Abhilash Verma

An Urban development professional with 19 years of consulting experience of working with all tiers of governments (e.g., central/federal, state/province, and city/local), multilateral and bilateral agencies (e.g., The World Bank Group (WBG), International Finance Corporation [IFC], Asian Development Bank [ADB], UK Department for International Development [DFID], KFW Bank, and UN Capital Development Fund [UNCDF]–Bangladesh) on policy advisory, capacity building, and transaction advisory of projects across India, South Asia ( Bangladesh and Nepal) and Qatar (Middle-East) in area of Urban development including city planning, smart cities, project development, institutional development and municipal finance etc. Having worked with consulting firms like Deloitte, RTI International, IMaCS (ICRA Management Consulting Services), and CRISIL, I bring a fair understanding of managing a business unit (practice). I was responsible for managing the profit & loss of the practice, leading business development activities (including generating new business leads, proposal development, managing partner and client relationships, etc.), leading project execution; and managing practice/ project teams. Key project experience can be broadly categorized in three areas such as (a) Policy advisory includes preparation of city development plans/ strategies/ smart city plans, business plans for urban infrastructure funds, municipal finance strategies (including revenue enhancement plans, credit-worthiness frameworks, innovative financing strategies including municipal bonds, and manuals/ tool kits) at national/ state/ city level; (b) Capacity building includes supporting several states/cities to implement urban reforms including institutional strengthening (administrative and structural), revenue improvement (property tax and water Charges), and service level improvements, etc., Organizing knowledge dissemination workshops, developing case studies and tool kits; and (c) Transaction advisory (including PPP projects) including project identification, feasibility studies, project structuring, financial model, bid documents, and bid process assistance to various government clients. Experience of working on long-term projects for governments at Centre/ State/ city level has given me good experience of working with varied stakeholders including government departments, elected representatives, civil societies/ community groups and other non-government organizations.