I think about Southern digital futures, and how technology is shaped by cities of the global South

I lead a portfolio of academic research, action-research, and consulting around technology and livelihood outcomes specific to the global South.

This website hosts my project work, podcasts, op-eds, academic articles, books, webinars, and teaching around these themes.

See Full CV

Watch

Book Talk on Platformization and Informality

ILO, Geneva: Women, Work, and the Platform Economy: A Global South Perspective

Cities of Workers: Understanding Platform Gig Work and Urban Life

Why should the Indian platform economy keep a gender disaggregated data?

Delivery Wars: 15-Minute Groceries, Anyone?

Data Sharing for India's Migrant Crisis

Webinar: Conversations with Women in the Gig Economy

Podcast: COVID19 and the city

‘Uber-ed: Bengaluru’s platform economy and urban subjectivities

Research in Performance: Staging the Technological Present

(m)Apping Urban Culture: Technology and the City

Public Writing

Rajasthan’s move spells some hope for gig workers

Bike taxi ban: Drivers bear the brunt of regulations aimed at tech platforms

Will EdTech go the way of the gig economy?

Nagrik Podcast: Labour Organising in Tech - I (Gig and Platform Work)

Podcast: Unofficial Sources by The Ken

Pandemic Exposure: ‘Platform’ Infrastructure in Public Use in India

Podcast: Future of Labour Post COVID-19

Services at our Doorstep: COVID19 and platforms

Tacit Urban Research Network: Interview

The Future of Work

In the driver’s seat

Working on the app-based model, The Hindu (2017)

The Indian Uber driver, Indian Express (2016)

Journal Articles

Sep 9

Understanding and Improving Women’s Work on Digital Labour Platforms (for ILO, Geneva)

Between 2020 and 2023, I along with my team at IIHS, and Center for Internet and Society were commissioned by the Internatioanl Labour...

Sep 9

Ecosystems of Engagement: Digital Platforms and Women's Work in Sri Lanka and India

End of Project report for a collaboration between IIHS, Center for Policy Research, World Resources Institute and Lirne Asia. We sought...

Apr 25

Journal Editorial Boards

I am thrilled to be part of three compelling journal editorial boards that create space for the big debates on an ever digitizing and...

Aug 8, 2023

Platformization and Informality: edited book

Editors: Aditi Surie and Ursula Huws Publisher: Palgrave Macmillian, 2023 In this edited volume, scholars from Mumbai, Bengaluru,...

Sep 6, 2021

Coalitions of Socio-Technical Infrastructure: Platforms as Essential Services

In Communication, Culture and Critique, Volume 14, Issue 3, September 2021, Pages 539–544, https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcab044 This...

Jul 24, 2020

On-demand platforms and pricing: how platforms can impact the informal urban economy

Journal article published in Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation Vol 14, Issue 1 Pricing is the one of the most powerful...

Sep 15, 2019

Emerging Nature of Work in the Platform Economy: Evidence from Bengaluru, Karnataka

This paper investigates the work experiences, perceptions of security and risk of platform economy drivers in Bengaluru, India from a...

Jul 19, 2019

Climate change, Agrarian distress, and the role of digital labour markets: evidence from Bengaluru

In this article, we explore the use of the digital labour market set up by mobility platforms in Bengaluru, Karnataka, as a mechanism to...

Jul 19, 2019

Are Ola and Uber Drivers Entrepreneurs or Exploited Workers?

Early 2017 was a difficult period for Ola and Uber drivers: Their earnings plummeted[1] by 30-45% throwing their economic planning and...

Jul 19, 2019

Tech in Work: Organising Informal Work in India

The “platform economies” of today can provide traditional informal sector workers the opportunity to formalise and organise their work....

Current Projects

These are research consortia I am part of: