Prof Aseem Prakash | Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Prof Aseem Prakash

Deputy Director,
Hyderabad Campus, School of Public Policy and Governance

Qualification

M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. in Political Science (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Contact

aseem.prakash[at]tiss[dot]edu

Aseem Prakash

Professor

School of Public Policy and Governance

Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Hyderabad

Phone: + 91 8099781430

Email: aseem.prakash@tiss.edu; aseemprakash@gmail.com

Aseem Prakash is a Professor of Public Policy, School of Public Policy, and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. Aseem has more than 20 years of experience in research and teaching which also includes a stint at the University of Oxford as a Fell Fund Fellow. Aseem has been instrumental in laying the intellectual foundation of the School of Public Policy and Governance including designing the course curriculums of the M.A. in Public Policy and Governance (PPG) and MA/PGD in Cities and Governance Programmes at TISS.

Before joining TISS, Aseem was part of the two-member team which established the first Public Policy school in India- Jindal School of Government and Public Policy. Aseem was also invited by the UNDP and Department of Planning, Government of Maldives to prepare a rubric for the first-ever Maldives Institute of Policy Studies in Male, Maldives.

Aseem has completed over a dozen big research projects for various international and national donors. His research interests include the interface between the state and markets; regulation and institutions; sociology of markets, social discrimination, human development. Currently, Aseem’s research efforts are focused on two research projects: “Regulation of Small Town Capitalism” and “Cities and Social History"

Aseem also serves in an advisory capacity in numerous public policy and social science departments. He is regularly invited as a resource person in various training programmes conducted for Indian civil servants.

His most recent books are titled Dalit Capital: State, Markets, and Civil Society in Urban India; published by Routledge (2015) and The Indian Middle Class (co-authored with Surinder Jodhka), published by Oxford University Press (2016).

Aseem is a compulsive follower of political gossip and likes discussing it with people who can make sense of it. He believes that he would have been more contented and happy if he had pursued a career in sports. Aseem earned his doctorate from the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Aseem's research interests include the interface between the state and markets; regulation and institutions; sociology of markets; social discrimination and human development. Currently, Aseem’s research efforts are focused on two research projects: “Regulatory State and Capitalism” and “Cities, Social History and Muslim Entrepreneurs”.

Book(s)

Aseem Prakash ( 2015) Dalit Capital: State, Markets and Civil Society in Urban India Routledge, New Delhi

Surinder Jodhka & Aseem Prakash, The Middle Class in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2016

Edited Book(s)/ Volume(s)

Barbara Harriss-White with Elisabetta Basile, Anita Dixit, Pinaki Joddar, Aseem Prakash and Kaushal Vidyarthee (eds.) ( 2013) Dalits And Adivasis in India’s Business Economy – Three Essays and an Atlas, Three Essay Press, New Delhi

Jan Bremen, Isabelle Gurien & Aseem Prakash (eds.) (2009) , India’s Unfree Workforce: Of Bondage Old and New, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2009

Recent Articles in Journals/ Edited Books ( 2020 Onwards)

Aseem Prakash & Hem Broker (2022), ‘Pandemic Precarity: Life, Livelihood, and Death in the Time of the Pandemic’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. lVii 40 no 5, pp. 40-45, January 29.

Aseem Prakash, Guest Editor: Journal of Social and Economic Development, Volume 23, supplement issue 2, 2021

1. Aseem Prakash (2021), ‘Pandemic Precarity’ Journal of Social and Economic Development, Volume 23, supplement Issue 2, pp. 229-233

2. Arvind Pandey, Aseem Prakash, Rajeev Agur & Ganesh Maruvada (2021), ‘Determinants of COVID- 19 Pandemic in India: An Exploratory Study of Indian States and Districts’, Journal of Social and Economic Development, Volume 23, supplement Issue 2, 2021, pp. 248-279

Aseem Prakash ( 2021), ‘Everyday Politics of Economic Life in Small Town North India: A Social History of Kannauj through the Lens of the Ittar (Perfume) Business’, Sociological Bulletin, 70(4) 467–484

Aseem Prakash (2021), ‘Markets and Aspiration’ in Sujata Patel (ed.), Neoliberalism, Urbanisation, and Aspirations in Contemporary India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp. 233-256

Aseem Prakash (2021), ‘Dalit Enter the Indian Markets as Owners of Capital: Adverse Inclusion, Social Networks and Civil Society’ Aakash Singh Rathore (ed.), B.R. Ambedkar: The Quest for Justice, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp. 190-2018

Aseem Prakash ( 2020), ‘Economics, Ethics and Mental Health in the Times of Corona’, Indian Journal of Social Work, Volume 81, Issue 4, pp.389-394

Ongoing Research Projects

Title: Cities, Social History and Muslim Entrepreneurs

The research project aims to write the social history of select cities from the vantage point of successful Muslim entrepreneurs who control significant proportions of economic activities in that particular city. In other words, how and why certain economic activities (for instance spices in Kozhikode, perfume in Lucknow, medical equipment in Kolkata, retail of electrical equipment in Bhopal, restaurants and bakery in Hyderabad) flourished in these cities and how Muslims acquired a dominant position in these economic sectors. The project endeavours to connect the business history of successful entrepreneurs to the “socioeconomic” history of the particular economic sector in which they have succeeded and then examine how these two have impacted and influenced the social history of the city and vice-versa.

Courses Taught:

Public Policy: Paradigm and Practices
Ethics and Public Action
The Political Economy of Indian State
Policy Analysis Exercise
State, Markets and Regulation
Environment and Development

Policy Area Concentration (PAC): Institutional Reform, Capacity and Regulation. The PAC comprises of three courses:

a) History and Perspectives of Institutions and Regulation

b) Regulation and Institutions

c) The future of Regulation