Jeena T Srinivasan
Jeena T Srinivasan
Professor
Environment and Development Economics, Agricultural and Resource Economics
Ph.D. Economics
Brief Profile
Prof. Jeena T Srinivasan is currently a Professor at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad, specializing in environmental and development economics. She has over two decades of research experience and previously served as an Assistant and Associate Professor at the same institute, which she joined in December 2004.
Her research explores the dynamic interplay between ecological systems, economic development, societal structures, and livelihoods, focusing on fisheries, coastal wetlands, agriculture, and water resources. She addresses sustainability challenges, social economy dynamics, and governance of common property resources, with a particular emphasis on equitable resource distribution and livelihood enhancement. Her recent work also includes health and healthcare seeking behaviour of households and climate action.
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, she integrates economic theory with empirical field studies across different states in India, collaborating with experts from diverse disciplines. Her work seeks to advance policy strategies for sustainable development, resource governance, ecological sustainability, and social equity.
Educational Background
Prof. Srinivasan holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Mysore, completed through the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore. Her doctoral research focussed on the economic and institutional dimensions of wetland management in the Cochin Backwaters, Kerala.
She also holds an M.Phil. in Applied Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi through the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Calicut.
Academic and Professional Achievements
She has received several prestigious fellowships and recognitions for her research and contributions to environmental and development economics. She was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship by the United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF) and served as a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, USA, in 2014-15.
Earlier, she was a Visiting Researcher at Brock University, Canada, under the Shastri Indo-Canadian Faculty Research Fellowship in 2008, and at the University of Namur, Belgium, through the World Bank-aided India-Environment Capacity Building Fellowship in 2002.
In 2006, she received the prestigious competitive research grant from the International Foundation for Science (IFS), Sweden, awarded to emerging young scientists in biological resources from developing countries.
She was also a medal finalist for the Global Development Network’s Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development in 2007.
In her early academic career, she was a recipient of the National Merit Scholarship (1990-93), selected for the University Merit Scholarship (1993-95), and received institutional scholarships for her MPhil (1996-97) and PhD (1997-2001).
She has visited several countries on multiple occasions for academic purposes on invitation, including the USA, UK, Egypt, Belgium, Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Canada, and Italy.
She has also served as a peer reviewer for several top international and national journals, as well as research funding agencies, and continues to receive invitations to review scholarly works.
Recent and Ongoing Research Projects
Prof. Srinivasan’s current work spans multiple domains, including sustainability challenges in marine and inland fisheries, fisheries for food, nutrition and livelihoods, exploring the social economy and gender dynamics in dried fish value chains, and healthcare seeking behaviour of households in managing non-communicable diseases, and climate action focusing on renewable resources.
a. Fisheries
One of her ongoing projects (as Principal investigator) is the “Dried fish matters: Mapping the social economy of dried fish in South and Southeast Asia for enhanced wellbeing and nutrition” funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canada. As a co-applicant of this seven-year multi-country initiative coordinated by the University of Manitoba, Canada, she focuses on the social economy of dried fish and its role in food and nutrition security in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. She is closely working with researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds in this project.
b. Health
Another current research project explores traditional versus modern healthcare systems in India, focussing on healthcare-seeking behaviour of households in managing non-communicable diseases. She collaborates (as Principal Investigator) with medical doctors (Ayurveda) at the Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal, to understand household health status, healthcare utilization, and system preferences, particularly the role of traditional and complementary medicines in the management of chronic illnesses, supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi.
c. Contribution to the Global Environment Outlook 7 (GEO 7)
More recently, she contributed to the preparation to the Global Environment Outlook 7 (GEO 7), scheduled to be released in December 2025, which is United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) flagship report that assesses environmental drivers, current state, policy effectiveness, and future scenarios, in the capacity of a reviewer.
d. Climate Change and Climate Action
She is also working on the climate action, focusing on the renewable resources for climate change mitigation and adaption with specific reference to India.
