• 1973 - M. A. in Sociology, University of Bombay (now Mumbai).
• 1979 - Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Delhi.

• Present Position - Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai.
• 1987-1994 - Reader, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.
• 1985-1987 - Assistant Professor (Reader), Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
• 1984-1985 - Reader, Department of Sociology, University of North Bengal.
• 1980-1984 - Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of North Bengal, Darjeeling District, West Bengal.

• Sociology of Indian Society
• Industrial Sociology, Sociology of Labour, Sociology of Organisations
• Social Theory

• Member, Senate of the University of Mumbai.
• Member, Board of Governors, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
• Member, Board of Studies in Sociology, University of Mumbai.
• Member (External Expert), Board of Studies in Sociology, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai and M. S. University of Baroda, Vadodra, Gujarat.
• Member (External Expert), School Board, School of Social Sciences, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong.

Research Interests

• Sociology of Plantation Labour
• The urban informal sector
• Industrial labour and trade unions
• Problems of caste and gender among workers
• Worker co-operatives and industrial democracy

• (On going) "Worker Co-operatives in Small and Medium Scale Industries in Calcutta.", Supported by ICSSR.
• (On going) "Study of Hawking and Street Vending in Eight Cities in India" Sponsored by the National Alliance of Street Vendors of India.
• 1998 - "Economic and Social Adjustments of the Urban Poor: A Study of Retrenched Textile Workers in Mumbai." Supported by Oxfam India.
• 1996 - "Labour in the Small and Medium Scale Industries in the Mumbai - Thane Region." Supported by FES.
• 1995 - "Economic Empowerment of Women through Trade Unions and Co-operatives: A Study of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Kheda and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat." Supported by Aga Khan Foundation, Calgary, Canada and UNIFEM.
• 1995 - "Survey of Living and Working Conditions of Tea Plantation Workers in West Bengal." Supported by FES.
• 1992 - "Employment and Unionisation in the Tea Industry." Supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), New Delhi.
• 1987 - "Co-operative Factories of Small Tea Growers in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu." Supported by I. I. M. Calcutta and IDRC, Canada.
• 1985 - "Worker Co-operatives in the Tea Industry in Tripura." Supported by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi.

• Tea Plantation Labour in India (co-authored with V. Xaxa and M. A. Kalam), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, New Delhi.
• "Social Clause: Is Its Opposition Justified?" EPW
• "Communalism and Labour: Political Processes among Textile Labour in Mumbai" (under publication, due in April 2000) State of India’s Labour, Vol. I, Centre for Education and Documentation, New Delhi.

1998
• "Trade Unions and Women Workers in Tea Plantations" (with Kanchan Sarker) EPW, 33(52), 26 December 1998.
• "The Working Class Movement in India: Present Problem and Future Prospects" in Murli Desai, Anjali Montero and Lakshmi Lingam (eds), People Centred Movements, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
• "The Working Class Movement and the State" in Manoranjan Mohanty, Partha N. Mukherji and O. Tournquest (eds), People’s Rights: Social Movements and the State in the Third World, Sage India, New Delhi.
• "Labour in the Unprotected Sector: Issues Concerning Employment" Udyog Pragati, 23(2), Mumbai.

1997
• "Trade Unions, the State and the Economy" (with Sophie Carey) in M. Holmes (ed), Ireland and India: Connections, Contrasts, Contrasts, Folens, Dublin.
• "Participation and Control: A Study of a Co-operative Tea Factory in the Nilgiris" EPW, 32(39).
• "Organising Unorganised Labour through Co-operatives" in Ruddar Datt (ed), Organising the Unorganised Workers, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.
• "On Workers’ Take-Overs" Seminar, 452, April 1997.
• "Industrial Relations in Tea Plantations of Eastern India" in C. S. Venkat Ratnam and Anil Varma (eds), Challenge of Change: Industrial Relations in Indian Industry, Allied Publications, New Delhi.
• "Empowering Women through Trade Uniond: Tobacco Workers in Kheda District" in M. Chen, M. Carr and R. Jhabvala (eds), Speaking Out: Economic Empowerment of Women in South Asia, IT Publications, London, 1996 and Sage India, New Delhi.

1996
• "State Intervention and the Working Class Movement in India" EPW, 28 December 1996.

1995
• "Worker Co-operatives", Seminar, New Delhi, 429, May 1995.
• "Bureaucracy versus Participation: Co-operative Factories of Small Tea Growers in the Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu)" in D. W. Attwood and B. S. Baviskar (eds), Finding the Middle Path: Political Economy of Co-operastives, Westview Press, Boulder, U.S.A., 1994 and Sage India.

1994
• "Co-operatives as Strategies of Organising Unprotected Labour" in Sarath Davala (ed), Unprotected Labour in India, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, New Delhi.

1993
• Worker Co-operatives: An Alternative Approach to Economic Growth, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, New Delhi.
• "Worker Co-operatives and Sick Industries: Strategies for Revival" in Purnima Rao and S. T. Sawant (eds), New Economic Policy: Strategies and Problems, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, New Delhi.

1992
• "Worker Co-operatives in the Plantation System: A Study of Tribal Tea Plantation Workers in Eastern India", Labour, Capital and Society, Montreal, 25(2), November 1992.
• "Tea Industry" in Sarath Davala (ed), Employment and Unionisation in Indian Industry, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, New Delhi.
• "Plantation Labour Act and Child Labour" EPW, 17 October 1992.

1991
• "Rural-Urban Links of Industrial Workers: A Study in Bokaro Steel Plant" in K. L. Sharma and Dipankar Gupta (eds), Town-Country Nexus, Rawat Publications, Jaipur.
• "Is a Workers’ Sector Viable?", Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai (Bombay) (Henceforth EPW), 12 December 1991.

1981
• Class Formation in the Plantation System, People’s Publishing House, New Delhi.