I am an Assistant Professor at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, where I teach courses like – Sociology of Work, Contemporary India - A Sociological Perspective, and Urban Sociology to engineering students.

I hold a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and a Master's in Social Work from Delhi University. My research is informed by the anthropological imperative of 'studying up', as articulated by Laura Nader. In my research work, I turn my ethnographic gaze toward powerful institutions—urban development organizations, planning bureaucracies, and policy-making circles. This perspective allows me to critically engage with the processes through which public policies are envisioned, framed, and executed. The aim of my research practice is to investigate not just how policies affect communities, but how they are born: in committee rooms, through institutional logics, inter-agency negotiations, and often, conflicting aspirations. At its core, my research work seeks to uncover the social and political dynamics within elite institutional spaces—those that are often presumed neutral or technocratic.

In my doctoral work, I have explored the idea of 'urban' and 'urban planning' through bureaucratic messiness and micro-social worlds of the actors who are involved in creating a plan. My thesis presents an ethnographic analysis of one of prominent urban plan of Delhi, Yamuna riverfront development project. I present an in-depth planning narrative of the planning of riverfront project and explore the logic behind planning practices and planning decisions. By focussing on planning actors' everyday work practices and bureaucratic rationalities that guide their actions, this study explores why and how certain planning decisions are taken.

Before entering academia full-time, I worked extensively as an independent consultant and researcher with development organizations such as Room to Read, Magic Bus India Foundation, UNICEF, and Project Concern International. My work in these roles focused on life skills education, gender-responsive governance, public health, and urban development.