Satyajit Singh

Specialization:

South Asian & Indian Politics, Public Policy & Institutional Reforms, Environmental & Water Politics

Ph.D., University of Delhi, 1994

Bio:

Satyajit Singh is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Department of Global Studies. He was previously a Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. He has been the Founding Dean and Professor at School of Development Studies and School of Human Ecology, at Ambedkar University, Delhi; India Chair at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan; Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex; Leverhulme Fellow for Environment and Development at the University of Sussex; and Asia Fellow at the Philippine Institute of Development Studies, Manila. He has worked in The World Bank and as Advisor, UNDP, UNICEF, & The European Commission, and in a few countries in the Asia-Pacific Region. His research interests include Public Policy & Institutional Reforms, South Asian Politics, and Environmental & Water Politics. He is one of the founders of the India Public Policy Network and the current convenor. His publications include The Local in Governance: Politics, Decentralization & Environment (OUP 2016); Taming the Waters: The Political Economy of Large Dams in India (OUP 1997); (co-ed) The Dam and the Nation: Displacement and Resettlement in the Narmada Valley (OUP, 1997); (co-ed) Decentralisation: Institutions and Politics in Rural India (OUP, 2007); (co-ed) Environmental Politics at the Local: Natural Resource Governance in India (Orient Blackswan, 2024); (ed) Polity as Fiction, Fiction as Polity: Raag Darbari (Orient Blackswan, 2026); and in press (co-ed) Public Policy Analysis in India, Bristol University Press (forthcoming). He has also published in Asian Survey, Policy & Society, among other places. He is currently working on water and climate concerns, as well as on a Handbook on Public Policy in India.

Publications:

Books:

1. Satyajit Singh, 2016, The Local in Governance: Politics, Decentralization and Environment, Oxford University Press, Delhi.

2. Satyajit Singh, 1997, Taming the Waters: The Political Economy of Large Dams in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi (paperback 2002).

3. Satyajit Singh (co-ed), (forthcoming), Public Policy Analysis in India, International Library of Policy Analysis Series, Bristol University Press, UK.

4. Satyajit Singh, 2026, Polity as Fiction, Fiction as Polity: Raag Darbari, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad.

5. Satyajit Singh (co-ed), 2024, Environmental Politics at the Local: Natural Resource Governance in India, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad.

6. Satyajit Singh (co-ed), 2007, Decentralization: Institutions and Politics in Rural India, Oxford University Press, Delhi (second edition 2008).

7. Satyajit Singh, Jean Dreze & Meera Samson (co-ed.), 1997, The Dam and the Nation: Displacement and Resettlement in the Narmada Valley, Oxford University Press, Delhi (paperback 2000).

Refereed Articles:

1. Satyajit Singh (forthcoming), ‘Political Economy of Decentralizations and Recentralizations in India’, in Kent Eaton, Juan Olmeda and Alejandra Armesto (eds) Recentralization Around the World, Palgrave.

2. Satyajit Singh & Azad Singh Bali (forthcoming), ‘Policy Analysis in India: An Introductory Overview’, in Satyajit Singh & Azad Singh Bali (co-ed), Public Policy Analysis in India, International Library of Policy Analysis Series, Bristol University Press, UK.

3. Satyajit Singh (forthcoming), ‘The Dynamics and Loci of Policy Analysis in India’, Satyajit Singh & Azad Singh Bali (co-ed), Public Policy Analysis in India, International Library of Policy Analysis Series, Bristol University Press, UK.

4. Satyajit Singh, 2025, ‘Malignity in Decentralization of Natural Resource Governance in India’, Policy and Society, //doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puaf022.

5. Satyajit Singh, 2026, ‘Polity as Fiction, Fiction as Polity’, in Satyajit Singh (ed), Raag Darbari: Polity as Fiction, Fiction as Polity, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad, India.

6. Satyajit Singh, 2026, ‘Raag Darbari and Governance: Beyond Eurocentrism’, in Satyajit Singh (ed), Raag Darbari: Polity as Fiction, Fiction as Polity, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad, India.

7. Satyajit Singh & Ajit Menon, 2024, ‘Environmental Politics at the Local’, in Satyajit Singh & Ajit Menon (co-ed), Environmental Politics at the Local: Natural Resource Governance in India, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad, India.

