Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi

Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi is the Managing Director and Co-investigator of Digital Planet—an interdisciplinary research platform at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy dedicated to measuring the impact of digital innovations on the world and providing actionable insights to policymakers, businesses, investors, and innovators. Author of several widely cited and influential articles in business and international affairs publications, he advises country governments, multilateral agencies, and blue-chip companies worldwide on inclusive digital transformation. He is also the Head of Research at Fletcher’s Institute for Business in the Global Context (IBGC) and Lecturer of Global Business.

Digital Planet’s insights are widely cited globally, with mentions in hundreds of mainstream media articles, citations in academic journals, and references in over 30 languages across 100 countries. Chaturvedi frequently provides commentary to global media—e.g., CNN, Atlantic Media, Barron’s, Nikkei Asia Review, Institutional Investor, and NPR, among several others—on themes such as technology-enabled inclusive economic growth, digital financial inclusion, digital transformation, and related investments. 

Chaturvedi has extensive experience in emerging markets, strategy and business management, and the payments industry. He serves on the World Economic Forum’s Council on Digital Trust and has been a keynote speaker and panelist at various global forums on digital development, govtech, and inclusive growth. He also served as a member of the Advisory Group for the Estonian Government’s e-Residency program. Before Digital Planet, he was the head of Portfolio and Products for the Middle East and North Africa region at American Express. He worked in various capacities in parts of Asia for over a decade with organizations such as Standard Chartered, HSBC, and Hewlett Packard.  

Chaturvedi’s doctoral thesis, “Capturing New Sources of Economic Growth and Value from Investments in Digital Public Services Infrastructure: Lessons from Estonia for the World,” investigates the drivers of success and conditions for scalability and replicability of e-Residency—an offshoot of Estonia’s digital public infrastructure. He also holds graduate degrees in international affairs from The Fletcher School, Tufts University, and business from the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines.

Recent Publications:

• “Is BRICS offering an alternative model for global governance?” East Asia Forum. April 2024 (w/ Mihaela Papa)
• “Charting the Emerging Geography of AI.” Harvard Business Review.  December 2023. (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti and Ajay Bhalla)
• “Understanding Digital Public Infrastructure: What it Means—and Why it Matters—to Businesses and Governments in Emerging Markets.” Next Billion. October 2023 (w/ David Porteous, Priya Vora, and Peter Rabley)
• “Digital Inclusion vs. Innovation Momentum: Is There a Tradeoff and Must Economies Choose?” IE University. July 2022 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti and Chris Compton)
• “50 Global Hubs for Top AI Talent.” Harvard Business Review. December 2021. (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti, Ajay Bhalla, and Christina Filipovic)
• “How Digital Trust Varies Around the World.” Harvard Business Review. February 2021 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti) 
• “Which Economies Showed the Most Digital Progress in 2020?” Harvard Business Review. December 2020 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti)
• “Which Countries Were (And Weren’t) Ready for Remote Work?“ Harvard Business Review. April 2019 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti) 
• “How Technology Could Promote Growth in 6 African Countries.“ Harvard Business Review. December 2019 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti) 
• “Ranking 42 Countries by Ease of Doing Digital Business,“ Harvard Business Review. September 2019 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti) 
• “How Effective Is India’s Government, Compared with Those in Other Emerging Markets?“ Harvard Business Review. May 2010 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti)
• “Which Countries Are Leading the Data Economy?“ Harvard Business Review. January 2019 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti & Ajay Bhalla)
• “The 4 Dimensions of Digital Trust, Charted Across 42 Countries.” Harvard Business Review. February 2018 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti & Ajay Bhalla)
• “The ‘Smart Society’ of the Future Doesn’t Look Like Science Fiction.” Harvard Business Review. October 2017 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti)
• “60 Countries’ Digital Competitiveness, Indexed.” Harvard Business Review. July 2017 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti & Ajay Bhalla)
• “The Countries That Would Profit Most from a Cashless World.” Harvard Business Review. May 2016 (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti & Benjamin Mazzotta)
• “How Benchmarking Can Help Countries Become More Digital.” Harvard Business Review. March 2016. (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti)
• “Europe’s Other Crisis: A Digital Recession.” Harvard Business Review. October 2015.
• “Digital Fairness vs. Facebook’s Dream of World Domination.” Harvard Business Review. August 2015.
• “The Way to Estonia: How to Reach Digital Nirvana.” Foreign Affairs. March 2015. (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti & Christopher Tunnard)
• “Where the Digital Economy is Moving the Fastest.” Harvard Business Review. February 2015. (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti & Christopher Tunnard)
• “Digital Planet: Readying for the Rise of the e-Consumer.” The Fletcher School. September 2014. (w/ Bhaskar Chakravorti & Christopher Tunnard)
• “Mumtalakat and Bahrain’s National Economic Strategy: Straddling Performance and Liquidity.” SovereigNET. November 2013.

Recent Media Mentions:

• “Bridging the digital divide for an inclusive digital economy.” Ericsson. May 2021.
• “Mukesh Ambani goes back to the future with his latest investment in a pod taxi tech company”, Quartz. March 2021. 
• “He may hold the winning ticket in tech and Silicon Valley knows it”, CNN Business. February 2021.
• “Why Silicon Valley’s biggest companies are investing billions in India.” CNN Business. July 2020.
• “Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi: on data and leapfrogging Estonia“, E-Estonia. July 2019
• “New Zealand leads digital race.” Newsroom New Zealand. February 2018.
• “Nordic countries top digital nations ranking, but risk stalling.” ComputerWeekly. August 2017.
• “Businesses are saving time and money by getting rid of cash.” Marketplace. July 2017.
• “Inside Bahrain’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Mumtalakat.” Institutional Investor. January 2016.
• “Bahrain: Between Iran and Saudi Arabia in More Ways Than One.” Institutional Investor. January 2016.
• “AIM Hosts a Fireside Chat on the Rise of the ASEAN E-Consumer.” AIM. May 2015.
• “Government Stokes Entrepreneurial Fires.” Nikkei Asian Review. March 2015.
• “How Temasek has driven Singapore’s development.” East Asia Forum. February 2015.
• “The Rise of the E-Consumer.” Jakarta Globe. November 2014.

Email Address: Ravi.Chaturvedi@tufts.edu