Mr. Nitin Desai of India was appointed Under-Secretary-General for economic and social affairs on 4 December 1992.

Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Desai was Secretary and Chief Economic Adviser in India's Ministry of Finance. He served as Deputy Secretary-General of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), a position to which he was appointed in June 1990. He is also on the Government Council of the Stockholm Environment Institute.

Mr. Desai began his government career in 1983, as Secretary of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. From 1985 to 1987 he served as Senior Economic Adviser for the World Commission on Environment and Development. He has also served as Officer on Special Duty with the rank of Secretary in India's Ministry of Finance, as well as Special Secretary of the Planning Commission of the Government of India.

Prior to entering government service, Mr. Desai worked as a consultant for Tata Economic Consultancy Services and lectured in economics at the Universities of Southampton and Liverpool in the United Kingdom. He has been a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat Expert Group on Climate Change and has published several articles and papers on development planning, regional economics, industry, energy and international economic relations.

He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Bombay in 1962, and in 1965 earned a master's degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Mr. Desai was born on 5 July 1941. He is married and has two children.