Custom Reforms and Modernisation: A Global View

Jayanta Bagchi was a distinguished member of the Indian Administrative Services, held important and critical positions. He was also awarded Padma Shhree for his meritorious services in 1973. The author has served on important positions in the Government of India and retired as the Secretary, Ministry of Steel. He gas to his credit an experience of over 15 years in various Ministries like Commerce, Textiles and Steel. He has travelled widely and worked on important assignments in FAO, ESCAP, ITC and UNCTAD. Dr. Bagchi has special knowledge on Agriculture. While he was in the Ministry of Commerce, he supervised various commodities like Tea, Coffee etc. and took note of the overall functioning of the Agricultural Sector. As the Chairman of State Trading Corporation (STC), he had to deal with various issues on Agriculture intimately. He had also been the Designated Authority for Anti Dumping in its formative stages and this has enabled him to understand closely the intricacies of the WTO Agreement. Dr. Bagchi has thus the unique distinction of understanding the WTO and applying the same to the important sector of agriculture. At present he is the Member of Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction, Ministry of Financial Government of India.