Padma Desai (October 12, 1931 – April 29, 2023) was an Indian-American development economist who was the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of comparative economic systems and director of the Center for Transition Economies at Columbia University.

Desai was born in Surat, Bombay Presidency, British India, on October 12, 1931,[1] into a Gujarati Anavil Brahmin family.

[2] The book spoke against the licence regime and the command economic policies that were prevalent in India at the time.

In her book Perestroika in Progress (1989) she studied the misallocation of resources in command economies and the resulting damages and losses across sectors.

[8] The book spoke about her journey from India to America, breaking out of an emotionally abusive marriage, and establishing herself as an economist studying many shacked economies.

[2] Desai was married to Jagdish Bhagwati, also an Indian-American economist and professor of economics and law at Columbia University; the couple had one daughter.