Questions behind the numbers

Published research

Research on financial systems, infrastructure, and risks.

Selected examples

Published research · August 2025

Financial Dark Zones

Unseen Risks from Shadow Banking and Derivatives Markets

Co-author with Harleen Kaur Chawla · International Journal of Novel Research and Development (IJNRD), Vol. 10, Issue 8

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Summary

This paper examines the risks building up in shadow banking and India's non banking finance companies, using the 2018 IL&FS crisis as a case study. It looks at regulatory tools, systemic risk, and the balance between financial innovation and stability.

Questions explored

  • How can risks in shadow banking affect financial stability?
  • What regulatory mechanisms and tailored stress tests could surface those risks earlier?
  • How can oversight protect stability without stopping new ideas?

Research process

  • Reviewed the literature and India's regulatory mechanisms
  • Studied the risk profile of shadow banks and NBFCs
  • Examined the 2018 IL&FS crisis as a case study

“The research helped me look beyond individual companies and ask how risks spread across a whole system, and how rules can contain them without stopping new ideas.”

Published research · May to June 2026

Sovereign Rails, Dependent Stacks

Payment Infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence and Financial Sovereignty after 2022

Sole author · IOSR Journal of Economics and Finance (IOSR JEF), Vol. 17, Issue 3, Ser. 1, pp. 196 to 215 · DOI 10.9790/5933-170301196215

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Summary

Since 2022, states have hedged against sanctions by building their own reserves and payment rails. This paper argues that owning the rails is not the same as controlling the data, AI models and computing power that now decide who gets credit. It proposes the idea of algorithmic sovereignty, and finds that India governs its payment rails publicly but still relies on foreign controlled apps, credit bureaus and cloud services.

Questions explored

  • Does control over payment rails carry over to the data, models and computing power of automated finance?
  • Under what conditions does that control transfer from one layer to the next?
  • How do states that lack control at the other layers manage that dependence?

Research process

  • Built a four layer framework of the financial stack: rails, data, models and compute
  • Ran a structured comparison of the United States, China, the European Union and India, with Brazil as a receiving state
  • Drew on official statistics, regulatory texts, central bank publications and peer reviewed studies

“Writing this paper taught me that owning a piece of infrastructure is not the same as controlling it, and that the real questions often sit one layer below where everyone is looking.”

Selected writing

From my articles

One example from 100+ articles I have written across independent platforms.

LinkedIn article · October 11, 2026

India Solved Payments. It Forgot to Solve Credit.

UPI scaled 46 times in six years, yet most registered small businesses still have no credit record. Starting from Chhattisgarh's 9 percent financial literacy rate, I traced every figure to its source, and where the sources disagree, I say so.

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