Sudeshna Mitra’s core research interest is in the political economy of land and real estate, in urban and regional economic transformations, infrastructure development and planning/governance. She has advised government bodies and funding agencies on questions of land, infrastructure, urban finance, and public and private negotiations that shape these terrains. Her practice and research projects have included work on sustainable and inclusive urban transitions, state-level land use/land management policies, grid/off-grid infrastructure systems, urban food systems, land-based financing, real estate financing, transit-oriented development, land and property records modernisation.

She helped establish the Urban Fellows Programme at IIHS. She has been visiting faculty at Cornell University, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) Delhi, CEPT, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Xavier’s University, and ESPI Paris. She has served on the curriculum review boards and the department research committees of programmes at SPA Delhi and SPA Bhopal. She serves as an external course moderator for the University of Western Cape, South Africa. She is on the editorial board of the Institute for African Alternatives’ New Agenda: South African Journal of Social and Economic Policy.

Sudeshna has a PhD from Cornell University, a Master’s in Urban Planning, and a Bachelor’s in Physical Planning, both from SPA Delhi. Before joining academia, she worked in the private sector and advised state- and national-level government agencies on economic infrastructure projects, such as science parks, special economic zones, infrastructure corridors, airports and greenfield and brownfield townships in India and South East Asia.