Dr. Debolina Kundu is a Professor at the National Institute of Urban Affairs, India and has over 20 years of professional experience in the field of development studies. She is a doctoral fellow with the ICSSR and has a Ph.D from Jawaharlal Nehru University on urban governance. She has worked as consultant with, ADB, LSE, IIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNESCAP, KfW, GIZ, Urban Institute, Washington, East-West Centre, Honolulu etc., on issues of urbanization, migration, urban development policies, municipal finance, governance and exclusion. She is currently Professor and Editor of journals Environment and Urbanisation, Asia (SAGE) and Urban India (NIUA). She is the Country Investigator – India, for the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Centre for Sustainable Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC), which is supported by UK Research and Innovation. SHLC is an international, interdisciplinary and collaborative project, which aims to strengthen capacity in order to increase understanding of sustainable neighbourhoods and address urban, health and education challenges in fast growing cities across Africa and Asia. A member of the Fifth Delhi Finance Commission, she has several articles published in books and journals.