Aruna researches the intersection of climate risk, global supply chains, and agricultural economics, with a focus on how geopolitical and energy-market shocks propagate into farm-input costs and food security in India.
India's fertiliser sector runs on Gulf-region gas and imported potash and phosphate — so when the 2026 West-Asia conflict shut down Strait of Hormuz shipping, urea prices jumped over 75% in a year, even as India entered the season with unusually large stockpiles cushioning the immediate blow.
A shipping lane 2,000 kilometres from the nearest Indian farm carries a fifth of the world's LNG and nearly a third of its fertiliser trade. When the 2026 West-Asia conflict shut it down, urea prices in India jumped over 75% in a year — a case study in how exposed food security is to energy geopolitics.