Manish completed his Masters in Development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore (2014). Before joining SaciWATERs, he worked with the team in Kudumbashree National Resource Organization (NRO) in Trivandrum for facilitating the development of community led community driven micro-enterprises through Self Help Groups in the rural areas of Bihar and Jharkhand as per the mandate of National Rural Livelihoods Mission. His research interest lies in the domain of understanding the multiple inter-linkages between poverty, gender, migration, institutions and livelihoods through discipline of political economy and is interested to explore the same by applying qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

He is currently working under the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (Ganges Basin) in the project titled ‘Poverty Squares and Gender Circles: unravelling agriculture gaps, challenges and opportunities in the Eastern Gangetic Plains’. In addition to this he is associated with the Arsenic Knowledge and Action Network team at SaciWATERs and is involved in analysing climate, water and urban land use policies under the CoCooN project (Conflicts and Cooperation over Natural resources in Developing countries).