Desai, Nitin

Delhi/Mumbai - Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General for Internet Governance, India

In 1993, the then United Nations Secretary-General appointed Mr. Nitin Desai at the Under-Secretary-General level to head the newly created Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development. In 1997, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Mr. Desai to coordinate, and subsequently head, the consolidation of the three economic and social departments. Mr. Desai is also the convener of the Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs, which brings together the heads of all the UN Secretariat entities directly concerned with economic, environmental and social issues.

Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Desai was the secretary and chief economic adviser of India's Ministry of Finance, and he was the senior economic adviser for the World Commission on Environment and Development (The Brundtland Commission). From 1990 to 1993, Mr. Desai was the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.