The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) is pleased to invite you to the fourth seminar in our Work in Transition Series, titled “Is Informality a Bug or a Feature in the Indian Economy?”. The event will feature a conversation between Mekhala Krishnamurthy, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University and Yamini Aiyar, Visiting Senior Fellow, CSEP.

The seminar will be held on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm (IST) at the CSEP Auditorium, 6, Dr Jose P Rizal Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021. Please note that this is an in-person event only. If you are in Delhi on the day, we invite you to join us for what promises to be a thought-provoking discussion. The event will be available on the CSEP website and YouTube channel upon completion.

Register here to attend

About the Event

This seminar, the fourth in CSEP’s Work in Transition series, will feature a conversation on the dynamics of informality: how it shapes local economies, and the sites and networks through which people seek jobs. It will argue that informality is a persistent feature of India’s economy, and make the case, from a policy perspective, for moving away from approaches that seek to shift the informal into the formal, towards approaches that contend with informality as an entrenched reality of the Indian economy.

About the Initiative

Work in Transition: Informality and Structural Change in India

It is a well-known reality that the bulk of India works in the informal economy. In recent years, several top-down policy efforts have been undertaken to “formalize” the economy including GST, greater digitization (digital payments and e-shram) and most recently the move toward de-regulation via the new labour codes.  Added to this, disruptive shifts like the expansion of the gig-workers and increased rural-urban migration (both intra-state and inter-state) have created a new kind of informality in labour markets. Third, the expansion of technology enabled cash transfers have created new policy levers for building social protection systems. Together these changes raise critical questions about the evolving relationship between the state, firms, and workers in India. They are also a push to understand whether existing policy levers are fit to purpose, given the rapid pace of change in labour markets. Work in Transition: Informality and Structural Change in India, is a CSEP initiative that will seek to develop a deeper understanding of these labour market dynamics.

Speakers

Mekhala Krishnamurthy

Mekhala Krishnamurthy is Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Ashoka University. She works at the intersection of social and civic thought and action, public welfare, economic life, and everyday government. She is currently engaged in building out new work interdisciplinary and collaborative work on Relational State Capacity (RSC), an exploration and effort to renew our focus and revitalise our conceptual and practical approach to an essential, yet often residual component of state capacity: the character and quality of relationships between citizens and public servants across diverse local contexts, where they matter most. She is taking forward this work as a Senior Advisor at Indus Action, where she leads the research and practice programme of the new Relational State Capacity Hub.

Yamini Aiyar

Yamini Aiyar is a Visiting Senior Fellow, CSEP. She is also Senior Visiting Fellow, Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia and Watson Institute, Brown University, where she is working on a comparison of welfare states in the Global South. Previously, she was President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research, a leading multidisciplinary think tank in New Delhi, from 2017-2024. Prior to becoming President, she set up the Accountability Initiative, known for its work on governance, social accountability and expenditure tracking. Yamini’s research spans the fields of contemporary politics, state capacity, welfare policy, federalism and India’s political economy. Her latest book, Lessons in State Capacity from Delhi Schools, was published by Oxford University Press in December 2024. Yamini has published widely in academic and current affairs journals as well as the popular press, including in the Economist, Foreign Affairs, Journal of Democracy, Hindustan Times, Deccan Herald, and The Hindu.

Explore the discussions from the first three seminars in the series:

• Work in Transition Series Seminar #3 – “Work and Welfare”
• Work in Transition Series Seminar #2 – “Everyday Grammar of Work: What workers’ everyday experiences reveal about work, informality, and policy”
• Work in Transition Series Inaugural Seminar #1 – “India’s Labour Productivity Puzzle”

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.

Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.