Manu Bhaskaran

Adjunct Senior Research Fellow  (2002 – present)

Mr Manu Bhaskaran was invited by Professor Tommy Koh and Mr Arun Mahizhnan to join IPS as a Visiting Fellow in 2002, following a major reorganisation at the bank he was working at. He became Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in 2004. His major projects included the monograph Re-inventing the Asian Model: The Case of Singapore, the Singapore Economic Roundtable series (held every six months since 2003), and the Singapore Perspectives 2012 paper that he co-authored, which argued for a bigger push towards building social safety nets, that has been quoted extensively.

In his view, a constant challenge at IPS had been attracting bright, talented economists, as unlike other areas of expertise, the Economics cluster competed with the financial sector and its high salaries even for young economists.

He saw IPS’ convening ability as a strength, and had found senior civil servants very supportive. He thought that IPS had done its best to fulfil its research and outreach objectives. However, he thought that its Economics cluster could do better by pursuing deep dive research projects. His view was that IPS remained unique in the think tank space, as it was analytical in terms of policy, unlike other academic institutions focused on publications. 


This interview was conducted on 11 Sep 2019. Click here to listen to the full interview.