I am a PhD student at the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.

As part of my current research work, I am studying the infrastructing of urban spaces around water bodies in India. Some of the questions I am trying to answer through my research are: How are these urban spaces constructed and maintained the way they are? What processes contribute to their emergence? What are the implications of these processes, and for whom? For this, I am studying a watershed in Mumbai.

I have been associated with academic activities during my PhD in the following roles.

• January 2021 to January 2024 || Prime Minister's Research Fellow (PMRF)

• January 2020 to December 2020 || Institute Teaching Assistant

After completing my undergraduate degree in engineering, I started my professional career as a Software Engineer in 2010. Later, I pursued my master's degree from the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal. After that, I worked mostly in central India first as a practitioner exploring better livelihoods with rural communities and later as a researcher trying to understand the challenges to, and implications of, these efforts of livelihood improvement.

Following is a brief of my work experience in an anti-chronological order.

2018 to 2020  ||  VikasAnvesh Foundation (VAF), Pune (Maharashtra), India

VAF is a research centre based in Pune working on the development issues faced by various communities and grassroots workers. During my association with VAF, I contributed primarily to the research work on natural resource (land and water) management. I was part of a team involved in the impact evaluation of water harvesting structures and some organic agriculture interventions. I was also involved in a one-of-a-kind pilot exercise to evolve a process for the documentation and the formal recognition of the de facto customary regimes around the commons.

2014 to 2018  ||  Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), Tokapal, Bastar (Chhattisgarh), India

PRADAN is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation (NGO) that works in the rural regions of multiple Indian states. While at PRADAN, I was part of a team working with women collectives from the rural Adivasi communities on identifying and promoting alternative livelihoods as well as strengthening existing livelihoods such as crop cultivation. I was also engaged in training and capacity building of local communities on natural resource (land and water) management practices.

2010 to 2012  ||  Accenture Services Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru (Karnataka), India

At Accenture, I worked as a software developer writing codes in the SAP ABAP language. I was part of a team working on customising existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software products.