Vani Swarupa is an Instructor at the College of Humanities and Sciences and the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Her research focuses on issues of decentralisation, environmental governance, agriculture and irrigation. She completed her PhD in NUS with her dissertation titled 'When Sowing isn't Reaping: Decentralisation, Groundwater Extraction and Agrarian Livelihoods in Tamil Nadu'. She was the co-editor for the edited volume titled Voices on South Asia: Interdisciplinary perspectives on women’s status, challenges and futures (Flatt, E. J., Murali, V. S., & Tieri, S. (2020). Voices on South Asia: interdisciplinary perspectives on women's status, challenges and futures. World Scientific.). She has also published widely in outlets such as The Interpreter, Eurasia Review, Seminar and Channel NewsAsia.