About Tapas Singh Modak

Tapas Singh Modak is an Associate Fellow at the Foundation for Agrarian Studies.

Electricity Tariffs and Boro Rice Cultivation in West Bengal

By Tapas Singh Modak|2021-11-10T07:20:08+05:30November 2, 2017|

Groundwater is a major source of irrigation in West Bengal, with about 65 per cent of irrigated area under tube well irrigation. Under the present government, there has been a rapid hike in power tariffs for agriculture and it has affected the cultivation of summer crops in the State, particularly the cultivation of water-intensive boro (summer) paddy.

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Parvathi Menon is a writer, and former journalist. She was Resident Editor of The Hindu, Bengaluru, and also served as the London Correspondent of The Hindu.

Namasivayam is currently a member of the Kerala State Planning Board. He has over 37 years of consulting experience of which over two decades have been spent on leading several large, complex, multi-year reform engagements in various sectors, with a special focus on the electricity sector. He was Deloitte India’s Energy and Resources Industry and Government sector Leader until his retirement in March 2017. Before joining Deloitte, Namasivayam was part of the India leadership team of PwC, and led its Government Reforms and Infrastructure Development service unit and Energy Utility & Mining industries.

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Professor, Department of Economics, Meijo University, Japan

Associate Professor, Kanagawa University, Japan

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2. Dr. Ambedkar Centre for Economic Studies, University of Madras

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Sai Chandan Kotu is a Research Assistant at the Foundation. He holds a Master's degree in Economic Growth, Population & Development from Lund University, Sweden, and an Integrated Master's in Development Studies from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He has previously worked with FAS as an intern and is currently working on the entry and processing of data collected through our recently concluded survey in two Uttar Pradesh villages. Sai is interested in studying farm mechanisation and technology adoption in Indian agriculture.

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B.A. Economics student at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru

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Komal is an Associate Fellow of the Foundation. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in Sociology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Her research interests include agrarian labour, caste, and gender. Komal is currently working on (un)freedom and labour relations in rural India.

Master's Student at Lund University, Sweden

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Kulvinder Singh

Kulvinder is a Research Assistant at the Foundation. He holds a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and an MA in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has previously worked with the Haryana State Government as an Information, Education and Communication Expert, Atal Bhujal Yojana. Kulvinder is interested in studying aspects of agrarian change and rural transformation in India and aspires to do a PhD soon.

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Research Scholar, Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London

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Department of Economics, Yokohama National University

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Tapas is an Associate Fellow of the Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in Social Science from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His research interests include the irrigation economy of India, water policies and institutions, agricultural policy, economics of farming, and rural incomes. He is also interested in the use of spatial technology to study the Indian countryside. He leads the Project on Village level Spatial Information using Geographic Information System (GIS), and the Pandemic Study Unit of the Foundation that examined the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in rural India.

Sudha is an Administrative Assistant of the Foundation. She assists the administrative division of the Foundation and also has taken part in fieldwork organised by the Foundation.

Subhajit is a Senior Data Analyst of the Foundation. He has done B. Tech from West Bengal University of Technology. He works primarily on issues related to employment and livestock economy in rural India, and has in-depth knowledge on cleaning and processing of survey data. He has also hands-on experience in the use of R software for data analysis.

Sethu is a Data Analyst of the Foundation. He has done Integrated Masters in Development Studies from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. He has experience of coordinating a field survey of two villages in Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu in 2019. He is interested in agrarian relations in Tamil Nadu and Geographic Information System (GIS).

Sanjukta is a Senior Data Analyst working on the Project on Agrarian Relations in India. She holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Application from West Bengal University of Technology. Her major research interest lies in rural education and schooling. She has experience in working with a web development company prior to joining the Foundation.

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M. A. Economics. Ritam works on the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI) team.

Rakesh is a Senior Data Analyst working on the Project on Agrarian Relations in India. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Economics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)-Pilani, Hyderabad. He works primarily on issues related to migration and employment.  Rakesh is also interested in issues related to access to basic amenities in the Indian countryside.

Pinki works as Assistant Manager-Accounts at the Foundation. She has done her Masters in Financial and Management Accounting from Sikkim Manipal University, and Masters in Economics from University of North Bengal. She is experienced in various accounting software packages. She has also been involved in several field work projects of the Foundation.

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Nihira graduated from the New School University, New York with M.Sc. in Media Studies. Her educational background is in film-making and audio production with a concentration on South Asian history. She joined the Foundation for Agrarian Studies in August, 2020 as the Online Events Coordinator.

Madhura Swaminathan is Professor and Head, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Bangalore Centre. She is one the Trustees of the Foundation. Webpage

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Deepak is an Associate Fellow at the Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. As part of his doctoral research Deepak analysed the incomes from rice production in Kerala, and compared the crop incomes in Kerala with the Mekong Delta Region in Vietnam. Deepak is interested in agricultural policy, with a particular focus on agricultural costs and incomes. Data visualisation is another area of his expertise. He has experience of working at an analytics company. He holds an Integrated Masters in Economics from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. 

Arindam is the Joint Director of the Foundation. He is pursuing Ph.D. in Economics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)-Pilani, Hyderabad. Arindam leads the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI). He has worked at the Foundation from 2011 and has in-depth knowledge about various data management and analysis techniques. His research interests include rural wage rates and its determinants, rural employment, and Economics of farming. He has hands-on expertise in the use of R software for social science research.

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