Dr Ambarish Karamchedu

Dr Ambarish Karamchedu is a Lecturer in International Development Education. His work focuses on India and explores the themes of agrarian and climatic change, neoliberalism, deagrarianisation, GM crops, the hydropolitics of groundwater and caste discrimination in labour markets.

He completed an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) 1+3 funded MSc and PhD in International Development at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. He also completed an ESRC postdoctoral research fellow position in the Department of Geography at King's College London. He has extensive teaching experience in International Development from his time at the Global Development Institute in Climate Change and Environment, Development Theory and Research Methods. 

Research

Amby's research focuses on three key areas: 1) Climate and agrarian change in the neoliberal era - I research the expansion of capitalism and climate variability in smallholder agriculture in India since economic reforms in the 1990s. In particular I look at agricultural technologies such as GM crops and their role in climate adaptation/maladaptation. 2) Hydropolitics of groundwater - within this theme I explore the decentralised, private expansion of groundwater irrigation in rural India and their ramifications.

I try to understand the interactions between state political economy and farmer aspirations using Boelen's frame of hydrosocial territories in reshaping semi-arid rainfed landscapes. 3) Deagrarianisation - I am interested in understanding why global South countries are not transitioning from agrarian to industrial economies, and what this precarity means for day to day rural livelihoods. Countries such as India simultaneously continue to feature a large farming workforce and a predominantly informal urban workforce. The problem of jobless growth, that is economic growth without adequate skilled job creation, means India is afflicted by high under and unemployment despite high educational attainment and economic growth. 

Research Interests 

• Agrarian change
• Climatic and environmental change
• Neoliberalism
• Deagrarianisation and rural to urban livelihood transitions
• Ethnographies of GM crops
• Hydropolitics of groundwater
• Caste and labour markets India