Bidisha Bhattacharyya,
an Indian-origin climate and energy expert, was on Monday appointed to a key
position in the US President Joe Biden’s agriculture department. She was appointed as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Farm Service Agency (FSA).

She has previously served as a policy adviser at the Capitol Hill, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Before her stint with the government, she served as the director of Climate and Energy Policy at the Centre for American Progress (CPA).

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According to her bio on the CPA website, Bhattacharyya has also served as the senior energy and agriculture policy adviser to former Democratic Senator from Minnesota Al Franken and as energy and agriculture legislative assistant for Democratic Minnesota Representative Betty McCollum, where she worked on issues ranging from wind energy deployment to rural renewable energy policy.

Before joining the American Progress, Bhattacharyya was the vice-president of emerging markets at the impact-investment firm Village Capital, where she led a global team across India, Mexico and East Africa to invest in high-impact startups innovating to solve problems across clean energy deployment and financial inclusion. 

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She has also spent three years deploying solar energy solutions in rural India, where she led the end-to-end rollout of a new off-grid solar product line in collaboration with technology startup Simpa Networks. 

Bhattacharyya has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University, where she focused in energy policy and climate adaptation. She also holds a BA in economics from St. Olaf College.