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Biography

Contact Details:

B-309 Academic Block, IIM Calcutta, Joka, Diamond Harbour Road Kolkata 700 104 India

Academics

Academic Background:

Ph.D., University of British Columbia, Canada, 2004, Interdisciplinary under faculty from Anthropology, Political Science, and Environmental Studies
M.Phil. in Social Anthropololgy, University of Cambridge, UK, 1996
M.Sc. in Anthropology, University of Calcutta, 1994, Class I, Rank 1

Courses Taught:

Public Systems Management; Environment and Development; Politics of Development (with Prof. Rajesh Bhattacharya)

Awards:

• Commonwealth Scholarship for doctoral research from the Government of Canada, 2000-04. 
• British Government’s Overseas Development Administration (ODA, later DFID) Scholarship at the University of Cambridge, 1995-96. 
• Nehru Scholarship from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1995-96. 
• Charles Wallace Bursary at the University of Cambridge, 1995-96. 
• Dharam Hinduja Bursary at the University of Cambridge, 1995-96. 
• Fellow, Cambridge Commonwealth Society 
• UGC Fellowship (JRF/ NET) to teach and carry out research.

Consulting Interests:

Evaluation of Public Service Delivery Programmes with particular emphasis on a) rural local governance, b) co-operatives and c) NRM.

Past Projects:

selected projects: 

• Political Culture and Local Governance: Aspects of Service Delivery in West Bengal (with Prof. Manish K. Thakur; project supported by the Indian Council for Social Science Research) 
• Gap Analysis of Cluster Level Resource Centres (with Prof. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay; project supported by UNICEF) 
• Organisational Effectiveness of Panchayati Raj Institutions in West Bengal (with Prof. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay; project supported by the SRD Cell, Government of West Bengal) 
• Implementation of RTE Act in West Bengal, and restructuring the education system (with Profs. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Ashok Banerjee, Manish K. Thakur and Shekhar Chaudhuri; project supported by the Government of West Bengal) 
• Evaluation of MGNREGA schemes in Bardhaman District (with Profs. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Biju Paul Abraham; project supported by the Government of West Bengal) 
• Study of issues related to the Gap between Irrigation Potential Created and Utilised, and suggested measures for reducing the gap in West Bengal and all states of the North-East (with Profs. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Annapurna Shaw, Saibal Chattopadhyay, Rahul Ray and Subir Bhattacharya; project supported by the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India) 
• Evaluation of National Aids Control Programme, Phase-II, and inputs for Phase-III (with Profs. Leena Chatterjee, Bodhibrata Nag, and Ranjan Mitter; project supported by the National Aids Control Organisation, Government of India). 
• Evaluation of State Microfinance Institutions in West Bengal and Orissa for development of the backward classes (jointly with NIRD Hydebarad, project supported by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India). 
• Preparation of Restructuring Plan for Boyanika, apex body of State Handloom Co operatives of Orissa (with Prof. Anup K. Sinha; project supported by the Department of Handloom and Textiles, Government of Orissa) 
• Impact of Future Markets on Potato and Mentha (with Prof. Biswatosh Saha; project supported by MCX)

Experience

Work Experience:

Faculty Member, IIM Calcutta. 
September 2004 till date.

Research

Journal Publications:

     (selected publications)

