Shilpi is a DPhil student at the Institute of Development Studies. She has her Masters degree in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. She also completed her M.Phil in Law and Governance from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. As an M.Phil student, she undertook a multi-level study of the Indian water policy and analysed the gaps between and policy and implementation of drinking water programmes. She has also worked on several research projects while pursuing her degree. She worked as a Researcher on projects with the National Institute of Administrative Research (India) and Centre for Policy Research (India). Prior to joining IDS, she worked as Research Associate with Centre for Policy Research on an IDRC funded project on the Rise of Regulatory State in the South. Her doctoral research looks at the policy and practice of water privatization and regulation in India. Using the lens of political ecology and sociological institutionalism, she is interested in exploring state-society interactions in water governance and regulation; looking at questions of access to resources through the idea of rights and power, analyzing global-local linkages in development policy making and exploring the 'changing' nature of State in developing countries.