Indivar Dutta-Gupta
Doris Duke Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy
Washington, D.C.
Experience
- U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means
- Center for American Progress
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality
- Center for Law and Social Policy
Expertise
- Job creation and labor market
- Unemployment Insurance
- Federal tax policy
- Income security
- Health coverage
- Caregiving and paid leave
- Immigration
- Higher education
- Disability
Education
- University of Chicago, B.A.
Recent Coverage
JUL 17, 2020
NPR | Economist: U.S. Workers, Economy Will Suffer With End Of Federal Pandemic Benefits
People are facing income losses of up to 70% without federal pandemic unemployment assistance, says Indivar Dutta-Gupta, co-executive director of Georgetown’s Center on Poverty and Inequality and an economic adviser to the campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
“Families are going to face high rates of eviction, homelessness, food insecurity, hunger,” he tells NPR’s Sarah McCammon. “And the economy overall is going to see much slower progress in a recovery than otherwise.”
MAY 21, 2020
NPR | How A Decades-Old Unemployment Insurance System Is Measuring Up In The Pandemic
It was 1935 and the country was struggling to emerge from the Great Depression. The system’s focus was people who worked in medium-to-large manufacturing or in trade industries, says Indivar Dutta-Gupta, co-executive director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality.
“Policymakers were clear that they wanted partial wage replacement for workers who were laid off through no fault of their own,” he tells NPR’s Ari Shapiro. “But policymakers also recognized that unemployment insurance would have the effect of stabilizing the economy and helping keep workers attached to the labor force.”
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About Indivar
Indivar Dutta-Gupta served as President and Executive Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) until June 2024, where he raised the visibility of antipoverty policy solutions and enhanced the organization’s profile and commitment to ending poverty and advancing racial, economic, and social justice. Through multiple Congressional testimonies and national media appearances, Dutta-Gupta deepened lawmakers’ and the public’s understanding of key policy strategies to reduce poverty and advance racial and economic justice, including through caregiving investments. Prior to joining CLASP, Indivar “Indi” Dutta-Gupta was the co-executive director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality (GCPI), where he led work to develop and advance policy recommendations that alleviate poverty and inequality, advance racial and gender equity, and expand economic inclusion for all people in the United States. While at GCPI, he grew the organization’s staff from 1 to 19 and its budget from around $240,000 to $2.75 million. He also taught a Congressional legislative hearing simulation course for many years.
Prior to joining GCPI, Indi led strategic initiatives for major philanthropies, children’s groups, and workers’ organizations as project director at Freedman Consulting, LLC. Before that role, he was a senior policy advisor at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, focusing on budget and tax policies and cross-cutting low-income issues. Earlier in his career, Indi served as Ways and Means Committee Professional Staff in the U.S. House of Representatives for the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support. Indi was a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow and then a consultant to the Poverty Task Force at the Center for American Progress and a Food Stamp Outreach Specialist at D.C. Hunger Solutions. Indivar received his BA with honors from the University of Chicago in Law, Letters, and Society and in Political Science and was selected as a Harry S. Truman Scholar (2004).
Indi currently serves as a board member for several nonpartisan groups–D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, Indivisible Civics, and National Academy of Social Insurance–and as an advisor for the Aspen Institute’s Benefits 21 Initiative. He’s also a member of the Expert Committee on Federal Policy Impacts on Child Poverty at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Previously, he was a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Children and Families Research Advisory Group, the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Poverty Reduction (Canada), the Research Task Force for the Gates Foundation’s Post-Secondary Value Commission, and the Poverty, Employment, and Economic Self-Sufficiency Network (United States).
Indivar has been named a Champion for Children by the First Focus Campaign for Children and was awarded the Congressional Hunger Center Alumni Leadership Award (2016). He was named one of Washington Life magazine’s Most Influential 40-And-Under Leaders (2013) and Rising Stars 40 And Under (2016, 2017). Indi has been quoted or published in a range of outlets, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, POLITICO, the Washington Post, and Univision. He has advised presidential and Congressional candidates and campaigns on various social and economic policies.
