Rajiv Ranjan Mishra

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra is Chief Advisor and Chairman of Strategy & Policy Unit at the National Institute of Urban Affairs in India, and additionally acts as an advisor for the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur. He recently retired from his position as Director General for the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), during which he transformed the Namami Gange programme into an integrated, multi-sectoral model framework for river rejuvenation in India. As Additional Secretary for India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, he steered several policies in housing sector, urban SDGs, New Urban Agenda and sustainable technologies, and played a pivotal role in the enactment of the landmark Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016-RERA. 

In 2021, Mr. Mishra was bestowed with the Annual Research Award from IIT Roorkee for his work on rejuvenation of the river Ganga. Over the course of his time at NMCG, he led the organisation to international and national recognition including Public Agency of the Year Award (Distinction) by Global Water Intelligence. Mr. Mishra introduced a paradigm shift at NMCG through several key projects and policy interventions, including PPPs in wastewater management through a hybrid annuity mode and a ‘One City-One Operator’ approach for better sustainability and governance in wastewater management. Mr. Mishra has also developed pioneering frameworks to plan ‘river cities’ by mainstreaming rivers and water within urban master plans, highlighting water-sensitive urban design and developing the River City Alliance. 

Mr. Mishra is the co-author of ‘Ganga: Reimagining, Rejuvenating, Reconnecting’, a change-maker’s account of the enormity of the challenges, institutional processes and reforms which developed momentum and positively impacted a river’s health and the sustainability of those impacts. He has published several articles, papers and opinion columns in several journals, magazines, as well as editing a special issue on river rejuvenation in the Journal of Governance and working as editor and contributor on ‘Managing Urban Rivers: from Planning to Practice’, a set of articles by national and international experts being published by Elsevier. He has contributed to many national and international trainings and seminars, and holds Certificates in Advanced Studies in Public Administration from Maxwell School, Syracuse University, USA; Public Budgeting from Georgia State University, Atlanta; Project Management from University of California, Berkeley; and the ‘Leaders in Development’ programme from Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, USA.