An Overview of Major Past Research
Prof. Jeena T. Srinivasan’s past research also spanned multiple domains within environmental and development economics, focusing on the dynamic interactions between ecological systems, socio-economic dynamics, and sustainable resource management both independently and collaboratively. Some of the major areas she worked include:
a. Wetland Ecosystems and Agricultural and Fisheries Interactions
She extensively studied seasonally altering wetlands, including the Cochin Backwaters (Principal Investigator), Kole Wetlands (Principal Investigator), and the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) (Co-investigator), exploring wetland-agriculture and wetland-fisheries interactions. Her research focused on understanding the ecological characteristics, socio-economic and environmental trade-offs involved, contributing to the development of policy frameworks for the sustainable use of these vital ecosystems. She has utilized economic-ecological modelling to assess the economic impact of ecosystem degradation, particularly in the estuarine fisheries, where certain prawn and marine species spend part of their lifecycle.
b. Fisheries
Her research on fisheries focused on sustainability challenges and socio-economic dynamics within marine, estuarine, and inland fisheries. She examined overcapitalization in fisheries, particularly Trawler fisheries in the Palk Bay (Co-investigator), and its socio-economic impacts on local communities, advocating for regulatory frameworks that balance sustainability and livelihoods.
Her work on targeted versus non-targeted catch in marine fisheries highlighted critical sustainability and biodiversity conservation issues, emphasizing the need for improved governance (Principal Investigator).
She has also examined India’s fish and dried fish trade over the years, analyzing changes in the volume, value, and composition of trade, as well as shifts in trading partners for both export and import of fresh and dried fish.
Additionally, she investigated the performance and sustainability of inland tank fisheries in Telangana, revealing unique challenges compared to marine fisheries (Principal Investigator). Her research provided strategic insights into sustainable fisheries management across diverse ecosystems.
c. Water Resource Management
Prof. Srinivasan conducted extensive research on water resource management, covering various aspects, including wastewater reuse in agriculture, making value out of waste in the case of wastewater use, groundwater irrigation, agriculture and poverty, and watershed management. Her studies on urban wastewater irrigation in Hyderabad (Principal Investigator) explored its socio-economic benefits and health risks, advocating for policy frameworks that balance agricultural productivity with public health and environmental safety.
In the groundwater use agriculture and poverty, she examined the socio-economic impacts of groundwater extraction and its role in poverty alleviation within the Godavari River Basin (Principal Investigator), emphasizing sustainable utilization and equitable distribution.
Her comparative study on water demand management between India and Canada analyzed economic instruments for water conservation, highlighting cross-cultural policy learnings.
d. Development-Induced Displacement
Prof. Srinivasan has also worked on development-induced displacement in the case of Polavaram dam project examining the socio-economic risks the affected communities faced, focusing on livelihood restoration and resilience-building (Principal Investigator).
e. Agricultural Sustainability
Her work on agricultural sustainability included an in-depth study of the Kole Wetlands in Kerala (Principal Investigator), exploring the agriculture-wetland interactions and assessing the socio-economic and environmental trade-offs in a seasonally altering wetland-based agriculture. Her research contributed to policy frameworks for the sustainable use of seasonally altering wetlands, emphasizing the need for integrated management strategies that balance agricultural productivity with ecological conservation. Similarly, her study on the sustainability of small farms in Kerala focused on resource efficiency, livelihood security, and environmental sustainability in smallholder farming systems (Principal Investigator).
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, Prof. Srinivasan has collaborated extensively with researchers from diverse disciplines, including ecologists, hydrogeologists, public health specialists, soil scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and others in these studies. She has also worked closely with various academic institutions such as International Water Management Institute (IWMI), MARE, University of Amsterdam, UNTRS/FAO, University of Manitoba, Canada, and civil society organizations like ACWADAM, Agariya Heetrakshak Manch, SAKTI, SIFFS and SPWD. Additionally, she collaborated the District Administration of Thrissur and with researchers from various institutions in India and abroad.
This interdisciplinary collaboration enriched her research with comprehensive perspectives, enhancing the understanding of complex environmental and socio-economic challenges.
Publications and Research Outputs
She has authored numerous research reports and her work has been published in leading international and national journals in the field including Ecological Economics, Environment and Development Economics, Economic and Political Weekly, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Ecology, Economy and Society, Journal of Rural Development and others. Her research has also appeared in edited volumes by international publishers and as research documents by international organisations like UNTRS/FAO.
Leadership and Administrative Roles
Prof. Srinivasan has undertaken leadership and administrative roles, supporting research coordination and academic governance. She coordinated the River Basin Ecosystem studies of the Research Unit for Livelihoods and Natural Resources (RULNR) at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), supported by the Jamsetji Tata Trust, Mumbai, from 2008 to 2014.
She served as the Secretary (2018-2020), Joint Secretary (2016-2018), and as an invited Executive Committee member (2020-2022) of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE).
