Shri. Diwakar Gupta is Senior Advisor (Research) at CAFRAL. Shri. Gupta superannuated from State Bank of India, India’s largest bank, with about 39 years of experience in various top executive/ senior management positions. He demitted office as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, SBI in 2013.

Subsequently he worked for two years as Senior Advisor (Banking Project) in Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd., Mumbai. Later Shri. Gupta worked as Vice President at Asian Development Bank, Manila. As Vice President, he oversaw the private sector and PPP operations of the Bank and participated in the Bank’s broader corporate initiatives like launching and operationalizing the biometric based National ID system of Philippines (akin to Aadhar), creating ADB Ventures, a donor-funded hybrid venture trust fund. He worked as Chair of the Digital Innovation Sandbox, and was a member of the steering committee supervising ADB’s digital agenda.

Currently, Shri. Gupta is Independent Director on the boards of CRISIL Ratings Ltd., Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd., Holiday Club Resorts Oy, its Finland-based subsidiary, and Mahindra Susten, Fullerton India Credit Company (FICC). He is also Non-executive Chairman of India Debt Resolution Company Limited (IDRCL) and Senior Advisor with True North, a leading India-focussed PE fund.

Shri. Gupta was a Member of the Expert Committee for Resolution Framework for COVID-19-related Stress, constituted by RBI. He was Chairman of the Task Force created by Dept. of Financial Services, Min. of Finance, Govt. of India, to review consortium / multiple lending, and suggest measures to make it more efficient (September 2012). He was also a member of High-Level Steering Committee to review Supervisory Processes of Banks, chaired by Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (2012).

He partnered with Unique Identification Authority of India Limited for rollout of the biometric based unique identification program of Government of India (Aadhar).

Shri. Gupta is a post graduate in Physics from University of Delhi and has done his graduation with Physics honours from St Stephen’s College, New Delhi.

Dr. Nirupama Kulkarni is Senior Research Director at CAFRAL. She is an applied empirical economist and her research interests include corporate finance, banking, household finance, real estate and monetary policy. Her recent work focuses on the role of government policies in the financial and housing market and its implications. Her research looks at how government regulation can stack the odds against private market competition and the implications of government policies aimed at increasing homeownership.

Nirupama has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from IIT Bombay, an MBA from Stern School of Business, New York University and a Ph.D. in business administration (finance and real estate) from Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. She has been the recipient of the Fisher Center Fellowship at UC Berkeley, Fisher Center Research Grant at UC Berkeley, Vanier Family Foundation Grant at UC Berkeley and was the FWA Clarin S. Schwartz Memorial Scholar and a Glucksman Research Fellow at the Stern School of Business, New York University.

Dr. Gautham Udupa is a Research Director at CAFRAL. His research interests include issues related to open economy macro, international trade, and cross-border spillovers. Gautham uses empirical and applied theoretical techniques. His recent paper focuses on the relative importance of multinational firms in generating cross-border spillovers relative to international trade channels. In another working paper, he is evaluating if the presence of frictions to borrowing and savings on households worsens inequality due to lowering of trade barriers.

Gautham completed his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Houston.

Dr. Kaushalendra Kishore is a Research Director at CAFRAL. He is a applied theorist and his research interest includes banking, corporate finance, contract theory and financial crisis. His recent research looks at how banks manage their risks from organization design perspective and explores reasons for risk management failure.

Kaushalendra has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Kanpur, an M.Phil from IGIDR and a Ph.D. in business administration (finance) from University of Minnesota. He has been the recipient of FIRS Doctoral Student Travel Grant and Graduate Student Fellowship at Carlson School of Management. He has also received Kishore Vaigyanic Protsahana Yojana (KVPY) Scholarship and National Talent Search Scholarship. 

Dr. Yogeshwar Bharat is a Research Director at CAFRAL. He is an applied economist and his fields of interest include International Trade, Macroeconomics, and Emerging Market Economies. In particular, he is interested in looking at the effect on a firm's decision to stay in the export market if they borrow from a government-owned bank, and how heterogeneity in bank ownership can lead to a misallocation in credit across firms and industries.

Yogeshwar has an Integrated M.Sc. in Physics from IIT Kharagpur, an M.S in Quantitative Economics from ISI Delhi, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University.

Dr. Nirvana Mitra is a Research Director at CAFRAL. He is a macroeconomist focusing primarily on sovereign defaults, political economy, climate change, and associated fiscal and monetary policy issues. His other areas of interest include topics in misallocation and productivity for firms and their relationship with the banking sector.

Nirvana holds a Master's degree in economics from Jadavpur University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Stony Brook University, New York. He is the recipient of the Marty Weinbaum award for excellence in research from Stony Brook University in 2020.

Dr. Vidhya Soundararajan is a Research Director at CAFRAL. She is an applied micro economist, and is interested in studying the effects of various economic shocks (financial/trade/regulatory) on firm behaviour, performance, and productivity. Her recent research looks at the impact of import competition on contract labor, informality, and firm performance, and the effects of employment protection laws on firm behaviour. She is also interested in research questions at the intersection of labor regulation, monopsony, labor markets, and firm’s financial performance.  

Vidhya has an undergraduate degree in information technology from Madras Institute of Technology, and a masters in economics from Madras School of Economics. She holds a PhD in applied economics from Cornell University from where she also received the Graduate Student Fellowship. She has also worked in various consulting assignments at the Planning commission of India (erstwhile), and the Word Bank.

Dr. Sankalp Mathur is a Research Director at CAFRAL. His research expertise lies in International Trade, Climate Policy, Environmental Economics, and Macroeconomics. His current focus involves quantifying macroeconomic effects through structural modeling, particularly in relation to counterfactual changes in cross-border tariffs. He has also conducted recent research on the influence of market power in response to carbon embodied tariffs, examining its impact on aggregate welfare and global emissions.

Sankalp holds a BA (Hons.) in Economics from the University of Delhi, an MSc. in Economics from TERI School of Advanced Studies, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Florida.