Dr. Tushaar Shah was trained as an economist and public policy specialist. He is a former director of the Institute of Rural Management, at Anand in India. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Shah's main research interests are in water institutions and policies in South Asia, particularly, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, a subject on which he has published extensively. In particular, Dr. Shah has carried out extensive studies on water governance issues in this region, as well as in North China plains. He has also explored groundwater management models in Mexico, China and Spain to distill practical lessons these countries offer for improving groundwater management in South Asia. More recently, his interests have lay in comparative analyses of water institutions and policies across Asia and between South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Shah was honored with the Outstanding Scientist award of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in 2002.

Dr. Shah is Senior Adviser to the Director General at the Colombo-based International Water Management Institute. He works out of Anand in western India.