Shoba Raja has a highly specialised knowledge and experience of developmental issues of vulnerable groups particularly within the field of disability and mental health. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Bombay and later with a Masters in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. She worked for a number of years as a Medical social worker for various organisations in Mumbai, including "Asha Sadan", a home for destitute women and children and adoption center, The Spastics Society of India where she fulfilled a number of research and consultant roles, as well as a number of other organisations working with people with disabilities.

In 1999, Raja began her work with ActionAid (India) as a Policy analyst, which included specific focuses on decentralised governance and elementary education. Raja later joined BasicNeeds which works with people with mental disorders and their carers in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Lao PDR and Vietnam. Here she took on a number of research roles, starting as a Research Policy Analyst, then later becoming Programme Manager for International Policy and Research. She currently is Director of Policy and Practice for BasicNeeds which involves overall monitoring, evaluation, impact assessment and quality assurance of all field programmes of the countries where the organisation operates. Since 2000, the organisation has reached 78,036 people with mental illness or epilepsy.

Raja has worked in collaborative research projects with Kingston University in Ontario, Canada, and currently manages BasicNeeds' collaborations with the London School of Economics, UK; University of Cape Town, South Africa; University of Melbourne, Australia; Queensland University of Technology, Australia; and Millennium Village Project of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). She has published many research papers and articles on disability and mental health, as well as managing BasicNeeds' International Research Programme and Knowledge Programme.

Amongst other achievements, Raja is an Honorary visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, she is a member of the advisory group for the Movement for Global Mental Health, a global network of individuals and institutions who are committed to scaling up of evidence-based services for people living with mental disorders, as well as an advisor to the World Psychiatric Association's (WPA) task force for developing best practices in working with service users and carers. Raja spent time as a member of scientific panel of the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health, an initiative which aims to bring neuropsychiatric disorders to the forefront of global attention and scientific inquiry, and as a promoter and advisor for Janodaya Microfinance Public Trust, a non-banking financial company in India that works with women's self-help groups providing them credit, business training and on-going support for socio-economic growth.