I am a tenured Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), with joint appointments in Finance, Decision Sciences, and Public Policy. Recognized globally as a 'Tech Economist,' I specialize at the intersection of technology, data science, finance, and policymaking. I work closely with policymakers at both the Central and State Government levels to drive data-driven policy initiatives.

I am currently serving as the part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), providing strategic advice on economic and technological issues to shape India’s future. My previous significant policy roles include Senior Fellow at NITI Aayog, member of the National Statistical Commission, and advisory positions with the Reserve Bank of India Academy, the National Stock Exchange (IT Committee), and SEBI, where I chaired the SEBI committee on AI trading, and various  other ministries. I was a member of Karnataka Knowledge Commission and Chaired the committee of "Big Data for Governence" for the Karnataka Govt. I routinely advise both corporations and government entities on emerging technologies—such as AI, Big Data, Fintech, Digital Intelligence, and Industry 4.0—and their implications for public policy and strategic decision-making.

My significant policy contribution include pivotal work on  the 2018 employment report using EPFO data. Following the report, EPFO started to publish monthly payroll data. I played an instrumental role in shaping the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme (PMKSN) in 2019. As a Member of the the High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Trade, which recommended the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the electronics sector, including mobile phones, be delinked from exports; this policy shift, together with other government initiatives, helped India emerge as the world’s third-largest mobile phone exporter by 2024. I also served as a founding Advisory Board member of United Nations Global Pulse, the UN’s flagship big data initiative, and as an advisor to the International Monetary Fund’s Big Data Group.

My research focuses on Fintech, Household Finance, Development Finance, and Artificial Intelligence. I have published in leading journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, Science Advances, Journal of the American Statistical Association, and Biometrika, among others. My work has been cited by the World Bank, Government of India, NITI Aayog, the Reserve Bank of India, and in multiple industry reports. I have served on the editorial boards of top journals, including the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series A), and Biometrics. I am a Fellow of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER), an Academic Fellow of Luohan Academy; Programme Co-Director for “Tech, Digital Markets and AI” at ABFER; Fellow of Institute of Financial Research, The HongKong University of Science and Technology.

Prior to joining IIMB, I was a tenured faculty at Georgia State University, Emory University. I also had a short stint at the Novartis Pharmaceuticals as Director of Clinically advanced Statistical Solutions. I did my  schooling from Ballygunge Govt. high School, Calcutta; Bachelors and Masters from University of Calcutta, and  PhD  from Oakland University, MI, USA.

In recognition of my work, I was awarded several honors, including the Best FinTech Paper Award at the Western Finance Association, the Outstanding Paper Award in Financial Institutions (WRDS), the Prof. C. R. Rao National Award in Statistics, the Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis Memorial Award in Econometrics.