Dr Subramanian Swamy is an economist with a PhD from Harvard University, with Nobel Laureate Simon Kuznets and a jointly published research with Nobel Laureate Paul A. Samuelson. He taught graduate-level courses for several years at Harvard University after receiving his doctorate. He returned to India to be Professor of Economics at IIT, Delhi, but his scathing criticism of socialism and communism as being inapplicable in a democracy, invoked the ire of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and his professorship was terminated in 1973. However, a Delhi court held the termination as null and void in 1991, but he resigned after resuming his Chair for a day to participate full-time in politics. Dr Swamy has been elected six times to the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, three times each respectively. As a Cabinet Minister twice in 1990–91 and 1994–96, he helped Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Narasimha Rao to launch economic reforms. He is well versed in law and has successfully argued for a large number of public interest litigations. Dr Swamy is a renowned scholar of the Chinese economy and is highly respected in China for his contribution in improving bilateral relations in the 1990s.