchange rate regime, monetary policy, business cycles, and the financial sector (in the context of opening of the capital account).
Some of her most recent papers and publications include: Among the multiple awards given to Patnaik are "Junior Science Talent Scholarship" (1978), "National Talent Search Scholarship" (1980), "Junior Research Fellowship for Economics" (1987), and "British Nehru Centenary Fellowship for Doctoral study in Economics in the UK" (1991).