Faculty & Staff
Contact
- Email ajitkumarbabu.ss@msruas.ac.in
- Phone 080 45366666
- Websites
Dr. Ajit Kumar Babu
Assistant Professor
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School/College
School of Social Sciences
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Department
Department of Economics
Dr. Ajit Kumar Babu is a social science researcher specializing in migration, skill acquisition, rural transformation, and the social dimensions of technology. He obtained his PhD from the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru. His doctoral research focused on the inequalities faced by agriculturalists transitioning to non-agricultural occupations, particularly in terms of skill acquisition, barriers to formal learning, and exclusion from workplace learning.
He has also contributed to the Inequality and Human Development Programme at NIAS as a Project Associate, where he explored the rural and subaltern experience of technology. His research employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including household surveys—with two rounds conducted in Jharkhand—and two years of ethnographic fieldwork.
His broader research interests include migration, informal learning, rural livelihoods, inequality in its various dimensions, and technological change in rural contexts.
- Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics (Hons.)
Sambalpur University, Sambalpur 2014
- Master of Arts (MA) in Applied Economics
Pondicherry University, Puducherry 2016
- Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development
Pondicherry University, Puducherry 2016
- Ph.D.
National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru 2024
Total Years of Experience: 3 Years 10 Months
Academic Experience:
- M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru: Adjunct Faculty - 6 Months.
- National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru: Project Associate - 3 Years.
Industry Experience:
- SPI Technologies India Private Limited, Puducherry: 4 Months.
- Migration, Skills
- Informal learning
- social dimensions of technology
- Inequality and Rural transformation
Research Reports/ Chapter Published
- Babu, A.K. (2024) ‘Instrumentality of technology’, in Inequality and Intervention: Experience of Technology. NIAS, Bangalore, pp. 17-34. ISBN: 978-93-83566-59-4.
- Babu, A.K. and Pani, N. (2024) ‘The technological family’, in Inequality and Intervention: Experience of Technology. NIAS, Bangalore, pp. 35-46. ISBN: 978-93-83566-59-4.
- Babu, A.K. and Pani, N. (2024) ‘Technology as being’, in Inequality and Intervention: Experience of Technology. NIAS, Bangalore, pp. 47-60. ISBN: 978-93-83566-59-4.
- Babu, A.K. and Pani, N. (2024) ‘Intervening in interventions’, in Inequality and Intervention: Experience of Technology. NIAS, Bangalore, pp. 61-67. ISBN: 978-93-83566-59-4.
- Pani, N. and Babu, A. K. (2022) ‘Intrapersonal inequality and distance dualism’, in Pani, N. (ed.) Dynamics of Difference, Inequality and Transformation in Rural India. New Delhi: Routledge India, pp. 131–149. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003047063-10
- NIAS Doctoral Fellowship
National Conference Papers
- Babu, A.K. (2024) ‘Rural experience of technology’, Two-Day Deliberation on Inequality and Intervention, Inequality and Human Development Programme, NIAS, Bengaluru, 18-19 January.
- Babu, A.K. (2022) ‘Financing practices in the process of short-term migration: Case of an identity-based network’, NIAS Dadabhai Naoroji Conference on Inequality, NIAS, Bengaluru, 20-22 June.
International Conference Papers
- Babu, A.K. (2023) ‘Deprivation, marginality, and mobility: Dual-vulnerabilities of SCs and STs in a village in Jharkhand’, International Virtual Conference on Subaltern Studies, A.V.P College of Arts and Sciences, Tamil Nadu, 18-19 February.
- Babu, A.K. (2020) ‘COVID-19 reverse migration and the redundancy of marketable skills of migrant workers’, International Webinar on Vulnerable Groups and Human Rights, Rabindra Bharati University, 3-10 December.
National Journal Papers
- Babu, A.K. and Pani, N. (2024) ‘Techniques to Technology: Limits of Instrumentalism in India’s Technology Policy’. Economic & Political Weekly (submitted, 9 December 2024). International Journal Papers
- Babu, A.K. (2022) ‘To stay put or migrate: Dynamics of migration in a village in Jharkhand, India’, Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration, 6(1–2), pp. 43–59. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1386/tjtm_00042_1_2022.
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