Sharada is currently working in the Office of the Chief Economist, Infrastructure Vice-Presidency, where her research focuses on how digital technologies affect firms and households in low- and middle-income countries, and the effects of data regulations and policies in emerging markets. She supports analytical and operational engagements in Digital Development across Eastern Europe and the East Asia and the Pacific regions.
Sharada Srinivasan joined the World Bank from the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition, University of Pennsylvania where she served as a Research Fellow. At 1 World Connected, a global research project, her research focused on the empirical validation of innovative initiatives that address supply-and-demand-side challenges to improve broadband adoption globally. She has conducted fieldwork in rural Rwanda, India, and Vanuatu focused on understanding the link between digital infrastructure rollout and development outcomes.
She was part of the EQUALS Research Coalition on Access, served on the IEEE Humanitarian Activities Committee’s Assessment sub-committee and is part of the United Nations’ Dynamic Coalition on Innovative Approaches to Connecting the Unconnected. In the past, she has engaged with regulatory barriers to Internet deployment in the developing world, cybersecurity and encryption policy in Europe, and debates around network neutrality and zero-rating while at the Global Public Policy Institute, Berlin, and the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the National Law School of India University Bangalore, alongside an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.