Policy Papers & Media
Beyond peer-reviewed scholarship, I engage with policy audiences and the broader public through invited contributions, book chapters, media commentary, and blog contributions.
Working Papers & Blog Posts
Developing State Capacity in a Weak State
Building State Capability, Center for International Development, Harvard University
Examines how Bihar, one of India's historically weakest states, has made incremental gains in administrative capacity through targeted reforms and political will.
Capturing Institutional Change: Bringing Ideas and the State Back in
India in Transition, Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania
Reflects on the theoretical contributions of the RTI monograph and the role of ideas in driving institutional transformation in India.
RTI as a Case of Institutional Change
Jindal Journal of Public Policy, O.P. Jindal Global University
Analyses the Right to Information Act as a paradigmatic case of institutional change, drawing on historical institutionalism.
Invited Contributions
How India's Data Protection Law Weakens Citizens' Right to Information
Argues that India's new data protection legislation undermines the transparency gains achieved through the RTI Act.
How the BJP Won Again in Uttar Pradesh
Co-authored with Sumit Ganguly. Analysis of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh state assembly election results and their implications for national politics.
The Modi Mystery
Co-authored with Sumit Ganguly and Rahul Mukherji. Examines the political economy of Modi's 2019 electoral victory.
Media & Commentary
Looking Back at A Liberal Past
Reflections on India's liberal democratic tradition and its contemporary challenges.
Capturing Institutional Change — Among Top Ten Books to Read in 2020
The Print named Capturing Institutional Change (Oxford University Press, 2020) among its top ten books to read of the year.
Restive Voices For Change
Opinion piece on the outcome of the Delhi Assembly Elections 2015.
Challenge After New Narrative
Analysis of the Indian General Elections 2014.
Academic Podcasts
Governance Uncovered Podcast
Governance and Local Development (GLD), University of Gothenburg, Sweden · 2022
Grand Tamasha — The Right to Information Act's Long and Winding Road
Carnegie Endowment for Peace and Hindustan Times · 12 May 2021
Ideas of India — Institutional Change in India
Ideas of India Podcast · 1 April 2021
The OUP Comment — Government Transparency and the Flow of Information
Oxford University Press · 30 March 2021
Puliyabaazi Podcast (in Hindi) — Public Policy Issues
Puliyabaazi · 2021
Lekh Podcast — Books Covering South Asia
Lekh Podcast · May 2021
India Colonised — India's Colonial History
India Colonised Podcast · 2021
Editorial & Service
Co-Editor, Governance Review
January 2026–January 2032International Political Science Association (IPSA), published by SAGE
Serving as co-editor of IPSA's peer-reviewed journal Governance Review, which publishes cutting-edge research on governance, public policy, and political institutions from a comparative and global perspective.