Parakala Prabhakar studied at JNU and the London School of Economics. He was the Communications Adviser to the Government of Andhra Pradesh between 2014 and 2018 and held a Cabinet rank. He is currently the MD of RightFOLIO, a knowledge enterprise based in Hyderabad. He is also a widely-read columnist on current affairs and has a popular YouTube channel, ‘Midweek Matters’, where he discusses issues related to India’s politics, economy, and contemporary society. The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis (2023) is his latest publication.