Women Leadership, Decentralised Governance and Development: Perspectives from Indian States

Professor D. Rajasekhar is Director, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, India. He obtained his Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (through the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum). He was Visiting Scholar at the universities of Oxford, Melbourne, Hitotsubashi, Sussex, and at the Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen. He worked extensively on decentralisation, social protection, and microfinance and served in policy bodies constituted by the government. He has published 29 books/ monographs and over 100 articles/chapters in national and international journals such as The Economic Journal, World Development, Oxford Development Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Vocational Education & Training, Education+ Training, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of Social and Economic Development, to name a few. His paper (co-authored) on ’Collusion, Co-option and Capture: Social Accountability and Social Audits in Karnataka, India’, published in Oxford Development Studies, was awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize in 2015 by the Board of Oxford Development Studies, for its contribution to development studies. Prof. Rajasekhar is currently collaborating with researchers from the universities of Bristol, Melbourne, Hiroshima, Tsuda, and Hitotsubashi in research relating to decentralisation and poverty reduction, delivery of public services, and social protection. His recent books include ’Decentralised Governance, Development Programmes and Elite Capture’ (2018), ’Cooperatives and Social Innovations: Experiences from the Asia Pacific Region’ (2020), ’Handbook of Decentralised Governance and Development in India’ (2022), and ’Decentralisation in Contemporary India: Status, Issues and the way Forward (2022).

Dr R. Manjula is working as Assistant Professor at Centre for Decentralisation and Development (CDD), Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru, India. A PhD in economics, she was Academic Visitor to the University of Oxford, UK and Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Japan. She has co-authored books and research papers (in national and international journals and as chapters). Some journals where her research has been published are Economic Development and Cultural Change, Oxford Development Studies, The Economic Journal, Journal of Rural Development, World Development, Economic and Political Weekly, and so on. She was co-recipient of the Sanjaya Lall Prize 2015 given by the Board of Oxford Development Studies. She has worked on several of the centre’s research projects, covering themes of decentralisation, child labour, social security, health insurance, public works programme and public service delivery, and collaborating with researchers from UK (the Universities of Bristol and Exeter) and scholars from various universities at Japan (Hiroshima, Tsuda and Hitotsubashi).