Rajendran Narayanan
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Democracy and Constitution
- Rural Social Policies
- Rights Based Legislations
- Transparency and Accountability
- Labour and Employment
- Digital Rights and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)
- Politics of Information
Biography
Rajendran Narayanan is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences. At Azim Premji University, he teaches in the economics programme and anchors the Occupational Track on ‘Data, Democracy & Development.’
After completing his PhD in statistics from Cornell University, he has held academic positions at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, Cornell University, Ithaca and Ashoka University, Sonepat. In his doctoral work, he explored theoretical questions pertaining to eigenvalues of random matrices and shrinkage estimation in constrained regression problems. Since then, he has been more interested in research for action in social sciences.
He is keen on building bridges between research, advocacy and public engagement which led him to be a co-founder of LibTech India, which works with researchers, civil society organisations and governments across some states on improving transparency and accountability of rural social policies. He is part of national campaigns such as those involved in the promotion of constitutional values, human rights, right to work and food, etc.
Rajendran is also interested in demystifying economics and in understanding what the proliferation of data, and over-reliance on technological processes mean for citizenship and participatory democracy.
Courses
Politics & Ethics of Data
Final course in the sequence of DDD track
Applied Multivariate Statistics
This course aims to introduce the students to concepts and techniques of summarising, visualising the geometry, and analysing such dependent, multivariate data.
Development as Freedom
Build a broad based perspective on poverty, inequality, social policies and constitutional principles using the capabilities approach.
Introduction to Statistics and Programming
An introduction to statistical approaches and computer programming used by economists to study real-world problems.
Field Practice in Economics
A prerequisite course in research methods.
Political and Legal Institutions
An overview of the institutional structure and operation of governance in India.
Professional Development Courses
Local Governance and Social Accountability in India
Understanding on issues related to local governance, social accountability and delivery of welfare entitlements
CSE Working Paper Series
Can a Machine Learn Democracy
Rajendran Narayanan (2021)Analysis of Payment Delays and Delay Compensation in MGNREGA
Rajendran Narayanan (2018)
Reports
21 Days and Counting : COVID-19 Lockdown, Migrant Workers, and the Inadequacy of Welfare Measures in India
Rajendran Narayanan, Seema Mundoli (2020)
Selected Publications
Book Chapters
- Basole, A., Idiculla, M., Narayanan, R., Nagendra, H. & Mundoli, S. in Reviving Jobs: An Agenda for Growth (ed Mehrotra, S.) (Penguin India, 2020).
- Narayanan, R. & Raja, A. in We the People: Establishing Rights and Deepening Democ- racy (eds Dey, N., Roy, A. & Swamy, R.) 53 – 69 (Penguin India, 2020).
Journals & Periodicals
- Bheemarasetti, S., De, A., Narayanan, R., Saboo, P. & Tamang, L. (2025). MGNREGA as a Technological Laboratory: Analysing wage payment delays as a result of two digital interventions. The Indian Journal of Labour Economics.
- Moharir, A. & Narayanan, R. Interstate Development and Disparity An Unsupervised Learning Approach. Economic & Political Weekly 59, 74 – 80 (Sept. 21, 2024).
- Buddha, C., Dhorajiwala, S. & Narayanan, R. Can a machine learn democracy. AMCIS Proceedings. 8. (2021).
- Adhikari, A., Goregaonkar, N., Narayanan, R., Panicker, N. & Ramamoorthy, N. Man- ufactured Maladies: Lives and Livelihoods of Migrant Workers During COVID-19 Lock- down in India. Indian Journal of Labour Economics 63, 969 – 997 (2020).
- Narayanan, R., Dhorajiwala, S. & Golani, R. Analysis of Payment Delays and De- lay Compensation in MGNREGA: Findings Across Ten States for Financial Year 2016 – 2017. Indian Journal of Labour Economics 62, 113 – 133 (2019).
- Ch´etelat, D., Narayanan, R. & Wells, M. T. On the domain of attraction of a Tracy – Widom law with applications to testing multiple largest roots. Journal of Multivariate Anal- ysis 165, 132142. issn: 0047259X. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047259X17307443 (2018).
- Vivek, S., Narayanan, R., Chakraborty, D., Veeraraghavan, R. & Vardhan, V. Are Technology Enabled Cash Transfers Really Direct. Economic & Political Weekly 53, 58 – 64 (2018).
