A. Mukundan 

Mukundan studies accountability and privacy in large-scale public systems in India. He does this by bringing together methods and people from computer science, political theory and STS at Ashoka’s new Centre for Digitalisation, AI and Society. His current focus areas include governance and privacy in India’s UPI payments platform, and the need for context-aware data protection and risk frameworks in relation to large AI deployments in India.

Independently, Mukundan is also a Strategy and Partnerships Associate in the Global Managing Partner’s team at Dalberg Advisors. In previous stints there, he helped shape platforms like the Atlas for Behaviour Change in Development and NITI for States. His broader experience spans strategy internships at Teach for India and a former cryptocurrency unicorn. He was also a 2021-22 UNAI-MCN Millennium Fellow.

Mukundan graduated summa cum laude from Ashoka University, earning a BA (Hons.) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He also recently completed Ashoka’s Post-graduate Diploma in Advanced Studies and Research, undertaking a year-long political theory research project on India’s Digital Public Infrastructure movement.