Siddharth Thyagarajan is a Senior Program Associate with Urban Development at WRI India. In this capacity, Siddharth has been involved in projects and research that focus on public spaces and placemaking, urban resilience through Nature-Based Solutions and water sensitive urban design, through demonstration projects and engagement with diverse stakeholders such as governments, civil society and academia.

A postgraduate with a specialization in resilient and sustainable strategies in the built environment from KU Leuven, Belgium, his primary interests have been in projects that focus on sustainable development with capacity building and policy as tools for transformation and empowerment. Siddharth has 11 years of experience on working on projects across diverse international contexts, within climate responsive architecture, master planning and urban placemaking.

Er. Qazi Syed Wamiq Ali is presently serving as the Manager for Urban Water & Flood Resilience: Cities Program at WRI India. In this capacity, Ali offers technical proficiency in the assessment, design, construction, and monitoring & evaluation of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) interventions tailored for swiftly urbanizing cities. Additionally, Ali oversees feasibility evaluations and on-site implementation of Nature-based Solutions, including the sponge city concept, to address flooding in vulnerable regions.

He holds a Master of Technology in Water Science & Governance from TERI SAS (TERI University) and a Bachelor of Technology in Water Resources Engineering from Allahabad Agricultural University (SHUATS), India.

With over 7+ years of experience in Water and Climate Change, Ali’s expertise encompasses hydrology, water supply and sanitation, agricultural water management, urban water resilience, water and wastewater treatment, and policy advocacy. Additionally, he has made notable contributions to the field through the publication of research papers, a policy brief, and a book in peer-reviewed national and international journals.

Prerna Mehta is Associate Director of Urban Development at WRI India, where she manages work on practice areas such as Climate Smart Cities, Liveable Neighbourhoods, Innovation, Capacity Building and Project preperation. The key subject of her work includes Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework, Transit Oriented Development, Land Value Capture, Form Based Codes, Public Spaces, Tactical Urbanism, Safe Access, Neighbourhood Improvement Plans, toolkits, and awareness Initiatives like Raahgiri. She works with agencies like The Global Environment Facility (GEF), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank for developing global work related to integrated urban development. She has formulated several national, state and city level policies, regulations as well as guidelines for central and city government in India. At the national level, Prerna is part of various technical committees as well as working groups to provide technical inputs on integrated urban development.

Prerna comes to WRI India with extensive experience in project management, urban research and planning, real estate, architecture, and capacity building. Working with government, non-governmental, private and corporate organizations, her portfolio had array of projects. Her portfolio consisted of work on City Master Plans, Area and Integrated Development Plans, feasibility studies, project formulation and large-scale real estate construction projects.
Prerna holds a master’s in Planning (Housing) from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India. She also holds a Bachelor’s in Architecture from Nagpur University, India and a diploma in Principles and Practices of Real Estate from Indian Institute of Real Estate, Pune, India. Besides, she has undertaken several certificate courses on managing cities.