Dr. Kala S. Sridhar heads the Public Policy research group at Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, India. She is the author or co-author of three books in the areas of urban/regional development – Incentives for Regional Development (Palgrave Macmillan, UK), a second relating to the Costs and Challenges of Local Urban Services (co-authored) and a recent one (co-authored) on the State of India’s Urban Services. A book on the State of India’s Cities (co-authored) is forthcoming. She has also contributed to India Infrastructure Reports 2006 (whose focus was on urban infrastructure), 2007, 2010 and 2011. Kala has also published in many refereed international journals such as Urban Studies, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Urban Affairs Review, Economic Development Quarterly, Review of Regional Studies and Review of Urban and Regional Development Studies. She has been invited to speak at many international conferences. She contributes regularly to the leading financial dailies in India such as the Economic Times. In 2007, the Indian Council of Social Science Research and Institute for Social and Economic Change recognized her work for the VKRV Rao Prize (Economics for 2005). She was the recipient of the GDN first prize medal at the ninth Global Development conference which was held in Brisbane in 2008 and again in 2011 at the twelfth global development conference held in Bogota, Colombia. Her Ph.D. dissertation at the Ohio State University was one of the recipients of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant.