URBANISATION IN INDIA

Isher Judge Ahluwalia is Chairperson of the Board of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), a leading think tank based in New Delhi. She was Chairperson of the High Powered Expert Committee (HPEC) on Urban Infrastructure and Services (2008–2011), which submitted its Report to the Government of India in March 2011. Dr Ahluwalia is currently leading a major Research and Capacity Building Programme on the Challenges of Urbanisation in India at ICRIER. She received her PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MA (Economics) from Delhi School of Economics and BA (Economics) from Presidency College, Kolkata. She has published a number of books and articles in professional journals on subjects such as macroeconomic implications of food and foreign exchange constraints, factors affecting industrial growth and productivity, and issues with regard to social sector development in India. For the past few years, her research is focused on the challenges of urbanisation.

Ravi Kanbur is currently President of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality and teaches at the Cornell University. He was educated at Cambridge and Oxford. He has served on the senior staff of the World Bank, including as Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank and Director of the World Bank’s World Development Report. His vita lists over 200 publications and he has published in leading economics journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory and Economic Journal. The honours he has received include the Quality of Research Discovery Award of the American Agricultural Economics Association and an Honorary Professorship at the University of Warwick.

P. K. Mohanty, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, is currently the Chief Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh. His academic qualifications include MA in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, MA in Political Economy and PhD in Urban Economics from Boston University. He was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. Dr Mohanty has held several key positions including Commissioner of Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad Municipal Corporations; Vice Chairman, Hyderabad Urban Development Authority; Director General, Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad; and Mission Director, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Government of India, New Delhi. Combining long research and administrative expertise, Dr Mohanty is known for his contributions to reforms in urban governance and finance in India.