• [with Soumyabrato Bagchi] 'Colonial Bureaucracy and Contemporary Citizenship' Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2025, 54 (6): 495-497. https://doi.org/10.1177/00943061251374867bb
• [with Alison Brown, Peter Mackie, Crispian Fuller, Rajesh Bhattacharya, Soumyabrato Bagchi & Debapriya Chakrabarti] 'Contested Spaces of Exchange: Informal Cross-Border Trade on the India–Bangladesh Border' Forum for Development Studies, 2024, 51 (1): 121-143. https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2023.2255211
• [with Joydeep Guha] 'Coordination Failure in Local Government Networks' Economic and Political Weekly, 2022, 57 (50): 55-63. https://www.epw.in/journal/2022/50/special-articles/coordination-failure-local-government-networks.html
• [with Priyanshu Gupta and Manish Thakur] 'Betwixt Agency and Accountability: Re-visioning Street-Level Bureaucrats' Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 2022, 26: 94-113. https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.vi26.8173
• [with Suman Nath] 'Resolving Disagreements in Panchayats: Elected Representatives and Local Bureaucracy Interface in West Bengal' Economic and Political Weekly, 2021, 56 (38): 46-53. https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/38/special-articles/resolving-disagreements-panchayats.html
• [with Soumyabrato Bagchi] 'Organizational forgetting in local governments: a study from rural India', Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-11-2020-0049
• [with Mufsin Puthan Purayil & Manish Thakur] 'Studying Bureaucracy in Post-Colonial India: The Normative and the Quotidian', Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India, 2021, 70(2): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2277436X211008302
• [with Joydeep Guha] 'Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through decentralisation and the role of local governments: a systematic review', Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 2019, (22), Article ID 6855. https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.v0i22.6855
• [with Joydeep Guha] 'RSBY implementation in West Bengal: A case study', Man in India, 2015, 95(3): 553-568.
• 'Down with dusty shelves: From traditional anthropological museums to ecomuseums', Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society, 2015, 50(1): 15-25.
• [with Joydeep Guha] 'Making e-Government work: Adopting the network approach', Government Information Quarterly, 2014, 31(2): 327-336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2013.11.008 
• 'Decentralisation and the politics of water allocation in West Bengal', Journal of South Asian Development, 2013, 8(1): 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973174113476993 
• [with Annapurna Shaw, Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Suman Nath] 'Reasons for the gap between Irrigation Potential Created and Utilised: A case study of West Bengal and seven North-Eastern states', Review of Development and Change, 2013, 18(2): 115-130. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972266120130203
• [with Biju Paul Abraham, Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Suman Nath], 'Wage employment: Imapct of MGNREGS in Bardhaman,West Bengal', Journal of Rural Development, 2013, 32(1): 19-31. http://nirdpr.org.in/NIRD_Docs/jrd/jrd010413.pdf
• [with Biju Paul Abraham, Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Suman Nath] 'MGNREGS and creation of environmental assets in Bardhaman, West Bengal', Indian Journal of Public Administration, 2012, 58(4): 740-748. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019556120120410
• [with Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Suman Nath] 'Local governments in rural West Bengal, India and their coordination with line departments', Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 2011, 8/9: 33-51. https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/cjlg/article/view/2411
• [with Suman Nath] 'Political economy of cold storages in West Bengal', Commodity Vision, 2011, 4(4): 36-42.
• [with Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Suman Nath] 'Village forums or development councils: People's participation in decision making in rural West Bengal, India', Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 2010, 5: 66-85. https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/cjlg/article/view/1490

Research Interests:

• Everyday Politics 
• Decentralisation and Local Governance 
• Public Service Delivery and Public-Private Partnerships

Books/Book Chapters:

Book:

Participation at the Crossroads: Decentralisation and Water Politics in West Bengal. 2016, New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.

Book Chapters:

• [with Soumyabrato Bagchi and Rituparna Das] Ignoring Low-Fee Private Schools in India. In Bidhan Kanti Das, Gorky Chakraborty and Abhijit Guha (eds.) Knowledge, Power and Ignorance: The Indian Context. 2024, NY: Routledge
• Scaling Compassion, Blurring Boundaries: Partners and Cooperation in Aravind Eye Care System. In Yoshitaka Okada and Sumire Stanislawski (eds.) Institutional Interconnections and Cross-Boundary Cooperation in Inclusive Business. 2021, Bingley: Emerald. pp. 141-154.
• [with Debraj Bhattacharya and Manish Thakur] The Community Development Block and India’s Development Discourse. In Suman Nath and Debraj Bhattacharya (eds.), Theory, Policy, Practice: Development and Discontents in India. 2021, NY: Routledge.
• [with Joydeep Guha] Alternative spaces of employment generation in India: Informal rules, structures and conflicting organisational requirements. In Devi Vijay and Rohit Varman (eds.), Alternative Organisations in India: Undoing Boundaries. 2017, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• [with Eris Schoburgh] Developmental local government: From concept to praxis. In Eris D. Schoburgh, John Martin, Sonia Gatchair (eds.), Developmental local governance: A critical discourse on alternative development. 2016, London: Palgrave.
• [with Suman Nath] 'Tales of everyday politics in West Bengal'. In Sarit K. Chaudhuri and Sucheta Sen Chaudhuri (eds.), Fieldwork in South Asia: Memories, moments, and experiences. 2014, New Delhi and London: Sage.