Vani Swarupa Murali is an Instructor at the College of Humanities and Sciences and the South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore. Her research explores decentralisation, environmental governance, agriculture and irrigation. She holds a PhD from NUS on agrarian livelihoods in Tamil Nadu and is co-editor of Voices on South Asia (World Scientific, 2020). Her writings have appeared in The Interpreter, Eurasia Review, Seminar, and Channel NewsAsia.