Shalu leads The Council's work on residential energy access, demand-side management and power sector reforms. She uses data to study the changing energy landscape and devise strategies to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy.

Shalu recently led India's first-ever Residential Energy Survey (IRES) that covered ~15,000 households across 21 Indian states. She closely works with power utilities in India to design and implement strategies to improve operational and financial performance through innovative approaches for billing and collection, smart metering initiatives, tariff and subsidy reforms, and business models to scale energy-efficient appliances. She has played a key role in building The Council’s work on sustainable solar irrigation and supports the research on sustainable cooling strategies and subsidies reforms.

Shalu has published in leading international journals, authored opinion pieces for national dailies and regularly advises senior government officials. She has also worked with Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy and Smart Power India, where she analysed rural electricity demand and its drivers, based on large-scale household and enterprise surveys.

Shalu is a Chevening Fellow, and holds an MSc in Economics and Policy of Energy and Environment from University College London, and a BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Roorkee.