Swarna Lakshmi is a research scholar from  TERI University, New Delhi. She is an economist by training and has worked in companies like GE,AMEX and SCHOLASTIC in the business analytics domain. Her PhD work is on policy and financing inter-linkages in the context of mainstreaming renewable energy in India .Specifically she is investigating the role of risk perceptions  among different stakeholders involved in  financing  renewable energy investments. Her broader areas of interest include Energy Policy, urban studies and behavioral economics.

As part of the "FFU/TERI Sustainable Development and Climate Change Dialogue”, she will explore the institutional arrangements and enabling conditions behind the success of rooftop diffusion in Germany with a specific focus on the role of local governance. Swarna  plans to do a city level case study to get the German perspective. She will perform interviews with policy makers, planners, practitioners, finance providers and consultants in Germany in order to understand the role of local governance in diffusion.