She was the Organising Secretary of the International Conference on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, held on February 15-16, 2017; the DFM International Workshop, held on February 14-15, 2018; and the Tenth Biennial Conference of the INEE-CESS International Conference on Climate Change and Disasters, held from November 6-8, 2019, all at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) in Hyderabad which has several participants from different countries. Besides, she has organised and co-organised several national workshops in different states across India.
PhD Supervision
Prof. Jeena T Srinivasan is currently supervising six PhD students whose research focuses on:
- Bishakha Ghosh – Economic, Ecological, and Institutional Aspects of Conjunctive Irrigation: A Study in West Bengal.
- Veerabhadra Rao – Consumer Behaviour towards Eco-Friendly Products: A Study on Green Marketing in Telangana.
- Medha A S – Socio-economic assessment of Vulnerability among Small-scale fisheries in India.
- Kannan K – Energy Democracy for India: Study on a Justice Based Renewable Energy Transition Alternative in Kerala.
- Annanya Dwivedi – Climate Finance (Topic to be finalised)
- Nimisha S – Digital Governance (Topic to be finalised)
Research Grants and Funding Support
Her research projects and other academic activities, including organisation of conferences and workshops, have been funded by BMZ, Germany, UNTRS, FAO, Jamsetji Tata Trust, Belmont Forum through Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Government of Telangana, United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF), DFIAT, Canada, International Foundation of Science, Sweden, GIZ, Germany; Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Canada, NABARD, Mumbai and others.
Recent Research Outputs (since 2023-24)
a. Publications
Srinivasan, J. T., Ramesh, P. R., & Mahesh, K. (2024). Ayurveda healthcare utilisation pattern, preferences and determinants in India: An institutional case study. Journal of Rural Development, 43(1), 11-26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25175/jrd/2023/v43/i1/173248
Mahesh, K., Ramesh, P. R., Srinivasan, J. T., Madhu, K. M., Praveen, M., Sulaiman, C. T., & Anandan, E. M. (under process). A retrospective analysis of the demographic and epidemiological characteristics and life expectancy of cancer patients undergoing treatment at the outpatient department of Arya Vaidya Sala Kottakkal, Kerala, India.
Srinivasan, J. T. (2024). Dried fish consumption in Kerala: Patterns, trends, and preferences in the Indian context. DFM Working Paper No.13. University of Manitoba, Canada.
Srinivasan, J. T., & Sathyapalan, J. (2023). Targeted versus non-targeted catch: A study of marine fisheries in Andhra Pradesh. Economic and Political Weekly, 58(2), 52-59. https://www.epw.in/journal/2023/2/special-articles/targeted-versus-non-targeted-catch.html
Srinivasan, J. T. (2023). India’s fish and dried fish trade: An overview. In E. Thrift, M. Galappaththi, R. Chuenpagdee, R. Ghosh, W. W. Khaing, M. Rahman, A. Akter, & D. Johnson (Eds.), Dried Fish Matters: Exploring the Social Economy of Dried Fish (pp. 252-267). TBTI Global Publication Series, St. John’s, NL, Canada. ISBN: 978-1-7773202-6-3.
https://tbtiglobal.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/FINAL_Dried-Fish-Matters_e-book.smaller-file.pdf
b. Research Papers and Reports: Ongoing and Completed
Srinivasan, J. T., Ramesh, P. R., & Mahesh, K. (2025). Household health status, healthcare utilization, and system preferences in managing non-communicable diseases: Evidence from Kerala, India.
Srinivasan, J. T., Sathyapalan, J., & Vangapally, S. (2025). Sustainability of inland tank fisheries in Telangana: Assessing challenges, opportunities, and policy pathways,
Srinivasan, J. T. (2025). Towards a sustainable future: The critical role of renewable resources in climate action and India’s energy transition.
Srinivasan, J. T., Ramesh, P. R., & Mahesh, K. (2024). Traditional vs modern systems of medicine and healthcare seeking behaviour of households in India. Report submitted to the Indian Council of Social Science Research, May.
Srinivasan, J. T., Vangapally, S., & Tajuddin, M. (2024). Mapping the dried fish value chain in Andhra Pradesh, India: Ecological, economic and social dimensions. Draft report submitted to the University of Manitoba, Canada, November.
Srinivasan, J. T. (2023). Fish and dried fish consumption in Kerala. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada, DFM Project Report submitted to the University of Manitoba, Canada.