A Kalaiyarasan

Assistant Professor

Madras Institute of Development Studies 79, II Main Road, Gandhinagar, Adyar, Chennai 600020
Telephone: 0091-44-24412589 24411574 24420204 24419771; Extn: 347; Fax: +91 - 44 - 24910872.
E-mail: kalaijnu@gmail.com / kalaijnu@mids.ac.in
Web: http://www.mids.ac.in/kalaiyarsan/

Kalaiyarasan is an Assistant Professor of Development Studies at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) and a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London. He was previously with the Planning Commission (NITI Aayog) of India, Institute of Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), Delhi, He was also a Visiting Assistant Professor and Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs (WIIPA), Brown University, a research affiliate at the South Asia Institute, Harvard University, and Visiting Fellow at IIT-Bombay. His works among others include The Dravidian Model: Interpreting Political Economy of Tamil Nadu, which he co-authored, was published by the Cambridge University Press. His research focuses on the political economy of development, regional political economies, socio-economic and ecological inequality and energy transitions in the Global South.

Education

Ph.D. Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Year of Award: 2015
Thesis Title: Industrialization in Tamil Nadu: Understanding Regional and Socio-Economic

Research Interests

Political economy of Development, regional Inequality, comparative political economy and economics of energy transition and climate finance in the Global South.

Academic Appointments

Assistant Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India, October 2017 to Present
Visiting Research Fellow, Kings College London, London, UK, May 2023 to Present
Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Liberal Education, IIT- Bombay, Mumbai., India, January 2024 to Present
Research Affiliate, South Asia Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA., USA, August 2021 to July 2024
Visiting Assistant Professor, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown, Rhode Island, United States, August 2021 to January 2022
Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown Rhode Island, United States, February 2020 to July 2021
Assistant Professor, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi, India, June 2015 to October 2017
Research Faculty, National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development, New Delhi, India, September 2013 to June 2015
Economic Consultant, Punjab Governance Reform Commission, Government of Punjab, New Delhi, India, August 2012 to August 2013
Research Associate, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi, India, September 2011 to February

Teaching Experience

2024, Core course, Macroeconomics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT- M)
Fall 2022, Course Design and Instructor, Introduction to Development Studies, MIDS
Fall 2022, Course Design and Lecturer, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Indian Development, MIDS
Spring 2021, Guest Lecturer, Structures of Inequality, Summer Course, Brown University
Spring 2018, Course Design and Instructor, Indian Economic Development, Madras School of Economics
Fall 2018, Course Design and Lecturer, Quantitative Research Methods, MIDS
Spring 2013, Course Design and Instructor, Inequality and Human Capital, National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development
Fall 2013, Course Design and Instructor, Approaches to Measurement of Poverty, National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development

Fellowships and Awards

May 2023, Global Visiting Fellowship, SSPP, Kings College London
February 2020, Fulbright Nehru Postdoctoral Fellowship, United States–India Educational Foundation Institute of International Education (IIE)
July 2016, Brown International Advanced Research Institute (BIARI), Brown University, Rhode Island, USA. Participated in a workshop on Governance and Development in the Age Globalization Fellowship.
June 2012, Junior Research Fellow (JRF), University Grants Commission (UGC), Government of India

Books

2021. The Dravidian Model: Interpreting the Political Economy of Tamil Nadu, Cambridge University Press, UK, ISBN- 9781108933506 (with M. Vijayabaskar)

Eited Volumes

2020. Rethinking Social Justice, Orient Blackswan Press, Hyderabad (With S. Anandhi, Karthick Ram Manoharan, and M. Vijayabaskar

Journal Articles

Forthcoming. Development without dispossession: Stunted structural transformation in India, Journal of South Asian Development, Ref. JSAD-2024-0191 (With M. Vijayabaskar)
Forthcoming. Inclusion through “Modernity”: Dravidian urbanization in Tamil Nadu, Urban Studies , Ref. CUS-677-2 (With Priti Narayan)
2021. Why does the provincial propertied class remain provincial? Reading the agrarian question of capital through caste, Urbanization, 6(1) (With Vijayabaskar M)
2019. The Political Economy of the Jat Agitation for Other Backward Class Status, Economic and Political Weekly, 54(7), pp. 29–37
2018. Economy of Floods, Annals of the National Association of Geographers, India (NAGI), Volume 38(1) (With H. Ramachandran)
2014. The burgeoning informal economy: Elements of a strategy towards formalisation, Yojana, 58 (Anoop Satpathy)
2015. Vocational training in India and the duality principle: A case for evidence-based reform, Prospects, 45(2), June (With Mehrotra S., Kumar N., and Raman R.)
2014. A Comparison of Developmental Outcomes in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 49, No. 15, April 12.
2014. Caste as Social Capital: The Thiruppur Story, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.49, No. 10, March 8 (With M. Vijayabaskar)

