Padma Desai (born October 12, 1931) is an Indian-American development economist who was born and studied in India before completing a PhD at Harvard in 1960. She is the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor Emerita of comparative economic systems and has been the director of the Center for Transition Economies at the Columbia University. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2009.