Brief Profile of Dr. Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, Director, NHB

Dr. Prasanna Kumar Mohanty was a Post-doctoral Fellow in Harvard University. He did MA (Economics) from Delhi School of Economics, MA (Political Economy) and PhD (Economics) from Boston University – with specialisation in Urban Public Policy and Finance. He was also a Fellow of Population Council, New York, Currently he is chair Professor of Economics, University of Hyderabad, and honorary adviser to Centre for Good Governance (CGG) and National Institute of Urban Management (NIUM), Hyderabad.
An officer of Indian Administrative Service (1979 batch), Dr. Mohanty was the last Chief Secretary to Government of the combined State of Andhra Pradesh, a post held by him after becoming Secretary to Government of India. His other posts include: Mission Director, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Government of India; Commissioner of Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad Municipal Corporation; Vice Chairman, Hyderabad Urban Development Authority, Director General, Centre for Good Governance (CGG), Hyderabad, and District Collector and Magistrate, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

He has been a member of several expert committees at national level, including Committee on National Training Policy, Expert Committee on Identification of BPL households, Expert Group on Decentralised Planning, etc. His initiatives for urban forestry in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad Municipal Corporations bagged Prime Minister’s Award twice.
Dr. Mohanty has authored “Financing Cities in India: Municipal Reforms, Fiscal Accountability and Urban Infrastructure” – Sage Publications (2016 and “Cities and Public Policy: An Urban Agenda for India” – Sage Publications (2014). He has co-edited “Urbanisation in India: Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward” – Sage Publication (2014). He led the seminal study: “Municipal Finance in India – An Assessment”, undertaken and published by Reserve Bank of India (2007). His current research interests include fiscal federalism, urban planning and development, infrastructure finance, good governance and public policy reforms.