A recent addition to the SSE family, Dr. Niharika Singh has quickly endeared herself to the SSE community. Always ready to debate upon an economic ideology's merits and eager to support student-led initiatives, Professor Singh happily agreed to a telephonic interview with Arthniti in which she told us about her journey to becoming a teacher, why Sir Ian McKellan is her favorite actor, and what the present government should pursue to deal with the pandemic and its consequent economic crisis.
Dr. Niharika Singh, Symbiosis School of Economics’ faculty of Micro Economics, EVS and Economic Thought, joined the SSE family in 2019. Niharika Ma’am has been closely involved in organizing various college events, including the book release of alum Harsh Kedia, and ‘Pride not Prejudice’ - SSE’s first official panel discussion on LGBT issues. Additionally, she serves as SSE’s gender champion. Arthniti recently had the opportunity to interview Professor Singh and it went as follows:-
Niharika Ma’am tells us that she was born and brought up in the quaint little town of Siliguri. From there, she moved to Patna where she finished her schooling. She graduated from Patna University and then moved on to Jaipur for her doctorate. She laughs and tells us that she can’t specifically call one of these places her home and misses a lot of things about all these places. While in school, (this is in Patna), Dr. Singh was particularly fond of English Literature and History. JRR Tolkien continues to be her favorite author and Ma’am gleefully quips that she has read all his books.
“Tolkien is like my Bible” she exclaims, “I’m in love with his knowledge, experience, his way of writing, and how he invented a completely new language!”
While she didn’t like mugging up, she warmed up to History too (and anyone who has attended an Economic Thought lecture can vouch for Ma’am’s passion for history!). Given this liking for English and History, we were curious to know how she ended up pursuing Economics. Ma’am adds to the mystery by informing us that she did her honours in Economics and had English as a subsidiary subject. So what gives?
Picture courtesy Niharika Ma'am
It turns out that Ma’am had her first brush with Economics in 9th standard. Midway in the academic year, her economics teacher had to leave and a new teacher came in her place. “She (the new teacher) never used to teach from the book! She used to look at the topic and give lectures. Imagine at the ninth standard not teaching from the book. She would then explain everything in very simple terms and relate everything to daily life” explains Ma’am. Dr. Singh would religiously take notes in said teacher’s class. When she lost her textbook around the time of Boards, Niharika Ma’am solely depended on those notes (she didn’t tell her parents by the way) and passed with flying colors. It was this teacher and her unconventional pedagogy (for school) that ignited a love for the subject within Niharika Ma’am.
On being asked about extracurriculars, Ma’am lets out that she was a keen debater (again, anyone who has attended an ET lecture and witnessed the verbal jousts between Ma’am and DebSoc members, can attest to the same!). She proudly tells us about a state-level debate competition which was attended by the then President of India Pratibha Patil. In her Master’s at the time, Ma’am bagged the top prize by outwitting participants from 13 other universities!
What led her to teach as a career? Well, teaching was originally not on the radar. Niharika Ma’am originally aspired to enlist in the Navy or Army, but she could not pursue the same. After 10th, Ma’am took up Science with Maths and Biology and prepped for the grueling medical entrances for two years before resolving to take up Economics. It was a new and upcoming field at the time and given her previous brush with the subject in school, Dr. Singh felt Economics to be a logical choice for higher studies. It was while studying in university; Ma’am felt the desire to impart her knowledge to more people. Hence academia and teaching was the logical choice.
The conversation then turns to the topic of favorite economists, to which Ma’am remarks, “too many to name!” with a laugh. She admires Keynes and looks up to Joseph Stiglitz (or ‘Stiggy Uncle’ as she used to call him in college) as he is very outspoken and advocates passionately for what he feels is right (Ma’am excitedly tells us that she has witnessed his intellect in person, at a panel discussion she attended in Bangalore). She further lists Abhijeet Sen (who bears a resemblance to Rabindranath Tagore - “the moment he opens his mouth you will fall in love with him”), Kaushik Basu (Ma’am is in praise of his calm demeanor), and Alakh Narayan Sharma - her mentor/guru who writes extensively on policies for the unorganized sector and unemployment. Incidentally, it was he who inspired Ma’am to learn about unorganized laborers (Ma’am’s academic specialty is Labor Economics).
