Click here to read their work.
Dr. Bidisha Bhattacharya is an economist, policy commentator, and academic, currently serving as Associate Fellow and Head of Research (Economy & Trade) at the Chintan Research Foundation. She is also an Exclusive Columnist with ThePrint, where she writes on macroeconomics, global political economy, trade, and development.
At ThePrint, she authors Economix, a regular opinion column, and curates Economix, a weekly subscription-only newsletter for premium readers. Through these platforms, she brings data-driven, research-backed economic analysis to a wide public and policy audience.
Dr Bhattacharya was previously a Visiting Professor at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, where she taught postgraduate courses in Advanced Macroeconomics, Mathematical Economics, Operations Research, and International Trade. Her academic work has focused on building strong analytical and theoretical foundations through rigorous, research-oriented instruction.
Her professional experience spans government, think tanks, political consulting, and the private sector. She has served as a Consultant to the Fifteenth Finance Commission of India, contributing to research on fiscal federalism, devolution frameworks, and intergovernmental resource allocation. Earlier, she was a Research Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, working on UBI, FRBM reforms, and welfare economics, and a Political Researcher at Indian-PAC, where she led policy and voter research for state election campaigns across multiple regions.
In the private sector, Dr. Bhattacharya spent five years as Growth Manager at stck.me, leading platform growth strategy, analytics, and monetisation initiatives, and earlier worked as a Business Analyst at Propellor.ai, supporting data-driven business and product strategy.
She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, with doctoral research on exchange rates in a multi-currency world. She also earned an M.Sc. in Economics from GIPE and a B.Sc. (Honours) in Economics from Bethune College, University of Calcutta. Early in her career, she interned with the Ministry of Finance (Budget Division) and Invest India, working on fiscal data analysis, tax devolution, and sectoral investment research.
Dr. Bhattacharya’s work focuses on macroeconomic policy, exchange rates and currency regimes, international trade and geo-economics, fiscal federalism, economic development and inequality, political economy, and the institutional foundations of long-term growth in emerging economies.