Anjali Kini

Anjali Kini is a Summer in the Field Fellow, 2022 and a graduate student in the Global Development Economics program at Boston University. Her main research interests are infrastructure, energy and development finance. She is also works as a Research Assistant at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center on tracking Chinese overseas development finance.

For her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Anjali will be working on the Women’s Political Leadership project in Meghalaya, India, commissioned by the Government of Meghalaya, India’s State Capability Enhancement Project (SCEP) team. Meghalaya is home to one of the few existing matrilineal societies in the world and is one of the few states in India where the sex ratio is not skewed, and female voters have exceeded male voters in recent years. Women, however, have a very limited say in local decision-making and governance. As of August 2020, the state of Meghalaya began a version of quotas for women in elected government. The project goal will be to help the state begin to evaluate this policy and design subsequent, complementary policies to effectively improve women’s political leadership.