Speaker

Dr. Ananya Raihan

Dr. Ananya Raihan is a Bangladeshi economist, social entrepreneur, and policy analyst with a career bridging academia, development, and reform. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the V. M. Glushkov Institute of Cybernetics in Kiev after completing his M.Sc. in Economic Cybernetics at Kharkov State University. Beginning as an Assistant Professor in Ukraine, he later worked at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM), focusing on trade, ICT, and SME development. An Ashoka Fellow since 2005, Dr. Raihan pioneered social innovations as founding Executive Director of Dnet and later as CEO of iSocial, where he became Chairperson in December 2024. His initiatives, including the “Pallitathya” and “Infolady” models, have empowered thousands across rural Bangladesh. In April 2025, as a member of the Labour Reform Commission, he led committees on employment, wages, and skills, advocating systemic reforms to strengthen fairness, formalization, and worker protection.