Dr Vijendra Rao is a development economist whose work combines economics with anthropology, sociology and political science to study how social and cultural forces shape poverty, governance and public action. From 1999 until June 2026, he worked at the World Bank’s Development Research Group, retiring as Lead Economist. His research has examined deliberative democracy in India’s gram sabhas, community-driven development, dowry and marriage markets, and the design of policies that draw on the knowledge of the people they are meant to serve.

His books include Culture and Public Action (co-edited with Michael Walton), Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? (with Ghazala Mansuri), Oral Democracy: Deliberation in Indian Village Assemblies (with Paromita Sanyal), and Revolution by Stealth (with Shruti Majumdar and Paromita Sanyal, 2026). He is also the Roberta Buffett Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner in Residence at Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute, and chairs the advisory committee of the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research Boundaries, Membership and Belonging programme. At NLSIU, he is working to build a centre for people-centred research and policy focused on urban governance. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

He can be reached at .