Dr. Kumar V Pratap

Dr. Kumar V Pratap is passionate about Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Currently, he is Advisory Board Member, IIM Lucknow and Adviser to the Government of Karnataka on Asset Monetization and PPPs. Earlier, he has worked with the Prime Minister’s Office (as Deputy Secretary) and Ministry of Finance (as Joint Secretary, Infrastructure Policy & Finance) at New Delhi, and with the World Bank at Washington DC.

He has seminal contributions to the infrastructure, asset monetization and PPP policies of the Government of India. He also contributed extensively to the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment (2019).

He was Member Secretary of the Task Force that prepared India’s first National Infrastructure Pipeline, Member of Task Force for setting up a Road Regulator, and Committee Chair for writing Model Concession Agreement for PPPs in Urban Water Supply sector. He led the Indian delegation at the G20 Infrastructure Working Group meetings (2018-2020). He was earlier on the Board of Directors of ONGC Videsh Limited, IIFCL, IRSDC, Indian Railway Finance Corporation, NEDFi, AIIB (Beijing) and New Development Bank (Shanghai).

He has written two books, ‘PPPs in Infrastructure – Managing the Challenges’ [Springer, 2018] and ‘Infrastructure Financing in India’ [Oxford University Press (OUP), 2024]. An Elsevier and Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) reviewer, he has also published earlier with OUP, World Bank, EPW, SAGE journal Vikalpa, University of Melbourne and the popular press (Economic Times, Business Standard, and Financial Express).

He was a Visiting Professor at the Indian School of Business (Hyderabad and Mohali) from 2013 to 2017 teaching an elective on ‘Infrastructure and the Private Sector’. He has also lectured at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), London School of Economics, Singapore Management University, Lee Kuan Yew School (Singapore), Duke University, University of Maryland, World Bank (Washington DC), IMF (SARTTAC), Indian Institutes of Management (IIM Ahmedabad, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong), MDI (Gurgaon), National Academy of Administration (Mussoorie), and NIPFP (Delhi).

He is a recipient of University of Maryland’s John J Sexton and Doctoral Fellowships, letter of appreciation from the Indian Prime Minister, National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) scholarship, University of Melbourne’s Emerging Leaders Fellowship, and Schulich Business School’s (Canada) Sustainable Infrastructure Fellowship.

He has an MBA from IIM, Lucknow (1987) and a PhD from University of Maryland, College Park, USA (2011).