Dr. D. Rajasekhar is Professor in Economics at the Centre for Decentralisation
and Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru.
He was Visiting Scholar at the Universities of Oxford, Melbourne, Sussex and at
the Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen. He has worked extensively on
decentralisation, social protection, microfinance and local organisations. He has
published 20 books/monographs and 70 papers in various journals and as chapters.
He has served in policy bodies constituted by the government. His paper on
‘Collusion, Co-option and Capture: Social Accountability and Social Audits in
Karnataka, India’ published in Oxford Development Studies (Taylor & Francis) was
awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize for its contribution to the development studies. He is
currently collaborating with researchers from the London School of Economics, and
the universities of Bristol, Melbourne and Oxford in research relating to decentrali-
sation and poverty reduction, delivery of public services and social protection. His
co-authored paper on ‘Motivating Knowledge Agents: Can Incentive Pay Overcome
Social Distance?’ is being published in The Economic Journal (Wiley-Blackwell).

Dr. M. Devendra Babu is former Professor, Centre for Decentralisation and
Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru. His areas of
interest are rural decentralisation and public economics. He has published two
books (co-authored) and a monograph, as well as articles in national and interna-
tional journals. The recent projects that he has been involved in include ‘District
Perspective Plans’ and ‘District Human Development Reports’.

Dr. R. Manjula holds a Ph.D. in economics and is working as Assistant
Professor at the Centre for Decentralisation and Development at ISEC, Bengaluru.
She was Academic Visitor at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford,
UK. She has published several books and research papers (in national and international journals and as chapters). Her co-authored paper on ‘Collusion,
Co-option and Capture: Social Accountability and Social Audits in Karnataka,
India’ published in Oxford Development Studies (Taylor & Francis) was awarded
the Sanjaya Lall Prize for its contribution to the development studies. Her recent
co-authored paper on ‘Motivating Knowledge Agents: Can Incentive Pay
Overcome Social Distance?’ is being published in The Economic Journal
(Wiley-Blackwell). She has worked on several of the centre’s research projects,
covering themes of decentralisation, child labour, social security, health insurance
and public works programme and collaborating with researchers from the London
School of Economics and the Universities of Bristol, Melbourne and Oxford.