Sandeep Dikshit served as a Lok Sabha member from East Delhi for two consecutive terms (2004-2014). During that time, he was for various periods a member of the Standing Committees on Rural Development and Home (Internal Security), and in the Advisory Committees of Environment and Forests and Heavy Industries. Sandeep was also member of the Public Accounts Committee for four years, and member of the Lok Sabha Business Advisory Committee. Between 2009 to 2014, he also served, first as the Deputy Chief Whip and then as the Chief Whip of the UPA in Lok Sabha. Before entering politics, Sandeep was engaged in rural development and public policy issues in a variety of ways. He has worked extensively in the field on challenges of livelihoods with voluntary agencies and State Departments in various States of central India and that work continues. He led the team that pioneered the world’s first sub-national HDR of Madhya Pradesh (MP) in 1995. He later completed eight human development reports, five for Madhya Pradesh, and for Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Bundelkhand. He also ran the budget and governance centre for MP and Chhattisgarh for over ten years, with a specific focus on agriculture, rural livelihoods, education, health, and forest issues. Sandeep has worked with the governments of MP, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Assam, Odisha and Rajasthan and with the Planning Commission, Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, the Ford Foundation and others. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and PG Diploma in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Development, Anand. Currently he also teaches Public Policy and Development at the Jindal Global University, Sonepat and Azim Premji University, Bangalore.