I Study How
States Shape Human
Flourishing in Various Challenging Contexts.
I study how states shape development outcomes. My research investigates m how institutional arrangements—bureaucratic capacities, organizational designs, and democratic processes—determine whether governance structures enable human flourishing or perpetuate inequality.
I Study How
States Shape Human Flourishing in Various Challenging Contexts.
I study how states shape development outcomes. My research investigates
how institutional arrangements—bureaucratic capacities, organizational designs, and democratic processes—determine whether governance structures enable human flourishing or perpetuate inequality.
About
I am a Visiting Assistant Professor at Ashoka University (starting January 2026). I completed my PhD in Political Science at Brown University, specializing in comparative politics and political economy with a regional focus on South Asia, particularly India.
I work on the political economy of public service delivery in developing democracies, focusing on bureaucratic agency, politician-bureaucrat relations, electoral accountability mechanisms, and the institutional determinants of spatial inequality in urban infrastructure provision.
My pre-doctoral work at Indian policy organizations shaped my approach to scholarship. These experiences showed how research gains transformative power when entering policy conversations. I embrace the scholar-practitioner model, developing methodologically rigorous research addressing pressing social questions. By positioning my scholarship at the intersection of theoretical precision and urgent societal needs, I ensure my work contributes to disciplinary knowledge and enhances decision-making through evidence-based insights.
About.
I am a Visiting Assistant Professor at Ashoka University (starting January 2026). I completed my PhD in Political Science at Brown University, specializing in comparative politics and political economy with a regional focus on South Asia, particularly India.
I work on the political economy of public service delivery in developing democracies, focusing on bureaucratic agency, politician-bureaucrat relations, electoral accountability mechanisms, and the institutional determinants of spatial inequality in urban infrastructure provision.
My pre-doctoral work at Indian policy organizations shaped my approach to scholarship. These experiences showed how research gains transformative power when entering policy conversations. I embrace the scholar-practitioner model, developing methodologically rigorous research addressing pressing social questions. By positioning my scholarship at the intersection of theoretical precision and urgent societal needs, I ensure my work contributes to disciplinary knowledge and enhances decision-making through evidence-based insights.
PROFILE
SYLLABUS
EVALUATION
DALES
Methods
My research uses a multi-method strategy because complex social and political problems require more than one way of seeing them. I take context seriously: causal effects vary across places and institutions, so I avoid universal claims and instead ask how specific conditions shape outcomes. This iterative approach—moving between data, mechanisms, and lived experience—allows me to draw conclusions that are both analytically rigorous and meaningfully grounded. I focus on identifying the mechanisms that connect cause and effect, combining ethnographic fieldwork for deep, ground-level insight with comparative case studies that highlight variation across settings. Quantitative analysis helps me identify broader patterns, while qualitative evidence ensures those patterns are interpreted in context rather than abstracted away.
My research uses a multi-method strategy because complex social and political problems require more than one way of seeing them. I take context seriously: causal effects vary across places and institutions, so I avoid universal claims and instead ask how specific conditions shape outcomes.I focus on identifying the mechanisms that connect cause and effect, combining ethnographic fieldwork for deep, ground-level insight with comparative case studies that highlight variation across settings. Quantitative analysis helps me identify broader patterns, while qualitative evidence ensures those patterns are interpreted in context rather than abstracted away. This iterative approach—moving between data, mechanisms, and lived experience—allows me to draw conclusions that are both analytically rigorous and meaningfully grounded.
[Book Project] Weak but Working: Bureaucratic Agency, State Capacity, and Public Goods in Urban India
Why do regions with identical institutional designs produce dramatically different governance outcomes? This research examines how meso-level bureaucratic structures determine service delivery effectiveness in Indian cities despite shared formal frameworks.
[Book Project] Voting Welfare Politics & Transformation of Indian Democracy
How did identical 1990s institutional reforms—anti-defection laws, decentralization, and economic liberalization—produce divergent democratic trajectories across Indian regions? This book examines varied outcomes in party systems and political representation.