Book Chapters

2022. Varieties of Discriminations and What Affirmative Action Can Do. In: Deshpande,A. (Eds.) Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action. Springer, Singapore (Co-Authored)
2021. Covid-19 and Migration: The Experience of Tamil Nadu, in (Ed.) P.G. Babu, Economic Policy in Covid-19 Times, Hyderabad. Orient Blackswan Press (with K. Jafar)
2020. Dominant castes, from bullock capitalists to OBCs? The impact of class differentiation in rural India’, in John Echeverri-Gent and Kamal Sadiq, Situated Knowledge in the Study of Social Change and the State, Oxford University Press
2020. Politics of Dravidian Populism: Understanding Developmental Outcomes in Tamil Nadu. In S. Anandhi et.al., Rethinking Social Justice, Hyderabad. Orient Blackswan Press
2018. ‘Female Labour Force Pariticipation and Condition of Work in Telangana, in Telangana Social Development Report’ Ed. Kalpana Kannabiran, Council of Social Development, Hyderabad
2017. ‘Populism and party-society: Developmental regimes in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal’ Political Economy of Contemporary India’ (Ed.) R. Nagaraj, Cambridge University Press
2012. ‘Galloping Growth Stagnant Employment: Mapping Regional and Social Differences’ Poverty Amidst Prosperity: Essays on the Trajectory of Development in Gujarat, (Ed.) Atul Sood, Aakar Publications

Policy Briefs, Working Papers and Commentaries

Forthcoming. Two Steps Forward and One Step Back: Women and Work in Tamil Nadu, MIDS Working Paper.
2020. Structural Change in Tamil Nadu, 1980–2010: Limits of Sub-National Development, MIDS Working Paper no. 239.
2018. Dravidian Populism and Social Protection. India Seminar.
2017. NEET Could Undo Tamil Nadu’s Achievements in Public Health, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 49 no. 6, September 23.
2017. Politics of Jallikattu, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 52 no. 6, February 11. 2015. Growth and Distribution: Understanding developmental regimes in Indian states, Working Paper no. 184, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi.
2013. A Tamil Spring? Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 48 no. 15, April 13, 2013 (with M.S.S. Pandian)

Invited Lectures and Presentations

2024, Political Economy of Industrial Policy in Tamil Nadu, Political Economy Lab Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 3rd.
2024, Social Production of Capital, Inequality, and Labor in Tamil Nadu, University of Chicago, May 24th
2024, Industrial Policy in Indian States, IIT-Bombay, March 20.
2023, Competing Inequalities: Does Caste in India mirror Racialized Economy in the US? University of Virginia, October 24.
2023, Peasantry and Economic Transformation in India, the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID), University of Oxford. 16 June.
2023, Crisis of Dominant Caste Farmers, India’s Political Economy Workshop, King’s India Institute, Strand Campus, 14-15 June.
2023, The Dravidian Model and Its limits, The Centre for Development and Environment Policy (CDEP), IIM-C, Kolkata, 9 March.
2023, Political Economy of Structural Transformation in India, CPP, IIM Bangalore, 17 February.
2021, Caste and Racial Inequality: Competing Narratives, Center for Contemporary South Asia, Watson Institute, Brown University, USA. 23 September.
2021, The Dravidian Model: Interpreting Political Economy of Tamil Nadu, Kings College London, 4 March.
2020, The Fate of Indian Federalism, in Federalism and Indian Democracy, Columbia University, 11 December.
2020, The Dravidian Model: Interpreting Political Economy of Tamil Nadu, Brown University, 3 December.
2020, Does Capital fight Caste? In Confronting Caste series, Kings College London, 12 November.
2019, Impact of Class Differentiation among Dominant Castes in Rural India, Ashoka University, Sonipat (Haryana), 15 November.
2018, Politics of Welfare: Subnational Differences in Social Outcomes in India in ‘Contrasting Growth and Development in India from National and Subnational Perspectives’, CEIAS, Centre for South Asia Studies, CNRI, Paris, France, 6 June.
2018, Quota Protests: A Manifestation of Agrarian Crisis? Conference on Economic Theory and Policy, Ambedkar University, New Delhi, 9–10 March.
2018, Dominant Castes, From Bullock Capitalists to OBCs? The Impact of Class Differentiation in Rural India, Workshop on Interpretative Approaches to Political Economy: Political Science, India, and the Rudolph Legacy, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA, 2–3 February.
2018, Dravidian Populism: Making of Social Protection in Tamil Nadu, presented in Dravidianism, Nationalism, Federalism: A Critical Assessment of 100 Years of Dravidian Moment at India International Centre, New Delhi, organized by Ashoka University and Ambedkar University, New Delhi.
June 2018, The Fate of Indian Muslims in a paper presented in a conference on 'India After Four Years of Modi Government, Sciences Po, CNRI, Paris, France, 6th June, 2018
June 2018, Politics of Welfare: Subnational Differences in Social Outcomes in India 'in 'Contrasting Growth and Development in India from National and Subnational Perspectives', CEIAS, Centre for South Asia Studies, CNRI, Paris, France, 6th June, 2018
March 2018, Quota Protests: A Manifestation of Agrarian Crisis?' a paper presented in Conference on Economic Theory and Policy, Ambedkar University, New Delhi, March 9th - 10th, 2018
February 2018,'Dominant Castes, From Bullock Capitalists to OBCs? The Impact of Class Differentiation in Rural India', a Paper Presented to the Workshop on Interpretative Approaches to Political Economy:Political Science, India, and the Rudolph Legacy, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA, February 2-3rd 2018.
January 2018, Dravidian Populism: Making of Social Protection in Tamil Nadu, presented in Dravidianism, Nationalism, Federalism: A Critical Assessment of 100 Years of Dravidian Moment at India International Centre, New Delhi, organized by Ashoka University and Ambedkar University, New Delhi, 3-4th 2018
July 2017, Participant in Workshop conducted by Ashoka University, New Delhi in collaboration with Centre for Socio-Political Data (CDSP), Sciences Po, Paris on techniques and practices required to build datasets for social science research in India, July 10-14 2017.
January 2017, Mapping the Discourse from Domination to Deprivation: A Case Study of Jats, presented in Political Economy of Contemporary India at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, organised and sponsored by the IGIDR, King's College London, and ICSSR, January 9-10, 2017.
June 2016, Political Regimes and Social Institutions: Understanding Diversity of Capitalism in India, presented in Capability and Diversity in a Global Society, organized by Human Development Capability Association (HDCA) and held in Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, September 1-3, 2016.
June 2016, Participant in Workshop on Governance and Development in the Age Globalization 2016 organized by Brown International Advanced Research Institutes, Brown University, Rhode Island, USA.
November 2014, Populism and Party-Society: Developmental Regimes in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, presented in Political Economy of Contemporary India held in Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India,20-21 November 2014.
November 2014, Participant in Workshop on Internal Migration, Urban Development, Poverty and Inequality in Asia: Sustainable Strategies and Coordinated Policies to Improve Well-Being organized by University of Wollongong and Asian Development Bank,5-7 November 2014, Siem Reap, Cambodia
December 2013, Discriminations, Disparities and Labour Market: An Empirical Analysis of Tamil Nadu. Presented at 55th Annual Conference, Indian Society of Labour Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 16-18 December 2013
June 2013, Re-embedding Caste in Economy: Understanding Developmental Outcomes in India.Presented at 1st World Keynes Conference on Attacking the Citadel: Making Economics Fit for Purpose, IUE, Izmir, Turkey, 26-28 June 2013.

