Manish Dubey is Dean of the IIHS School of Governance and the inaugural holder of the Rahul Bajaj Chair. Over the last three decades, his work in governance has helped shape national policy frameworks and flagship initiatives across urban governance, municipal finance, and infrastructure—bringing together expertise in policy design, institutional development, and ecosystem mobilisation to build robust public institutions, unlock high-impact finance, advance infrastructure sector reform, and drive inclusive and sustainable change at scale. His current work focuses on governance pathways for decarbonising India’s real estate sector and advancing national material security. He has worked with the Government of India and state governments, multilateral and bilateral development partners, industry, international NGOs, and philanthropies. His experience spans rural and urban water supply and sanitation, urban development, natural resource management, and rural livelihoods across 20 Indian states, as well as with the World Bank, UNICEF, Asian Development Bank, Australian Agency for International Development, Department for International Development (DFID), Global Sanitation Fund, and the Swedish International Development Agency.

Key areas of Manish’s work include institutional design and strengthening, programme design and strategy, reform management support, strategic stakeholder communication, and sector-, portfolio-, and programme-level results management. His work has focused on improving service delivery, strengthening the role of communities and local governments in planning and implementation, and enabling sector reform initiatives.

Manish’s engagement with public issues through media commentary has resulted in over a hundred opinion pieces and articles on politics, society, and cricket across digital and print media. He has also authored two books of crime fiction and has spoken on literary matters and his creative journey in various fora.