Abhinav Surya is a visiting scholar at the Department of History, Economy and Society (DEHES) of the University of Geneva (recipient of the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship 2025-26), and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, India. He works under the supervision of Dr. Cédric Durand. Since 2021, he has been a doctoral candidate in Economics at CDS. His PhD research investigates the technical and technological progress within India's small and medium manufacturing industries.

His research focuses on the macroeconomic growth and capital-labour relations within India's manufacturing sector. His doctoral thesis attempts to explain the diverse patterns of capital accumulation, labour market relations, and technological upgradation between small and large manufacturing units in India, and understand the position of small manufacturing enterprises within the domestic and global value chains. 

Additionally, he also has a strong background in development economics, public economics, and agricultural economics. Prior to transitioning to research in Economics, he earned a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.

Research Interests

• Development of manufacturing sector in India

• Economics of Innovation and Technical Change

• Domestic and Global Value Chain relations among Small manufacturing units

• Poverty and Development

• Public Finance and Federalism

Publications

Journal Articles

• C. A., Sethu, L. T., Abhinav Surya, and C. A., Ruthu (2024), Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, available at https://doi.org/10.25003/RAS.14.02.0002

• L T, Abhinav Surya, & P L, Beena (2025), Investment and capital–labour relations in India’s organised manufacturing sector, International Review of Applied Economics, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/02692171.2025.2468652

Book Chapters

• L T, Abhinav Surya, & Varghese T, Sachin (2025), Revisiting Kerala’s manufacturing: New trends in production, labour, and trade. In Kerala Transforming (1st ed., pp. 19–41)., Routledge India. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003601289-3

• L. T., Abhinav Surya (2022), The Emergence of the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Ensuing Struggle, In: Chakraborty, S., & Ambedkar, P. (eds), Students Won’t Be Quiet, LeftWord Books

Research Reports

• R, Ramakumar, L. T., Abhinav Surya, & Das, Raya (2022), Public Spending on Agriculture in India : 2010-11 to 2019-20, Tech. rept, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, available at https://fas.org.in/research/research-projects/trends-of-public-spending-on-agriculture-in-india/

Working Papers

• L T, Abhinav Surya, & P L, Beena (2026), Labour Contractualisation and Productivity across Technology and Size-Class Categories in India’s Organized Manufacturing Sector, [accepted at The Indian Journal of Labour Economics]

• C. A., Sethu, C. A., Ruthu, and L. T., Abhinav Surya (2025), Calorie Adequacy as a Litmus Test for Poverty Estimation in India, [under review at Economic and Political Weekly]

Research and Professional Experience

• Research Associate : Economics and Policy Research w/ Dr. Shekhar Tomar at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India (Jun 2020 – Mar 2022)

• Research Consultant : Special Project w/ Prof. R Ramakumar at Foundation for Agrarian Studies, Bengaluru, India (Jan 2021 – Apr 2021)

• Data Science and Marketing Analytics : Citicorp Services India Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru, India (Jun 2017 – Jun 2019)