- Mukhopadhyay, I., Mukadam, M. Y., Narayanan, R., O’Mahony, F. & Apsel, A. B. Dual-Calibration Technique for Improving Static Linearity of Thermometer DACs for I/O. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems 24, 1050– 1058 (2016).
- Narayanan, R. & Wells, M. T. Improved Loss Estimation for the Lasso: A Variable Selection Tool. Sankhya, The Indian Journal of Statistics 77, 45 – 74 (2015).
- Narayanan, R. & Wells, M. T. On the maximal domain of attraction of Tracy – Widom distribution for Gaussian unitary ensembles. Statistics & Probability Letters 83, 2364– 2371. issn: 0167 – 7152. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167715213002411 (2013).
Co-Authored Reports
- Centre for Sustainable Employment and NREGA Consortium. Employment Guarantee during Covid-19 (2022).
- Right to Food Campaign and Centre for Equity Studies. Hunger Watch (2021).
- LibTech India. Heavy Wait: Wage Payment Delays in NREGA by the Central Govern- ment across Caste and Payment Type from April, 2021 to September, 2021 (Oct. 25, 2021).
- Narayanan, R., Dhorajiwala, S. & Kambathla, S. Length of the Last Mile (Nov. 10, 2020).
- Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN). To Leave or Not to Leave: Lockdown, Mi- grant Workers, and Their Journeys Home: Third Report by Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN) (June 8, 2020).
- Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN). 32 Days and Counting: Second Report by the SWAN on Migrant Worker Distress and the (Extended) Lockdown (May 1, 2020).
Magazines & Newspapers
- Buddha, C. & Narayanan, R. The right to work deleted The Hindu. Nov. 28, 2024.
- Narayanan, R. Gandhi’s last fast for fraternity is a reminder of why the political must be personal Oct. 2, 2024.
- Moharir, A. & Narayanan, R. An inheritance tax will help reduce inequality The Hindu. May 8, 2024.
- Narayanan, R. Searching for solace: A requiem for Rizwan Scroll.in. Apr. 7, 2024.
- Narayanan, R. No ’Labharthi’, Citizen Must be Seen as a Verb The Wire. Mar. 29, 2024.
- Narayanan, R. An X‑Ray of India’s Compassion The India Forum. Jan. 30, 2024.
- Narayanan, R. The concerns of using Aadhaar in welfare schemes — Explained The Hindu. Oct. 1, 2023.
- Golani, R. & Narayanan, R. Discrimination in the IITs is something to write aboutThe Hindu. Mar. 22, 2023.
- Chowdhury, S. & Narayanan, R. How Kabir Suman’s album of urban ballads, ‘Tomake Chai’, caused a ‘culture-quake’ in Bengali music Scroll.in. Jan. 15, 2023.
- Narayanan, R. The violence against Muslims is a recent, ugly blot on the fabric of inclusive India The Hindu. Feb. 18, 2022.
- Chowdhury, S. & Narayanan, R. A letter to Modi voters: If you had called the PM’s bluff, you could have spared India its agonies Scroll.in. June 22, 2021.
- Chowdhury, S. & Narayanan, R. A made-in-India shock doctrine, with a little help from Latin America Monthly Review. French Translation Available Here. Apr. 27, 2021.
- Narayanan, R. Dismantling the labyrinth: What I learnt about power and privilege when I quit Ashoka in 2016 Scroll.in. Mar. 24, 2021.
- Narayanan, R. The Narendra Modi Stadium is India’s ‘It’s not cricket’ moment Scroll.in. Feb. 26, 2021.
- Narayanan, R. ’Dekh Li Democracy?’: What I Learned During a Few Hours in Ramban The Wire. Aug. 13, 2020.
- Dhorajiwala, S. & Narayanan, R. Locked down in distress Indian Express. May 9, 2020.
- Narayanan, R. Champaran, a century after Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha Business Standard. Apr. 21, 2017.
Book Reviews
- Narayanan, R. Book Review: Memorialising the Torrid Times. Economic & Political Weekly 58 (Dec. 23, 2023).
- Narayanan, R. Palanpur tribune: Review of ‘Rumble in a Village’ by Luc Leruth and Jean Dr‘eze The Hindu. Oct. 4, 2020.
Forthcoming
- Chowdhury, S. & Narayanan, R. Football Fanship and Fragmented Fraternity in India: The Uneasy Fame of a Colonial Game 2025.