Education

PhD (Economics), University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 2023.
Thesis Title: Inequality and Rural Change: A Study of Tamil Nadu Economy in the Post-reform Period.
MPhil (Economics), University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 2012.
Dissertation Title: State, Markets and Tribal Livelihoods: A Case Study of Paliyars of Tamil Nadu.
MA (Economics), University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 2010.
BSc (Mathematics), Loyola College, Chennai, 2008.

Work Experience

Assistant Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, August 2025 - Present.
Assistant Professor & Coordinator, Department of Economics, GITAM School of Humanities and Social Sciences, GITAM University, Hyderabad, February 2023 – August 2025.
Research Fellow, National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi, December 2021 – March 2022.
Research Fellow, Azim Premji University, Bangalore, October 2018 – November 2021.

Area of Research

Political Economy
Inequality
Labour and Employment
Agrarian Change
Tribal Livelihood Issues

Fellowships / Awards

• Junior Research Fellowship, University Grants Commission, June, 2013.

Book Chapters

1. Mandela S, Nelson. (2023). Assets. In Surjit, V., Swaminathan, Madhura., Ramachandran, V.K (Eds.), Economic Change in the Lower Cauvery Delta: A Study of Palakurichi and Venmani Villages (pp. 163-181).

Journal Papers

1. Nath, Paaritosh., Mandela S, Nelson., & Gawali, Aishwarya. (2023). Loss, Recovery and the Long Road Ahead: Tracking India’s Informal Workers Through the Pandemic. Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 66, 329-354.
2. Mandela S, Nelson., & Niyati, S. (2020). Structural Transformation and the New Rurality in Tamil Nadu. IASSI Quarterly: Contributions to Social Science, 39(3), 361-381.
3. Niyati, S., & Mandela S, Nelson. (2020). Impact of the Pandemic on Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) in India. Review of Agrarian Studies, 10(1), 204-212.
4. Mandela S, Nelson. (2018). Inequality in Rural Tamil Nadu between 1993–1994 and 2011–2012: A Class Analysis. Indian Journal of Human Development, 12(1), 109-117.

Other Publications

1. Basole, Amit., Abraham, Rosa., Lahoti, Rahul., Kesar, Surbhi., Jha, Mrinalini., Nath, Paaritosh., Kapoor, Radhicka., Mandela S, Nelson., ... & Narayanan, Rajendran. (2021) State of Working India 2021: One Year of Covid-19. Project Report. Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.
2. Nath, Paaritosh., Mandela S, Nelson., & Gawali, Aishwarya. (2021, Jan 28). The poorest have been worst hit by pandemic. Hindustan Times.
3. Mandela S, Nelson., & Yuvaraj, S. (2020). Situation Assessment Report from a Village in Tiruppur District, Tamil Nadu. In Vikas, R., Manish, K., and Jesim, P. (Eds.), India’s Villages during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Society for Social and Economic Research.

Papers Presented in Conferences/Seminars/Workshops

1. Presented a paper titled "Class Dynamics of Inequality and Rural Change in the Post-reform Tamil Nadu" at the 2023 Annual IIPPE Conference in Political Economy, hosted by Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain. [September 06 – September 08, 2023]
2. Presented a paper titled "Loss, Recovery and the Long Road Ahead: Tracking India's Informal Workers Through the Pandemic" at the 62nd Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), organised by IIT Roorkee, Roorkee. [April 11 – April 13, 2022]
3. Presented the findings from the second round of the Azim Premji University Covid-19 Livelihoods Survey in a public webinar titled "How robust is the recovery? Tracking informal workers through the pandemic" organised by the Azim Premji University, Bangalore. [January 27, 2021]
4. Presented a paper titled "Structural Change, Urbanisation, and Emergence of New Rurality in Tamil Nadu" at the 20th Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions (IASSI), organised by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. (co-author: S. Niyati) [February 27 – February 29, 2020]
5. Presented a paper titled "Development sans Structural Transformation: A Study of Tamil Nadu" at the 59th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), organised by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), Thiruvananthapuram, in collaboration with Kerala University and the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram. [December 16 – December 18, 2017]
6. Presented a paper titled "Class Analysis of Inequality in Tamil Nadu" at the Graduate Research Meet organised by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati. [October 31 – November 1, 2014]

Available on request