Madhura Swaminathan is a Professor at the Economic Analysis Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore, with a doctorate in Economics from the University of Oxford. She specializes in food security, agriculture, and rural development. Her notable publications include several co-authored books on welfare distribution, agrarian studies, financial liberalization, and socioeconomic surveys. She served on the Government of India's High-Level Panel on Long Term Food Security and was elected to the Committee of Development Policy of the United Nations Economic and Social Council for the term 2013-2015.