I am interested in where economic power comes from—and what it looks like before it becomes policy.
Born in India and raised across twelve cities in three countries, I am an industrial strategist, writer and doctoral researcher now based in Kuala Lumpur. Growing up between languages, institutions and different ideas of identity and belonging gave me an early interest in how states organise economic life—and how differently public decisions are experienced across societies.
My work today sits between the factory floor and the policy table, examining how productive capacity, commercial relationships and industrial infrastructure shape the choices available to states.
I have worked across Southeast Asia’s manufacturing, energy and heavy-engineering sectors, leading industrial strategy, market development and operational expansion. This work has taken me into factories, power-generation facilities, supplier networks and conversations with public agencies and major industrial firms. It has also given me a practical understanding of how national ambitions encounter physical constraints: whether the required machinery exists, whether suppliers can meet technical standards, whether institutions can execute and whether commercial relationships can survive geopolitical pressure.
That experience informs how I approach geoeconomics. National power is material long before it becomes diplomatic. It rests on energy systems, industrial capacity, technical labour, ports, procurement networks, access to capital and firms capable of turning strategy into production. Governments may announce diversification, resilience or strategic autonomy; their ability to deliver depends on the economic and institutional foundations beneath those ambitions.
I write about industrial strategy, critical supply chains, economic security and the political economy of the Indo-Pacific. My work is particularly concerned with how middle powers respond to strategic competition, how firms acquire geopolitical significance and how industrial policy is being reshaped by the convergence of trade, technology and national security.
My writing has appeared in The Interpreter, The Hindu, Asia Times, East Asia Forum, Geopolitical Monitor and Modern Diplomacy. I have also presented to international audiences across policy, defence and industry, including at MILOPS 2026, where I addressed more than 200 national-security practitioners from over 30 countries on supply-chain resilience and cross-border industrial strategy.
I am currently a PhD candidate in International Economics at the University of Malaya. My research examines the divergent approaches taken by ASEAN and the European Union toward critical supply-chain risks under US–China competition. At its centre is a broader question: why do governments facing similar external pressures make different choices about alignment, diversification and economic security?
Alongside my doctoral work, I contribute to the Helsinki Geoeconomics Society’s research and advisory work on corporate geoeconomics, industrial resilience and the expanding strategic role of firms. I am also building the Andromeda Network as an applied-policy platform connecting people who understand economic security from different institutional positions—including industry, government, research and strategic affairs.
The premise behind Andromeda is simple: industrial operators possess forms of knowledge that rarely travel cleanly into policy. They know where capacity exists, where systems fail, what implementation costs and which dependencies cannot be removed by announcement. Bringing that knowledge into public debate can produce policies that are more technically credible, commercially grounded and capable of surviving contact with reality.
My academic background spans economics, management and political communication. I hold an Masters with Distinction from Queen Mary University of London and a First Class BA from Lancaster University. I have also taught political communication, microeconomics and development economics—experiences that strengthened my interest in how complex economic choices are explained, contested and ultimately legitimised.
Across these different strands of work, I am increasingly interested in a larger public question: who gets to shape economic policy, and what kinds of knowledge reach the room when decisions are made? Industry is often brought into public debate after the framework has already been established, while communities encounter policy only at the point of implementation. I want to help narrow that distance.
Over time, I hope to bring my industrial, research and international experience more directly into public life. My interest lies in the patient work of building state capacity: strengthening institutions, creating productive industries, widening access to economic opportunity and ensuring that national strategy remains answerable to the realities of people and places.
For me, public leadership begins with understanding how systems work—and accepting responsibility for making them work better.
This website is an evolving record of that work: essays, research, field observations and conversations about how power is built in the real economy, how institutions translate ambition into action and how better public choices become possible.