8. Satyajit Singh & Ajit Menon, 2024, ‘Institutions and Political Power’, in Satyajit Singh & Ajit Menon (co-ed), Environmental Politics at the Local: Natural Resource Governance in India, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad, India.

9. Satyajit Singh, 2023, ‘Institutional and Administrative Backsliding: India’, in Alison Brysk (ed) Populism and the Politics of Human Rights, Edward Elgar, London.

10. Satyajit Singh, 2021, ‘Moral Center or Anti-Nationalist? Student Protest Movements in India’, 21st Century Global Dynamics global-e, May 6, Vol 14, Issue 13.

11. ‘Decentralisation, Autonomy and Power: State and Politics of Forest Governance’, in Vidhu Verma (ed), The State in India: Ideas, Norms & Politics, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad, 2018.

12. ‘Decentralization of Village Forest Councils in North India: Conflict Resolution, Recentralization and Politics’, Intercultural Studies, University of Ryukoku, Japan, Vol 20, 2016.

13. ‘Decentralizing Water Services in India: The Politics of Institutional Reforms’, Asian Survey, Vol 54, No 4, University of California Press, July-August, 2014.

14. ‘Diverse Property Rights, Institutions and Decentralisation: Forest Management by Village Councils in Uttarakhand’, Policy and Society, Vol 31, No 1, 2013, Elsiver, St Louis, USA.

15. ‘State, Planning & Politics of Irrigation Development: A Critique of Large Dams in India’, in Rajeev Bharghav and Achin Vanaik (eds), Politics in Contemporary India, Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 2010.

16. ‘Environment & Justice: The Public Purpose of Water’, in Rajeev Bharghav, Michael Dusche & Helmut Reifeld (eds), Justice: Social, Political, Judicial, Sage, New Delhi, 2008.

17. ‘Decentralising Water: Reforming the Rural Water Sector in South Asia’, South Asian Journal, No 19, January-March, 2008, pp. 102-119.

18. ‘Reforming the Centralized State: Assessing Decentralization Paradigms in the Drinking Water Sector in the Philippines’, Policy and Society, Vol 26, No 2, December 2007, pp. 109-128, Elsiver, St Louis, USA.

19. ‘Introduction: Decentralisation - Institutions and Politics in India’ in Satyajit Singh & Pradeep Sharma (eds), 2007, Decentralization: Institutions and Politics in Rural India, Oxford University Press, Delhi.

20. ‘Water and Local Governments: Institutional Design, Politics & Implementation’, in Satyajit Singh & Pradeep Sharma (eds), 2007, Decentralization: Institutions and Politics in Rural India, Oxford University Press, Delhi.

21. 'Irrigation in India: Equity & Sustainability', in Michael Redclift & Graham Woodgate (eds.), 1997, The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, Cheltenham.

22. 'Introduction', in Jean Dreze, Meera Samson & Satyajit Singh (eds.), 1997, The Dam and the Nation: Displacement and Resettlement in the Narmada Valley, Oxford University Press, Delhi.

23. 'The Forest Policy in India and its Implications', Social Science Probings, Vol. 4, No. 3, Sept. 1987, New Delhi.

24. ‘Collective Dilemmas and Collective Pursuits: Community Management of Van Panchayats (forest councils) in the UP Hills’, Wasteland News, Sept-Oct, 1999, SPWD, New Delhi.

25. 'Evaluating Large Dams', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXV, No. 11, March 17, 1990, Bombay.

26. 'From the Dam to the Ghettos - a case study of the Rihand', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XX, Nos. 39 - 40, 28th Sept. & 5th Oct. 1985, Bombay.

Monographs:

1. Satyajit Singh & D. Basandorj, 2009, Improving Local Service Delivery for the Millennium Development Goals: Rural Water Supply and Sanitation in Mongolia, UNICEF, UNDP & Government of Mongolia.

Reports:

1. Water and Climate Change: Voices from Below, UCSB & WaterAid India (based on field work by 12 students/researchers across 8 states in India), June 2022. https://mollyrmcanany.wixsite.com/globalscholars

2. Village Immersion and Rural Sanitation, University of Delhi, Institute of Development Studies & Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, Geneva, 2019. (Based on field work by 54 Masters students across 14 states and 58 villages across India conducted in June 2018).

Courses:

Office Hours: Thursdays 10:45 am to 12:45 pm