Swarnim Wagle

Dr. Swarnim Wagle (डा.स्वर्णिम वाग्ले) is a prominent South Asian economist and a member of Nepal's Federal Parliament since April 2023, having been elected in a by-election from the seat of Tanahun 1 vacated when the incumbent became the third President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. He is currently serving as the Vice-Chair of the Rastriya Swatantra Party.

Wagle previously served as vice-chair of the National Planning Commission from August 2017 to February 2018, and was a member of the Commission for two terms, from May 2014 to November 2015, and September 2016 to August 2017. Wagle played a key policy role in reconstruction in the immediate aftermath of the devastating Nepal earthquakes of 2015 that claimed about 9000 lives. Between 2020 and 2022, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he was the Chief Economic Advisor at the United Nations Development Program Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific in New York covering 36 countries.

Political career
In March 2023, Wagle, who had for decades been a member of the Nepali Congress, joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party to contest the by-election in Tanahun 1. Wagle secured a landslide victory, defeating the Nepali Congress candidate by a margin of nearly 15,000 votes, and receiving 55 percent of the total votes cast. In November 2023, Wagle was elevated to the position of vice-chair of the Rastriya Swatantra Party.

Personal life
In October 2019, Wagle was appointed chair of the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), a South Asian policy think tank established in Kathmandu in 1979. Outside Nepal, he has worked as an economic policy specialist in international organizations like United Nations Development Program and the World Bank intermittently between 1997 and 2022. As Chief Economic Advisor of the UNDP Asia-Pacific (2020-2022), he co-edited "The Great Upheaval" published by Cambridge University Press, and led high-profile policy advisory missions to crisis-hit countries like Sri Lanka. He holds high academic degrees from the London School of Economics, Harvard University and the Australian National University. He is married and has one son.