Governance and Governed: Multi-Country Perspectives on State, Society and Development

Madhushree Sekher is a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Institutions, political economy of representation, governance, inclusive development and policy implementation are her core research interests. Her current research is on institutions for food security, inequalities and social welfare systems, and democratic representation in India. She has received a number of grants, including the Australian Research Council (Discovery) Grant. She is currently associated with an international research consortium to study ethnic power relations funded by the Swiss Development Council and the Swiss National Science Foundation. She was a visiting faculty at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)-Washington, the Universities of Hohenheim, Sydney and Alberta, and Cornell University, USA. The author of many research articles and books, she has a PhD in Political Science, and was the recipient of World Bank Robert S. McNamara Fellowship for post-doctoral research.

S. Parasuraman has been the director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, since 2004, and has had a high-profile professional career spanning teaching, research and policy advocacy. He has four decades of experience as a teacher and researcher in Rural Development, Education, Health, Public Policy, Social Protection, Inclusive Development, Governance, Water and Energy. His current research interests include governance and accountability framework for social protection, understanding and addressing agrarian distress, collectives of women and farmers to strengthen livelihoods, capacity building of elected leaders, decentralised governance, corporate social responsibility, and youth for social and economic transformation. He has published extensively on development and disasters. He has held key positions in the World Bank, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Oxfam, Action Aid International and the UN.