Namita Aggarwal

Policy Consulting and Government Advisory

• Leading technical assistance engagements with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), GoI, for municipal revenue enhancement and infrastructure financing
• Drafted policy guidelines and provided support in administration of key central government schemes/programmes such as XV Finance Commission, AMRUT, Atmanirbhar Bharat, Swachh Bharat Mission, Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment affecting a total outlay of USD 67 Bn
• Provided technical assistance in own revenue enhancement of ULBs to over 15 State Urban Development Depts. and 2 State Finance Commissions. Notable achievements include- Drafting of Property and Professional Tax Rules for Govt. of Tamil Nadu (notified in 2023), 35% increase in property tax revenue through policy and process based interventions in Odisha (2018-19 to 2020-21), designed and drafted property tax valuation policy for Punjab (adopted in 2021)
• Leading technical assistance to Govt. of Assam for setting up of Assam Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation Limited, a state-owned company with a mandate for financing urban infrastructure - drafted functions, cabinet note, HR policy, among others
• Co-led technical assistance to XV Finance Commission on municipal finance reforms. Major recommendations such as mandatory reporting of financial statements and property tax increase included in the report. Cityfinance was quoted (Page XX). Currently co-leading technical assistance to XVI Finance Commission
• Worked directly with senior leadership at central and state governments including Secretaries, Additional Secretaries, Directors, Commissioners, among others

Thought Leadership

• Designed and drafted the Property Tax Reforms Toolkit that was published by MoHUA in 2020. Published as GoI's official blueprint for states willing to undertake reforms in property taxation. Trained over 200 senior government officials using the toolkit across all 28 state governments and some local government.
• Co-authored the policy research paper 'Gender-based discounts on taxes related to property: Role in encouraging female ownership' with officials of the World Bank
• Member of the working group constituted by the Securities Exchange Board of India for augmenting the municipal bond market in India
• Expert speaker at several events and forums including the World Bank Land Conference 2024, SEBI's outreach programme and municipal bonds
• Facilitated several collaborations, events and trainings with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, National Institute of Securities Market, NIUA, Niti Aayog, Mission Karamyogi, among others

Technology-driven interventions

• Leading product management scale-up of www.cityfinance.in, MoHUA's flagship municipal finance platform that hosts 11,000+ audited accounts of 3500+ ULBs in digitised, standardised and comparable format; strategy development, planning new features, maximising visibility among stakeholders, etc.
• Optimizing City Finance Data & Insights function across- data collection, standardization, validation, analytics and reporting of key trends & insights from www.cityfinance.in to internal and external stakeholders
• Developing and scaling strategic partnerships and engagements along with MoHUA and other ecosystem players for strengthening - municipal financial reporting (with ICAI, NIUA, Niti Aayog) and municipal debt/bonds (with SEBI, market players)

Organisational Development and Leadership

• Co-leading the flagship municipal finance program focused on improving financial sustainability & accountability of 4,700+ municipalities (Urban Local Bodies/ULBs) across India
• Program leadership responsibilities include development and management of strategy, annual plans & budgets; procuring donor funding; ensuring high-quality technical delivery and operational excellence; progress monitoring and reporting to both internal and external (government & donors) stakeholders; knowledge management; team/performance management

• Area Sales and Customer Manager for Homecare, Foods and Refreshments categories in Coastal Odisha
• Responsible for driving sales with an annual turnover of USD 43 million
• Led a team of 300+ salesmen with 11 directly reporting territory sales officers; Managed 66 business partners including distributors and depots
• Completed one year of Unilever Future Leader's Programme (UFLP management trainee programme) which included stints in sales, brand marketing, customer marketing and an international stint with Unilever International, Singapore

Worked on a cost optimisation project for Tata Main Hospital, Jamshedpur