Shriya Anand’s research is primarily centred on the Indian urban economy and economic geography, with a particular focus on the role of employment in urban development and on patterns of intra-urban spatial inequality. One of her core areas of interest is also in developing novel methods for urban research in data-scarce environments.

Through her work at the IIHS Urban Informatics Lab, she creates and analyses data related to India’s urbanisation and develops new and innovative methods to study cities using both primary and secondary data.

Recently, she led a research project on Bengaluru’s industrial transitions as part of PEAK Urban, a UKRI-funded project led by the University of Oxford (2018–22). She also led IIHS’ work on urban pedagogy as part of Urban KNOW, a UKRI-funded project led by University College London (2018–22). Her recent policy engagements have included advisory projects with the state government of Rajasthan, on a policy framework to support informal workers, as well as on supporting urban transitions across the state (2021–22 and 2022–23, respectively). She was involved with a project for NITI Aayog on assessing the potential for cities to act as engines of growth: on recommending ways in which economic visioning and industrial planning could be better integrated with urban planning across seven states in India (2021–22). Currently, she is co-leading a project for the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to analyse the economic geography of the city–region as an input into the preparation of the Third Master Plan.

Shriya has previously worked on education policy with the National Knowledge Commission, Delhi, an advisory panel constituted by the Prime Minister of India in 2005. She also worked on infrastructure and governance at the Centre for Development Finance, IFMR, Chennai, between 2007 and 2009. Here, she provided inputs for the High Power Expert Committee on financing infrastructure, chaired by Isher Ahluwalia.

Shriya was closely involved in the IIHS Urban Fellows Programme since its inception, and co-directed the Programme in 2015–16. She co-designed and co-anchored the admissions process since 2015–16 to be based on principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion. She taught the Commons course on urban economy in the programme, and previously taught Skill Labs on urban data analysis.

She holds a Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton University and a Master’s in Mathematics from Cambridge University. While at Princeton, she worked with New Jersey Future, where she researched the integration of economic and spatial planning in American cities.