Dr. Tushaar Shah, an economist, water-energy policy reseaecher and public policy specialist, is an Emeritus Scientist of the International Water Management Institute, Colombo and Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Rural Management Anand. Over the past 40 years, Shah’s main research interests have been in two fields: farmer organizations and water institutions and policies. In both these fields, he has published extensively and his writings have helped shape national debates and public policies.  The research he published on water markets generated wide interest in India and abroad and water markets soon emerged as a distinct field of study in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. This new field attracted hundreds of researchers and led to a voluminous empirical literature during the 1990’s and thereafter. Studies by the faculty and students of IRMA under his leadership during the 1990’s kickstarted a debate on how best to design robust member organizations and sowed the seeds of new generation farmer cooperatives. Likewise, field research by the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program Shah founded and led influenced Government of Gujarat’s Surya Shakti Kisan Yojana (SKY), and Government of India’s Prime Minister’s Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) as well as US $ 45 billion KUSUM scheme for solarising India’s groundwater economy.

His policy research on groundwater governance won Shah Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)’ “Outstanding Scientist” award in 2002, UN Water-for-Life Award for Best Practices in water management research in 2014 and Distinguished Associate Award of International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) in 2018. For over a decade, Shah has been a regular invitee to the annual pre-budget consultations with Union Finance Minister in the field of agriculture and rural development. In late 2019, Shah was invited to brainstorm with the Prime Minister and Niti Ayog along with 40 economists, industrialists and thought leaders on “Economic Policy: The Road Ahead” for NDA II.