Professor (Dr.) Sumeet Mhaskar of Jindal School of Government & Public Policy (JSGP) has been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for the 2025-26 academic year.
During this fellowship, he will conduct research at Stanford University's Department of Anthropology that aims to examine technological innovations in the production processes of Mumbai's modern textile industry from the 1870s to 2009. Prof. Mhaskar intends to explore how these technological advancements affected job opportunities and influenced social, political and economic changes in the region. The research will employ a range of methods, including data analysis, review of historical documents, and qualitative data analysis.
This project builds on his previous work, which investigated deindustrialisation in Mumbai and how mill workers responded to unemployment, as well as the spatial-economic transformation of the working-class district. Additionally, Dr. Mhaskar will compare similar changes in textile mills in the United States, offering a broader understanding of this transformation across both countries.