Ms. Soma Sarkar

Ms. Soma Sarkar is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Environment, Urban Governance, and Infrastructure Development at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI). With a robust academic background, she completed her B.A. in Geography (Honors) from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, followed by an M.A. in Geography from Sikkim University, Gangtok, where she received the University Gold Medal for Academic Excellence. Ms. Sarkar earned her MPhil in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Development Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, focusing on urban water governance in the challenging urban waterscape of a mountain city. She was awarded the prestigious Dr. Ambedkar Doctoral Fellowship by DAIC, Government of India, for her doctoral research in 2019.

In 2022, Ms. Soma Sarkar was a joint study visiting fellow at the Alpen-Adria Universitat in Klagenfurt, Austria. She also completed a certificate course on the Global Food, Energy, and Water Nexus jointly offered by Cornell University, USA & Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has been engaged in several research projects on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; Urban Water Governance; Forest Resource Rights and Governance; Gender; and CSR at TISS, Mumbai, and has served as the student coordinator of the Customized Study in India Programme curated by the International Relations Office, TISS Mumbai in 2018-19 with University of Chicago and University of Sydney.

Ms. Sarkar has been disseminating her research findings and ideas through her publications and participation in many national and international conferences. Notably, she published an article from her Ph.D. research titled “Urban Water Crisis and the Promise of Infrastructure: A Case Study of Shimla, India” in the Frontiers in Water Journal in 2023. Additionally, she co-edited a book titled “Urban Commons, Future Smart Cities and Sustainability,” as apart of the Springer Geography series, published by Springer Nature in 2023.

With eight years of research and project experience, Ms. Soma Sarkar joined ASCI in 2024. Her interests lie in urban studies, water governance, circularity, WASH, climate change adaptation, city resilience, GEDSI, institutional governance and policy. At ASCI, she conducts management development programmes on Public Private Partnerships in Solid Waste Management and Waterbody Rejuvenation for Urban Water Security and is involved in multiple projects on urban & water governance.