Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
Fellow—Asian Bureau of Finance and Economics Research (ABFER)
Research Director—Digital Identity Research Initiative (DIRI)
Academic Director—Centre for Business Innovation (CBI)
Research Advisor—ISB Institute for Data Science (IIDS)
Ph.D. Business Administration - Finance, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis
B.E. Computer Science and Engineering, Manipal University
Fintech, Household Finance and Financial Inclusion, Political Economy/Law and Finance, Climate Finance and ESG, Economics of Innovation
IIDS Research Grant - $10000 (2025-2026)
World Bank Grant - $33000 (2025-2026)
ISB Alumni Research Award (2020-2021)
SRITNE Research Grant - $8000 (2019)
NSE-ISB Trading Laboratory (Two Research Grants) - $20000 (2019)
NYU-NSE Initiative for Emerging Market Studies (Research Grant) - $7500 (2019)
EY - Institute for Emerging Market Studies (Two Research Grants) - $22000 (2019)
EY - Institute for Emerging Market Studies (Research Grant) - $35000 (2016)
NYU-NSE Initiative for Emerging Market Studies (Research Grant) - $7500 (2016)
Hubert C. Moog Scholar for Academic Excellence, Washington University in St. Louis (2012)
Latest Updates
March 2026: Discussant and Session Chair at the MFA's Annual Conference. In the paper "Data as Collateral: Open Banking for Small Business Lending," the author shows that open banking can expand credit for small businesses by changing the nature of collateralization. In the "Household Finance" session that I chaired, we had three terrific papers that collectively inform how data and technology are reshaping household credit — from the shadows of thin-file borrowers, to workers accessing wages before payday, to how fintech loans help expand access to mortgages.
Jan 2026: Gave a talk on "The art of building a research pipeline," at the 5th ICMM & DocColl 2026 held at IIM Amritsar
Dec 2025: Discussant at the 4th ISB-NBER Annual Conference. In their paper “Divine Catalysts: Religion and Portfolio Choices,” Maxime Bonelli, Pulak Ghosh, S. Lakshmi Naaraayanan, and Purnoor Tak exploit India’s Diwali Muhurat trading sessions to show that religiously framed cues meaningfully shift retail portfolios: Hindu investors trade and buy more, initiate new positions (rather than topping up existing ones), and concentrate their purchases in large, mature, low-volatility stocks that they hold longer.
Nov 2025: Presented my work, "Breaking Barriers to Financial Access: Cross-Platform Digital Payments and Credit Markets", at Ashoka University's Economics Seminar Series
Nov 2025: Keynote Speaker at Deloitte USI's Annual Innovation Event
Sept 2025: Presented my work, "Why do financially unconstrained individuals respond to higher credit limits? ", at the 4th Holden Conference, Indiana University
May 2025: Presenter and discussant at the FIRS 2025 conference in Seoul, Korea.
May 2025: Discussant at the ABFER 12th Annual Conference in Singapore. In their paper "Poverty Spreads in Deposit Markets," Arkodipta Sarkar and Emilio Bisetti document novel findings on systematic deposit-rate spreads across the income distribution. The same bank offers richer areas higher rates on identical deposit products. The thesis is that banks compete with other assets that high-income households invest in. Studies on banking competition need to consider competitive pressure from non-bank asset classes!
May 2025: Visiting Research Scholar at NUS Business School.
March 2025: Discussant at the WEFIDEV-RFS-CEPR 2025 conference. In their paper "Timing lumpy investments with informal bridge loans and clunky formal loans: Evidence from Thailand," Anil K. Jain, ROBERT M. TOWNSEND, and FAN WANG document novel and insightful findings on the role of informal moneylenders in facilitating productive investments. The thesis is that informal loans act as a bridge between two formal short-term loans (1-year duration), effectively increasing the duration of formal loans. Such formal-informal-formal bridges help finance longer-term capital investments.
March 2025: Co-organizer for the "ISB-CAFRAL Conference on The Impact of Digitalization on Households and Firms" at ISB's Mohali campus.
