Kumar V Pratap has an abiding interest in Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships. Currently, he is Joint Secretary (Union Territories), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Earlier, he has worked with the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Finance (as Joint Secretary, Infrastructure Policy & Finance) at New Delhi, and the World Bank and Embassy of India at Washington DC. He has lectured at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), London School of Economics, Singapore Management University, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore), Duke University, University of Maryland, World Bank (Washington DC), IMF (SARTTAC), Indian Institute of Management (IIM, Ahmedabad), IIM (Lucknow), IIM (Indore),and National Academy of Administration (Mussoorie). He was a Visiting Professor at the Indian School of Business (Hyderabad and Mohali) from 2013 to 2017 teaching a Strategy and Policy elective on 'Infrastructure and the Private Sector'.

He was Member Secretary of the Task Force for preparing India's first National Infrastructure Pipeline. In the past, he was part of the Task Force for setting up a Road Regulator, and the chair of the Committee writing the Model Concession Agreement for PPPs in the Urban Water Supply sector. He led the Indian delegation at the G20 Infrastructure Working Group. He has been on the Board of Directors of ONGC Videsh Limited, IIFCL, IRSDC, Indian Railway Finance Corporation, AIIB and New Development Bank (Shanghai).

He has published with Oxford University Press, Springer, World Bank, University of Melbourne, Economic and Political Weekly, and the popular press including Economic Times and Business Standard. He has written a book 'PPPs in Infrastructure - Managing the Challenges' that was published by Springer (Singapore) in 2018. He is a recipient of University of Melbourne's Emerging Leaders Fellowship, University of Maryland’s John J Sexton and Doctoral Fellowships, a letter of appreciation from the Indian Prime Minister, and the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) scholarship.

He has a MBA from IIM, Lucknow (1987) and a PhD from University of Maryland, College Park, USA (2011).