My research is focused on a number of major themes in the areas of Macroeconomics, Finance and Complex Systems, and Political Economy. The broad theme that underpins various strands of his research is the issue of the dynamic interrelation between economic growth and distribution of income, and my current work focuses on this question in the context of financialization.

My research draws inspiration from the intellectual traditions of Michal Kalecki and John Maynard Keynes on the substantive front, and uses the methods and tools of Complex systems, to study the dynamics of growth and income distribution in the modern financial economies. My research is interdisciplinary and is underpinned by the principle that economic systems cannot be viewed independently of the wider socio-political context. I have published in international peer-reviewed journals, including Review of Keynesian Economics (ROKE), Metroeconomica, Journal of Economics, Panoeconomicus, Feminist Economics, Economic and Political Weekly, Review of Development and Change, and in the reputed Science journals like PLOS ONE, European Physical Journal B and the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos.

I served as the Associate Director for Research in the Whitaker Institute at University of Galway where my role was to create the capacity for multidisciplinary research using novel research methodologies for addressing global and regional public policy issues. The Social Sciences Computing Hub, the project, which I led and successfully established, is one such project for multidisciplinary research at University of Galway. I have been invited to speak at the prestigious international events such as the International Economic Forum of the Americas (IEFA) in Montreal in June 2017, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference on Gender and Macroeconomics in March 2017 in Washington D.C.

My research has been published, acknowledged and reviewed in national and international media, including Nature India, The Irish Times, RTÉ Brainstorm, The Wire India and the Economic and Political Weekly India. Former President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins has cited and quoted my work in his recent book, When Ideas Matter (2016) and acknowledged my research in many of his public lectures (see here).

My current research explores the implications of the modern financial sector for macroeconomic stability, particularly from the point of view of the interrelation between income distribution and economic growth. Some of my recent papers in Metroeconomica (2015), Review of Keynesian Economics (2017) and Panoeconomicus (2018) propose a way to incorporate the modern financial sector in macroeconomic analysis and explore the pathways through which modern finance may lead to fragility in the real economy, by not only causing abrupt crashes but also making the recovery weaker.

My work also examines the institutional conditions that renders modern financial systems fragile and unstable. Continuing in this broad theme, I am working on various issues relating to intra- and inter- income distribution disparity, conflict between shareholders, managers and workers and the long run relationship between growth and distribution under financialization. Arising from my work in Macroeconomics, and drawing from the wider framework of political economy, connections to a range of wider social issues have opened up, informing a parallel area of research that I actively explore. In particular, I continue to work on the political economy of Macroeconomic policy making in the context of the 2008 crisis (Economic and Political Weekly 2013) and on integrating Gender in Macroeconomics, with a particular emphasis on integrating unpaid care in Macroeconomics (Feminist Economics), on the issue of Microfinance as a developmental strategy and on the issue of violence against women (Feminist Economics, 2017; The Wire, 2017). These works are a reflection of the wider, integrated, view that informs my research agenda, which can be grouped under the following broad interrelated themes: (I) Financialization and Macroeconomic stability (II) Empirical characterization of economic complexity, (III) Economic growth and Socio-economic inequality under financialization.

“A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to hum its own flame.”—Rabindranath Tagore.

My philosophy and practice of teaching draws from the wisdom and inspiration of Rabindranath Tagore’s magical words. I consider knowledge as the light that burns the darkness in the human mind and the duty of the teacher is to ensure that the light burns eternally. Thus, by continuing to burn his/her own flame, the teacher has to perform the critical role of reinvigorating the light of knowledge.

The approach to learning for me is being both analytical and critical. I believe that these two aspects of learning cannot be achieved without a systematic inquiry to understand the nature, the philosophy, and the methodology of the subject of study. It is this method of inquiry-based learning that underpins my philosophy and practice of teaching, and is what continues to hum the flame in me. I strive to inculcate this approach to learning in my students and make them life long learners, so that they become analytical and critical thinkers in their daily and professional lives.

My focus, therefore, is to go beyond the narrow confines of the classroom by critically engaging and challenging textbook economic concepts using real world experiences. This spirit of creative destruction, to borrow the phrase from Joseph Schumpeter, who used it in a different context – destroying the old habitual thought processes, defined by social conventions, and creating newer concepts to understand the ever changing real world – is what I believe is the fuel that burns life long learning.

I teach a wide variety of courses within the ambit of my research expertise. My teaching spans various levels that include undergraduate, advanced undergraduate, evening BAB.Sc. Higher Diploma students, post-graduate students and Ph.D. Students. I have also designed and delivered novel interdisciplinary modules in economics arising from my research collaborations with colleagues in other disciplines such as Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, and Psychology. I currently teach these modules:

• Macroeconomic Theory and Policy – M.Sc (International Finance)
• Research Seminar II: Advanced Macroeconomic Theory – Ph.D. Economics
• International Monetary Economics – 4th year B.Sc.
• Financial Mathematics and Economics Macroeconomics and Public Policy – 3rd year BA B.COMM, B.Sc, Erasmus International B.Comm
• Mathematics for Economics – 2nd year BA