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Meenakshi Sinha
Meenkashi Sinha is a Research Fellow at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, with joint affiliations at the Bharti School of Public Policy and Digital Identity Research Initiative. She works on a range of interdisciplinary research projects in areas including: infrastructure development, land use and property rights, sustainable food systems, and data protection.
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Infrastructure development: Current bottlenecks and way forward
Infrastructure development remains a key constraint in India’s economic development. Given the budgetary constraints of the government, private financing for infrastructure provisioning through public private partnerships has become imperative. In this post, Meenakshi Sinha discusses the challenges and issues of partnership agreements between the public and private sectors, and the need to explore alternative pathways for land acquisition that work to the benefit of all stakeholders.
Special purpose vehicles for smart cities: A question on governance
All 100 cities selected to become ‘smart cities’ under the Smart Cities Mission in India have Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) incorporated in them. In this note, Meenakshi Sinha posits that the SPV-driven mode of governance of cities is fraught with power asymmetries that are likely to bolster elite control over city’s resources and urban spaces of governance; thus, aggravating the class inequalities across cities.
Real estate cross-subsidisation for infrastructure financing: A precarious solution for urban development?
A means of urban development financing that has emerged in Indian cities is real estate cross-subsidisation, whereby land along the mass rapid transit system corridors is offered to private developers for commercial real estate projects, which can then be sold to generate revenue. Based on case studies in Karnataka and Kerala, Meenakshi Sinha provides insights into some of the governance challenges associated with such processes.