Priya Kumari is a doctoral candidate in Economics at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore, pursuing a four-year PhD programme. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2020 and completed her Master’s in 2022, the same year she qualified for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF). Her current research focuses on the political economy of Indian states, with a particular emphasis on fiscal deficits, conditional grants, and the Public Distribution System (PDS). Her work explores how political and institutional factors shape state-level fiscal outcomes and welfare mechanisms, contributing to broader discussions on public finance and intergovernmental fiscal relations in India.