We then asked Professor Singh, the classic question that has been asked to every faculty so far. More government? More private control? Or a mix of both? Ma’am enthusiastically extends support for a mixed economy. “We all follow mixed economic systems and the only difference is the percentage of capitalism and socialism in the mix”. She avers that the socialistic component should be greater as capitalism leads to income gaps which can be only corrected through the government.
Now, anyone who has met Ma’am will know that she harbors an abiding interest in the issues of gender. Ma’am explains to us that patriarchy was never in our culture, we never had a system to dominate the women. Women were always given a free hand in choosing their partner “It was always a swayamvar for women and not men. She had a choice even in what she studied!” This all changed, when a patriarchal social system was adopted. Ma’am talks about being a revolutionary kid who has always broken all the rules and never acted like a Shakespearean lady - “because that’s not who we are supposed to be”.
“We are supposed to be women of substance who should stand up for what they feel is correct”.
She adds that when she became financially independent, she was keen to study gender discrimination and added a component on the same to her Dissertation. Additionally, her love for Tolkien spills over to the movies as well. Sir Ian McKellen (who essays Gandalf) is one of Professor Singh’s favorite actors and a source of inspiration too. His activism in support of transgender rights affirmed Ma’am’s passion for the same. Ma’am narrates to us her personal experiences while living in the United States, of witnessing men being labeled as ‘gay’ or ‘transgender’ for wearing pink. The sheer ludicrosity of such acts further galvanized Ma’am to take up the cause.
Given that preamble, we felt it would be pertinent to bring up the issue of discrimination against women and minorities within academia, specifically Economics. To that, Ma’am opines that economics is a subject, in which, if you don’t get into business analytics or data mining, the alternative is research and teaching. Dr. Singh argues that in our society, women have to be literate ‘enough’ to ensure that they will get married into a good family but no one wants to wait for a woman to build a sustainable career. “Even today modern men, who want to marry well-educated women, look for women who have jobs, but very few men want to marry a woman who wants to pursue a good career”. Ma’ am adds that “In economics, research is a career and not solely a job”. Women are not given the agency to invest enough time in crafting a long track record of academic publications. With respect to underprivileged classes, Niharika Ma’am believes that those who belong to this section of society are often in want of quick money which is not always the case with economics unless it’s a good college. Professor Singh thus concludes that it is the luxury of time - gifted by patriarchal mores, and access to world-class resources- an outcome of societal inequality, that allows men to build a strong academic career.
While still on gender, we brought up a classic shortcoming of the GDP which all of us learned in the 12th standard. Should unpaid work performed primarily by women be included in the GDP? To that, Niharika Ma’am elucidates that while such inclusion is justified on a social and moral basis, the exact mechanics of monetization will be very difficult and there would be huge ambiguity. It’s very difficult to keep accountability of unpaid work; however, she adds that the ILO has been trying to do some work in this area.
On being asked if she thought it’s important to consider gender and sexuality while studying economics, she says that to some extent the subject has been written and studied from the perspective of one gender which is the male perspective. The theories of economics would differ because of a difference in perspectives of different genders. Therefore, economics should be more inclusive as people of different genders and other minorities all interact with the economy in different ways. Ma’am further adds that to do this we should make gender studies and gender sensitization compulsory at every level of education.
Given that the interview was being conducted in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic and global lock-down, we couldn’t help but ask Ma’am for her suggestions on reviving the economy. In response, Niharika Ma’am strongly feels that the agriculture sector should be given a boost. There is the unavailability of workers to cut the crops so the workers should be brought back in shifts. Further, manufacturing, dairy, and farm produce related enterprise should also be started in shifts with careful precautions.
To wrap up the interview, we asked Ma’am if there were any goals and aspirations she wished to achieve through her work. Professor Singh tells us that she plans to continue learning and wants to obtain a post-doctorate and a D.Litt (yes, there are degrees to be earned even after a Ph.D.). She also wants to work for the cause of unorganized labor and transgender communities. However, she assures us that teaching is a passion and she would never leave it. We finally asked ma’am her favorite part about teaching at SSE and if she had anything that she would like to tell the students. She says her favorite things about teaching at SSE are students (thanks Ma’am!). She said that whenever she feels upset, interacting with students cheers her up. Her message to the student body is “as students of economics we should understand the origin of theory and its applications in detail”.
We thank Professor Niharika Singh for participating in the interview with us. Thank you for making Micro and Thought so interesting to learn and thank you for being an inspiration and support to many students.