Room 008, Amrut Mody School of Management
Central Campus
Ahmedabad University
The concerns regarding the widespread displacement of jobs by technology are currently at the forefront of both academic and public discourse. Various occupations are expected to undergo accelerated automation in the near future. However, existing studies, which predominantly adopt an occupation-based perspective, suggest a negative impact on employment. This study proposes a departure from the occupation-centric approach to employ a task-based methodology, offering a more precise estimation of automation's effects on manufacturing employment in India. Leveraging a comprehensive dataset from the International Federation of Robotics, this research further delves into the penetration and impact of industrial robots within India's manufacturing sector.
Professor Sunil Mani has a distinguished academic career, having held key positions at prestigious institutions both in India and abroad. He served as the director and professor, holding the Reserve Bank of India Chair at the Centre for Development Studies in Trivandrum, Kerala. Prior to this, he was a faculty member and head of graduate studies at the United Nations University-Institute for New Technologies (now UNU-MERIT) in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Professor Mani earned his MPhil and PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He furthered his academic pursuits with postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, supported by a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, New York.
His expertise is internationally recognised through visiting professorships at prestigious institutions such as the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan; Bocconi University in Milan, Italy; the University of Toulouse Jean Jaures in Toulouse, France; and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, and presently, at Ahmedabad University.
Furthermore, Professor Mani significantly contributes to the scholarly community by serving on the editorial boards of two esteemed international journals: Structural Change and Economic Dynamics (Elsevier), and the International Journal of Technology and Globalization (Inderscience). He has also provided policy advice to the Department of Science and Technology of both India and South Africa, as well as various UN agencies and the World Bank.
His research impact is evident through an H-index of 10 and 25 on SCOPUS and Google Scholar, respectively. Specialising in the economics and policy studies of technology and innovation, Professor Mani's comprehensive list of publications can be accessed at the following link: Link to Professor Sunil Mani's publications
