Dr. Rudra Suwal
Dr. Mr. Rudra Suwal is a leading Economist and Statistician of Nepal. He has over three decades of experience working at Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Nepal. While at CBS, he had profoundly assisted the Government of Nepal (GoN) in formulating and analyzing policies, planning and implementing development projects and assessing social as well as economic impacts. The private sector both corporate and individuals also have immensely benefitted from his works in researching, analyzing and processing various demographic, economic, and other data. He had joined the CBS in 1988 and retired as Deputy Director General (DDG) and Head of the Social Statistics Division in 2018. As the Division Chief and Program Coordinator, Mr. Suwal provided strategic, technical and managerial leadership in various statistical projects/activities, such as Nepal Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Survey, Nepal Labor Force Survey, Annual Household Survey, Nepal Living Standard Survey, Gender and Social Statistics, Nepal Multiple Cluster Indicator Survey, GIS and Data Processing, Population Census and Demographic Sample Survey, Environmental Statistics etc. Also, in the capacity of Director /Manager of the Population and Housing Census (PHC), 2011, he served as the Program Chief and Coordinator, and provided leadership throughout the stages of census planning, field operation, data processing, analysis and dissemination of census results. He also provided strategic, technical and management support for conducting PHC particularly in the preparation of comprehensive activity plan, pre and post census communication strategy, field operation/ management, training design/instruction, data processing program, analysis and dissemination of census results. Also, while at CBS, as Director and Chief of National Accounts Section, he was Team Leader for the project “Strengthening the National Accounts System of Nepal”. Additionally, as an economic research and analysis expert as well as coordinator of the program, he also worked with different ministries and departments of the GoN, National Planning Commission, Nepal Rastra Bank, Centre for Economic and Development Administration (CEDA), Tribhuban University etc. As a coordinator and/or member of different task forces constituted by the GoN, Mr. Suwal has provided his expert services in formulating, designing and implementing various development policies, programs, and projects.
An expert in macroeconomic accounting and analysis (national accounts), government finance statistics, and large scale census/survey operation and management, Mr. Suwal has extensive experience in the areas of Census survey operations, economic and demographic analysis, operational research, analysis and interpretation of macroeconomic statistics in policy analysis.
Even after retiring from CBS, in a personal capacity, as an Expert Advisor/Consultant, Mr. Suwal is extending his services to various government institutions, non-government organizations and multilateral institutions. As a consultant statistician, he was a member of the team that prepared Nepal Human Development Reports 2004, 2009 and 2014 and 2019. As a Consultant, he also worked at Asian Development Bank (ADB) on macroeconomic update with the focus on 'unleashing the potential of trade in services' in Nepal. Likewise, as an Expert Consultant, he also worked with World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Central Bank of Nepal, Department of Survey, ICIMOD and UNDP on Nepal Trade Diagnostic Research, Statistical Capacity Building Needs, Computation/Analysis of human development index, Social Inclusion Index, and Socioeconomic Mapping.
At present, Mr. Suwal is a member of Board of Directors of Aviyan Investment Group of Nepal Pvt. Ltd; Aviyan Capital Management Pvt. Ltd; and Sapana Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd. He also chairs the Board of Directors of Broad Vision Research Center and Data Bank. Additionally, he is also a member of Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI) and Nepal Statistical Association (NSA).
Mr. Suwal has authored/co-authored numerous articles, research papers, and books. He holds PH.D. in Economics from Lucknow University, India and Master’s degree in Economics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He has also received PG Diploma in Economic Statistics from ISPC (US Census Bureau), and in Methods of Economic Research course from University of East Anglia (UEA, UK). Mr. Suwal is fluent in Nepali, English and Hindi.
