Dr Kumar V. Pratap is currently serving as Joint Secretary (Infrastructure Policy and Finance), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance (MoF). In the past, he has worked with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Embassy of India (Washington, DC), the MoF, the Ministry of Urban Development, and the Planning Commission. He has also worked as a consultant with the World Bank for a number of years.
During his stint as Third Secretary, Economic Affairs, at the Indian embassy in the US, he helped direct foreign investment into India and in finalising outcomes of several bilateral meetings between the Indian and US governments.
Dr Pratap has been a part of many government committees on infrastructure such as the Task Force for Setting up a Road Regulator, and has served as the chair of the working group developing the model concession agreement for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the urban water sector. He leads the Indian delegation at the G20 Infrastructure Working Group. He is on the board of directors of India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited, the Indian Railway Finance Corporation and ONGC Videsh Limited.
He has lectured at several universities across the globe, such as the University of Michigan, the London School of Economics, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Duke University, University of Maryland, the World Bank, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, and the National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. He also teaches a course every year on “Infrastructure and the Private Sector” at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and Mohali.
Dr. Pratap has many publications to his credit. He has published with the Oxford University Press, the World Bank, the University of Melbourne, the Economic and Political Weekly, as well as the Economic Times and Business Standard. He has also written a book, PPPs in Infrastructure – Managing the Challenges which was published by Springer (Singapore) in January 2018. He is the recipient of the University of Melbourne’s Emerging Leaders Fellowship, the University of Maryland’s John J. Sexton and Doctoral Fellowships, and a letter of appreciation from the Indian Prime Minister. He holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Hindu College, an MBA from IIM Lucknow, and a PhD from the University of Maryland.