Vandana Vasudevan graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and worked in the corporate sector for many years. She shifted career tracks and became a development sector professional, consulting for various national and international organizations after obtaining a PhD in urban development from the University of Grenoble, France. She is the author of Urban Villager: Life In An Indian Satellite Town (2013), Tough Customer (2014), and OTP Please: Online Buyers, Sellers and Gig Workers in South Asia (2025). She has written extensively for mainstream newspapers and was a columnist for several years for Mint and DNA.