Ujjwal Krishna

Background

About Ujjwal Krishna

Dr Ujjwal Krishna is an Academic Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Australia India Institute, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at La Trobe University's Centre for Human Security and Social Change. He has over eight years’ experience in development and public policy issues across the Indo-Pacific. His main areas of interest include the political economy of international development, research uptake, foreign policy, and bilateral cooperation. As Specialist Doctoral Research Scholar with the Developmental Leadership Program (DLP), he supported impact and engagement for an international research partnership across 10 Indo-Pacific nations. While working with the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)’s Governance Section, Office of the Chief Economist, and Global Education and Scholarships Section, he studied how bureaucrats and diplomats use research and evidence at the individual, organisational, and policy levels of decision-making in a bilateral donor agency. He was earlier a Policy Engagement Consultant to the University of Oxford, a Research Specialist at The Asia Foundation (TAF)'s Regional Governance Unit and Convenor of its DFAT-funded Long-Term Evaluations Working Group, and a Visiting PhD Scholar at the University of Birmingham’s International Development Department. He also worked with the Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), where he supported the Government of India in securing its interests at global internet governance fora, and conducted research for the World Bank, ADB, Union ministries, and the space industry. His work on governance, education, skills, technology, climate, migration, labour, trade, cities, gender, and health, spans various roles, including with the University of Sussex’s Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Brookings India, J-PAL South Asia, UNDP, Community Empowerment Lab (on a WHO and Gates Foundation-funded RCT), Ernst & Young, Safe Passage International (Citizens UK), and NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s apex policy think tank. Dr Krishna holds a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Delhi, an MA in Development Studies (with Distinction) from the University of Sussex, and a PhD in International Development (Political Economy and Public Policy) from La Trobe University, which he attended on an Australian Government DFAT-funded scholarship.