Shika Saravanabhavan holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore. Her academic training and research are rooted in development economics, with a particular focus on financial inclusion and its impact on economic development. In addition to her academic credentials, she has valuable experience in the development sector, which has further informed her research perspective. Her recent work explores topics such as rural credit, informal lenders and small enterprises in India. She is currently working as a Research associate at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore.

Dr Meenakshi Rajeev is currently Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu and Institute for Social and economic Change, Bengaluru. She held the position of HAG Professor and the the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor and Head, Centre for Economic Studies and Policy, at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. She has graduated from IIT Kanpur in Statistics and did her Ph D in Economics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. She has worked as a faculty and taught at the University of California at San Diego, Central Michigan University, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, Presidency College, Kolkata. She has published more than 100 articles in reputed journals and as working papers from India and abroad and has over 10 books and monographs to her credit. Her recent book "Emerging Issues in Economic Development: A Contemporary Theoretical Perspective" from Oxford University Press and "Financial Access of the Urban Poor: A Story of Exclusion" from Springer are worth mentioning. Her areas of research include game theory, banking and credit market, industrial economics and development economics. She has visited and taught in a large number of universities in USA, UK, Germany, France and Norway, including Cornell University, University of Essex, Central Bank of Norway to name a few. She is in a number of committees of the Government . Recently she acted as the task force member for the formulation of the R &D policy for the state of Karnataka. She has taken up large number of research projects from institutions such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Norwegian research council, Ford Foundation, Government of India and Karnataka, RBI and NABARD.