Ira has over 4 years of experience working with reputed consulting organizations – EY, Athena Infonomics and Grant Thornton in areas including but not limited to agriculture and rural livelihoods, skill development, education, urban development, private sector participation and tech – integration for social development. Presently, she represents India in Thought for Food Fellowship. She led the stakeholder engagement plan to reach out to 22,000 students and co-create design interventions to ensure safe mobility and child friendly environment in Dehradun. Her written contribution in preparing Policy Brief on ‘Promotion of Livestock and Dairy, Poultry and Fishery as engines of growth’ for National Conference on Agriculture 2022 - New Initiatives was adopted for implementation under the Govt of India’s Vision of Doubling Farmers’ income. As a public policy researcher, Ira provided strategic inputs on Private Members Bill on Net Neutrality at the office of Mr. Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, former MP, Govt of India. She has also authored and prepared multiple Thought Leadership Reports, White Papers, Decision Tools, Monitoring Frameworks and Training kits while working with government departments and agencies such as Dept of Agri – Govt of Jharkhand, Govt of Haryana, Ministry of AYUSH, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Dehradun Smart City Limited, ASSOCHAM, ICSSR as well as donor organizations – WB, ADB, BMGF, UNDP. Ira pursed Postgraduate Degree in Public Policy from O.P Jindal Global University after completing Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from IIIT Bhubaneswar.

Over the last six years, Apurba has been engaged in research based consulting through her association with multiple institutions – Athena Infonomics, Hasiru Dala Innovations, IPE Global, WRI, IRMA and IndiaSpend in cross cutting areas of urban governance and public policy. As a core member of the business development team, she supported in preparation of business decks and bid management for governments and multilateral aid agencies - World Bank, ADB, DFID, UNICEF across South East Asia and East African Region. Apurba has previously worked on studying the economics of service provisioning in a multi-stakeholder environment for Bangalore and Indore. She led the preparation of an market demand assessment framework of a potential Decision Support Tool to be used by stakeholders in waste management. She has also been a part of need assessment study focusing on regulatory aspects of housing finance ecosystem in Afghanistan. She is keen on learning about participatory governance and takes interest in advocating for walkability to promote sustainable cities. Apurba holds a Postgraduate Degree in Economics from Symbiosis International University and bachelor’s Degree from Banaras Hindu University.