Newspaper Columns

Why India Needs Deep Industrialisation, The Hindu, Feb. 14, 2024
The Shape of Climate Justice in a Warming India, The Hindu, Oct. 20, 2023
A gender paradox in Tamil Nadu, The Hindu, July, 2023
Emerging challenges to the Dravidian model, The Hindu, July 19, 2023
The Twain Must Meet, The Indian Express, 3rdth August , 2023
The growth and limitations of Dravidian urbanism, The Hindu, October 08, 2022
The poor state of India’s fiscal federalism, The Hindu, July 28, 2022
Challenges to Tamil Nadu’s urban future, The Hindu, March 10, 2022
Decoding the Tamil Nadu Budget, The Hindu, August 17, 2021
Adverse changes, federalism imperilled, The Hindu, June 03, 2021
A mirror to the future of Tamil Nadu and India, The Hindu, May 3rd, 2021 (First Author)
Tamil Nadu’s distinct growth path is in peril, The Hindu, March 25, 2021
How India Has Become Unequal Republic, Livemint, 27th January 2021
Jaffrelot C. and Kalaiyarasan A., The Myth of Appeasement, The Indian Express, April 20, 2018
Jaffrelot C. and Kalaiyarasan A., The Karnataka Model, The Indian Express, March 8, 2018
Jaffrelot C. and Kalaiyarasan A., Anxieties of the Dominant, The Indian Express, January, 2018
Jaffrelot C. and Kalaiyarasan A., Alienation of the Patels, The Indian Express, October 25, 2017
Jaffrelot C. and Kalaiyarasan A., Quota is the Wrong Answer, The Indian Express, May 3, 2017
Jaffrelot C. and Kalaiyarasan A., Jats in Wonderlessland, The Indian Express, March 10, 2017
Kalaiyarasan A., The Budget and higher education, LIVEMINT, March 15, 2016
Kalaiyarasan A. Why the Tamil Nadu model trumps Gujarat, December 23, 2013, HARDNEWS
Kalaiyarasan A. Where it works best, July 28, 2013, The Asian Age, July 2013

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Book manuscripts

Paradox of Dominant Peasant in India: Political economy of structural transformation (Under review, Hurst/OUP (Co-Authored)

Working Papers

Care and Welfare: Sub-National Responses to COVID-19 in India (With Patrick Heller)
"India's Green Deal: Approaches to Sustainable Industrial Development," (With Santosh Kumar Sahu)
The Race between Education and Technology: A Case Study of India (With Pankaj Vashisht)

Available on request