I am an interdisciplinary social scientist interested in problem driven research on environment and development. I joined IISER, Pune, India, in October 2019 as an Associate Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences. 

Prior to that I was a Fellow at ATREE, Bangalore, India, between 2008 and 2019. I have been a Royal Bank of Canada Visiting Fellow at the Water Institute, University of Waterloo, Canada (2016) and a Visiting Fellow at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, The University of British Columbia, Canada (2017).

Originally trained in Economics, I received my PhD in Development Studies (2009) from Tilburg University, The Netherlands. The central theme of my doctoral research was multidimensional poverty – assessing poverty in a participatory manner incorporating the multiple indicators that people value, which goes beyond income. Subsequently, I began looking at issues of environmental sustainability, particularly water resources management, in close collaboration with environmental scientists and engineers. During 2011-16, I co-led a multidisciplinary research initiative on water resources and adaptation in urbanizing regions, with support from IDRC, Canada, and The Tata Trusts.

My current research is in two broad but interrelated areas, (a) water management, with particular focus on adaptation, access and use in agricultural and domestic sectors, and (b) environmental sustainability and development, including normative implications of climate action. I have a long standing interest in theoretical and empirical work on development and poverty, specifically participatory development and metrics used for measuring poverty and development. 

I have been teaching courses in fundamentals of economics, development studies, field research methods and practicing interdisciplinary environmental research. I have conducted summer schools and training programmes, organized workshops and used popular media for research outreach.

I have been an elected executive committee member of Indian Society for Ecological Economics (2016-18) and a member in the Government of Karnataka committee (2018) to develop an action plan to meet the UN SDG – 2. I was a contributing author to Chapter 18 on ‘Climate Resilient Development Pathways’, of Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Working Group II Contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. 

I am currently Associate Dean, Academics, IISER Pune (2022-till date). I am part of the Centre for Water Research at IISER Pune and was its Chairperson (2020-23). 

I was the Convenor of ATREE's Centre for Environment and Development (2018-19) and elected faculty representative to the Governing Board (2015-17).