During his stay at IIT, particularly during his Masters study, Girish started thinking about full-time work in a field of direct social relevance along with friends – Ajit Gaunekar and Aniruddha Ketkar.

This was a period of exploration along with other like-minded friends – Shripad Dharmadhikary, Sanjeevani and Vinay Kulkarni – that brought him closer to people's movements, particularly the NBA.

Analytical motivation from DEFENDUS, along with the support of friends and a scholarship from Dr. Ashok Gadgil, led to his first major work on development of a least cost plan for Maharashtra.

[12] Girish was particular about encouraging intellectual and substantive growth of colleagues, and supported new initiatives in the form of Resources and Livelihoods group of Prayas as well as academic interests of young researchers.

Many peers and friends of Girish consider his institution building abilities as important a contribution and achievement as his substantive work in the energy sector.

High quality and in-depth analysis, comprehensive approach, and prioritising interests of disadvantaged sections became the hallmark of his work and he successfully cultivated these principles across PEG.

He successfully motivated and actively supported many young researchers to take up the task of policy advocacy in the energy sector based on public interest analysis.

[15][16] In spite of several accomplishments and achieving an important stature in the energy sector in India, Girish remained humble and self-effacing, as is reflected in many of the tributes on his memorial webpage and in the Smriti Grantha (or Collection of Memoirs).

Under his guidance, PEG undertook techno-economic analysis of three large hydro-electric projects, Sardar Sarovar and Maheshwar in India and Bujagali in Uganda.

The group analysed Sardar Sarovar and Maheshwar projects and highlighted inefficiencies therein, proposing several techno-economically feasible and socially desirable alternatives.

[20] PEG was the first to prepare a public interest critique of the Orissa model of reforms in 1998 and the role of Multi-lateral Development Banks, arguing that democratising governance is the key to addressing the power sector crisis, rather than focusing only on infusing capital or changing ownership.

[29] Since 2006, Girish focused more on macro issues of resource availability, utilisation, and growing importance of global climate debate on India's energy policy.

[30] Based on this work, he was invited to make presentations at high level meetings at COP15 at Copenhagen and at The Center for Clean Air Policy, Washington, D.C.[31] He was India's representative at a UN workshop on non-Annex 1 NAMAs.

[43] A committee consisting of people from within and outside Prayas was formed to manage activities organised in Girish's memory and "to further his work of independent analysis and advocacy to promote public interest issues in the energy sector".