Atul Sarma is currently Chairman Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, Guwahati and also Visiting Professor at Institute of Human Development, New Delhi. He was the Head and Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi and also the Vice Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University. He was also an ICSSR National Fellow. Prof. Sarma was a Member of the Thirteenth Finance Commission, Government of India. He authored several books and a large number of research papers in reputed national and international journals in the areas of Public finance and policy and Development economics. Debabani Chakravarty is a Ph.D in Economics from Gauhati University and currently works as a senior researcher in DEFT Advisory and Research Pvt. Limited. Previously, she had been with the Women's Studies Research Centre, Gauhati University and the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. Apart from public economics, her areas of research interests include gender, environment and issues of urban transport.