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 social outcomes specific to the urban transition in the global South.

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

See Full CV

New Work

digital public infrastructure, transport

The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Turn in India’s Urban Transportation Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

Rethinking Social Protection for the Platform Economy - Latin America, Asia and African policies

Watch

Rethinking Social Protection for the Platform Economy - Latin America, Asia and African policies

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

The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Turn in India’s Urban Transportation Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

Beyond Uber: what platform work really looks like in India

Jobs, Livelihoods, and the Future of Work with SEWA Cooperative Federation

Women x Tech: Intermediaries, Design and Literacy in low resource settings

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

Centering Trust in Product Design: Pathways to Involve Community Mediators to Gain and Keep Trust of Low-resource Women Users on Digital Public Infrastructure

Aditi Surie, Achyutha Sharma, Antara Rai This policy brief contains design pathways that will deliver on a shared digital future which...

Feb 3, 2025

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, 2024

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...

Sep 9, 2024

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...

Apr 25, 2024

Platformization and Informality: edited book

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

Aug 8, 2023

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...

Sep 6, 2021

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...

Jul 24, 2020

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...

Sep 15, 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

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

New Work

The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Turn in India’s Urban Transportation Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

Rethinking Social Protection for the Platform Economy - Latin America, Asia and African policies

Watch

Rethinking Social Protection for the Platform Economy - Latin America, Asia and African policies

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

The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Turn in India’s Urban Transportation Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

Beyond Uber: what platform work really looks like in India

Jobs, Livelihoods, and the Future of Work with SEWA Cooperative Federation

Women x Tech: Intermediaries, Design and Literacy in low resource settings

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

Centering Trust in Product Design: Pathways to Involve Community Mediators to Gain and Keep Trust of Low-resource Women Users on Digital Public Infrastructure

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

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

Journal Editorial Boards

Platformization and Informality: edited book

Coalitions of Socio-Technical Infrastructure: Platforms as Essential Services

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

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

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

Are Ola and Uber Drivers Entrepreneurs or Exploited Workers?

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