Higher Education
The second engine of a nation’s progress is its institutions of learning. I have spent much of my career building them — a department, degree programs, and international partnerships from inception — and shaping the wider conversation about what higher education in India should become.
Building an institution
I have been part of building Shiv Nadar University from its inception. As founding Head of the Department of Economics (2013–2022), I recruited a world-class faculty, shaped the department’s research culture, and built its B.Sc. (Research), M.Sc., and Ph.D. programs into some of the most sought-after in the country. I went on to conceive its multidisciplinary B.Sc. (Research) in Economics & Finance.
Today, as Dean of Academics — the university’s chief academic officer since 2023 — I lead academic strategy across the institution: new programs, curriculum, and academic policy. Recent work includes launching the B.A. (Research) in Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Sciences (2025) and a pioneering, graded policy for the use of generative AI in teaching and learning, adopted university-wide.
International partnerships
As the inaugural Dean for International Partnerships, I set up the university’s global-engagement office and strategy. That work includes:
- 2+2 dual degrees with Arizona State University — a STEM-designated B.S. in Business Data Analytics (the first of its kind in India) and a B.S. in Computer Science, with students spending two years at SNU and two at ASU’s W. P. Carey School.
- A €1.17M EU-funded project on higher-education quality enhancement.
Beyond Boundaries — global conversations
During the pandemic, as Dean for International Partnerships, I conceived and hosted Beyond Boundaries, a public dialogue series that brought leading voices in academia and policy to a wide online audience, on the economy, education, and global collaboration in an uncertain world. Interlocutors included the Provost of the University of Chicago, a Cambridge professor of international education, chancellors from UC Berkeley and Vanderbilt, and the economist V. V. Chari (University of Minnesota), with audiences joining from more than 20 countries.
In conversation with global thinkers
Through the university’s flagship Synapse Conclave, I have hosted public conversations that bring global thinkers into dialogue with our students. In 2024 I spoke with Thomas L. Friedman on globalization, geopolitics, and India’s place in the world economy; in 2025, with the award-winning author Ken Liu on storytelling, technology, imagination, and AI.
Convening the field
In 2020 I founded the Shiv Nadar University Macroeconomics Conference — begun online during the pandemic and now an annual in-person gathering in its fifth edition. It has grown into a platform that connects India’s macroeconomics community with peers worldwide and sharpens their research.
A timeline of building
Shaping higher education in India
Student Quest: how students choose
The 2021 IC3 Student Quest Report examines how high-school students choose their college, course, city, and country — who influences those choices and where they find information. It draws on responses from over 6,000 high-school students across more than 2,000 schools in India and South Asia, in collaboration with the IC3 Institute.
- Read the 2021 IC3 Student Quest Report (PDF) · Covered by NDTV and others.
Executive Leadership Academy — CSHE Berkeley × Shiv Nadar University
The 1st International Executive Leadership Academy, conducted by the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), UC Berkeley, in collaboration with Shiv Nadar University, was held in November 2021. It addresses the transformation of the higher-education sector and the leadership it demands. I initiated the conversations with CSHE, led the India launch, and taught within the program.
On the National Education Policy
New Education Policy gives pride of place to research in universities — The Hindu BusinessLine. A central recommendation of the NEP — a sharp departure from the policy followed since Independence — is that it brings research back to the universities. (More under Commentary.)
Teaching
I have taught across the graduate, MBA, and undergraduate levels at Shiv Nadar University (SNU), the National University of Singapore (NUS), FMS, University of Delhi, and the University of Minnesota.
Graduate (SNU): Macroeconomics I · Macroeconomics II · Computational Economics · International Trade
MBA (SNU, FMS, NUS): Macroeconomics · Macro and International Economics · International Business Environment · Economic Environment of Business · Managerial Economics
Undergraduate (SNU, NUS, Minnesota): Advanced Macroeconomics · Intermediate Macroeconomics · Intermediate Microeconomics · Growth and Inequality · Development Economics · Financial Economics · Asia-Pacific Business and Society