Dr. Nirupama Kulkarni is Professor at CAFRAL. She is an applied empirical economist and her research interests include corporate finance, banking, household finance, real estate and monetary policy. Her recent work focuses on the role of government policies in the financial and housing market and its implications. Her research looks at how government regulation can stack the odds against private market competition and the implications of government policies aimed at increasing homeownership.

Nirupama has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from IIT Bombay, an MBA from Stern School of Business, New York University and a Ph.D. in business administration (finance and real estate) from Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. She has been the recipient of the Fisher Center Fellowship at UC Berkeley, Fisher Center Research Grant at UC Berkeley, Vanier Family Foundation Grant at UC Berkeley and was the FWA Clarin S. Schwartz Memorial Scholar and a Glucksman Research Fellow at the Stern School of Business, New York University.

Dr. Gautham Udupa is a Associate Professor at CAFRAL. His research interests include issues related to open economy macro, international trade, and cross-border spillovers. Gautham uses empirical and applied theoretical techniques. His recent paper focuses on the relative importance of multinational firms in generating cross-border spillovers relative to international trade channels. In another working paper, he is evaluating if the presence of frictions to borrowing and savings on households worsens inequality due to lowering of trade barriers.

Gautham completed his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Houston.

Dr. Vidhya Soundararajan is a Assistant Professor at CAFRAL. She is an applied micro economist, and is interested in studying the effects of various economic shocks (financial/trade/regulatory) on firm behaviour, performance, and productivity. Her recent research looks at the impact of import competition on contract labor, informality, and firm performance, and the effects of employment protection laws on firm behaviour. She is also interested in research questions at the intersection of labor regulation, monopsony, labor markets, and firm’s financial performance.  

Vidhya has an undergraduate degree in information technology from Madras Institute of Technology, and a masters in economics from Madras School of Economics. She holds a PhD in applied economics from Cornell University from where she also received the Graduate Student Fellowship. She has also worked in various consulting assignments at the Planning commission of India (erstwhile), and the Word Bank.

Dr. Sankalp Mathur is a Assistant Professor at CAFRAL. His research expertise lies in International Trade, Climate Policy, Environmental Economics, and Macroeconomics. His current focus involves quantifying macroeconomic effects through structural modeling, particularly in relation to counterfactual changes in cross-border tariffs. He has also conducted recent research on the influence of market power in response to carbon embodied tariffs, examining its impact on aggregate welfare and global emissions.

Sankalp holds a BA (Hons.) in Economics from the University of Delhi, an MSc. in Economics from TERI School of Advanced Studies, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Florida.

Vedant Agarwal is an Assistant Professor at CAFRAL. His research interests lie in banking, corporate finance, and macroeconomics. He employs a broad range of theoretical and quantitative methods, including stylised and structural modelling, numerical solution techniques, and survey-based analysis. His recent work focuses on the aggregate implications of banking regulation and the study of its optimal design.

Vedant holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Delhi, a master’s degree in Economics and Finance from the Barcelona School of Economics, and a PhD in Economics from CEMFI.

Dr. Meenakshi Shekhar is an Assistant Professor (Research Director) at CAFRAL. She is a macroeconomist specializing in Growth, Trade, and Structural Transformation. Her research explores the dynamics of industrialization, productivity growth, and trade policies, with a focus on evidence-based policy recommendations for sustainable economic development.  Through quantitative modelling and empirical analysis, she examines how productivity growth, international trade, and resource misallocation influence economic growth trajectories.  Passionate for academic research, teaching, and policy analysis, she actively seeks opportunities to engage in discussions on economic growth, trade, and development policy.

Meenakshi has done her undergrad in Economics from SRCC, Delhi University, an MBA (PGDM) in Finance from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University

Shreya Bhattacharya is Research Director (Assistant Professor) at the Center for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL). Previously, she was a Senior Research Analyst at the Digital Inclusion and Governance Lab (DIGLab) at William and Mary's Global Research Institute. She led impact evaluations focused on women's digital and financial inclusion and interoperable payment systems in Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, and Nepal. She has also worked as an Economist at Amazon, specializing in urban labor markets, labor allocation, and behavioral economics. Shreya holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Houston. Her research interests are in Development Economics, Urban Economics, Political Economy, Digital Economics and Behavioral Economics. She was a visiting PhD Fellow at the United Nations World Development Research Institute (UNU-WIDER) in Helsinki, Finland.

Aditi Singh is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL). Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at Shiv Nadar University. She holds a PhD in Economics from Brown University. Her work combines rich micro data with macroeconomic modelling to study households' expectation formation as well as consumption dynamics. Her research interests include Macroeconomics, Monetary Policy, Behavioural Economics with a focus on Expectations, and Labor Economics. For more on her work, please visit her website: https://www.aditi-singh.com

Dr. Natasha Jha is an Assistant Professor at CAFRAL. She is a development and labor economist whose work examines how policies and local institutions shape human capital, labor market participation, and household welfare. Her recent research studies the effectiveness of early childhood interventions, gender disparities in access to economic opportunities, and the behavioral and distributional impacts of agricultural and social sector policies. She is also interested in how frictions in labor markets and public programs contribute to misallocation and inequality.

Dr. Jha holds a PhD in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University, where she was a Tata-Cornell Scholar. She has an M.A. in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a B.A. (Hons.) in Economics from the University of Delhi. Before joining CAFRAL, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Notre Dame.

Her ongoing research involves field experiments, administrative data, and quasi-experimental methods across India and Nepal. She enjoys collaborating with policymakers and implementing partners, and her current projects explore labor market frictions among migrant workers, early childhood human capital formation, and the economic effects of agricultural price and procurement policies.