Dr. Alok Misra has 30 years of professional experience in international development, rural finance, microfinance, inclusive finance and research at both policy and implementation level. He started his career with India’s apex rural development bank (NABARD) in 1992 wherein his work spanned financial sector supervision, institutional development, microfinance, agricultural/rural finance and rural livelihoods/MSME finance. He was also a part of the multi-institutional task force (2003-2004) responsible for setting up India’s first online demutualized commodities exchange (NCDEX).
In 2008, he shifted to a global microfinance rating, policy analysis and technical advisory agency. Last five years, Dr. Misra was Professor and Chairperson, School of Public Policy & Governance at Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon. He has served as a board member of MFIN, Vaya Finserv and member of NABARD’s strategic group on microfinance. Currently, he CEO & Director of Microfinance Institutions Network
He is a member of Inclusive Finance India Group of Advisors, member of Digital finance working group constituted by ITU, Geneva. Dr. Misra is closely associated with international initiatives like SPTF and Smart Campaign and has worked across 24 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Pacific. He has written numerous articles and reports and authored “Inclusive Finance India report” for two years.
Dr. Alok Misra holds a PhD in Development Studies from Victoria University of Wellington, Master in Development Management (Gold Medallist) from Asian Institute of Management, Manila. He was awarded ADB-Government of Japan scholarship for MDM programme and NZAID scholarship for his PhD. He has been trained at Harvard Business School in “Strategic leadership for Microfinance” and was a Fellow, Fletcher Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion at Tufts University
