He was an economic adviser in the United Nations system in New York City, Italy, and Thailand (1991–2006), and technocrat in the government of India (2006–2014), apart from making contributions to academic research since the mid-1980s.
His mother, herself a poet in Hindi, from Allahabad, had grown up surrounded by stories of the nationalist movement against the British, and both parents imbued him with a deep sense of nationalism.
However, he wanted to become an academic and won two fellowships to study abroad, first to obtain a master's degree in Economics at The New School for Social Research, New York city.
Here he was taught by well-known economists, like Edward J. Nell, Robert Heilbroner, Ross Thomson, and Gita Sen. Mehrotra then moved to Cambridge University to do a PhD in Economics.
He also held a three-year appointment as Parkin Visiting Professor at the Centre for International Development in the Faculty of Social Sciences, at the University of Bath,[7] UK (2010–13).
For the 11th Plan, he led the team that authored several chapters related to watershed development; land reforms; and food security and nutrition.
Currently he is a member of the National Steering Committee of National Skills Qualification Framework, MHRD As Member-Secretary of the Expert Group on 'Development Challenges in Extremist-Affected Areas', he steered a landmark report to the Planning Commission, which became the basis of several policy initiatives by the Planning Commission for rural areas that are Maoist-affected districts.
[15] He co-authored the research paper that became the basis of the methodology now adopted by the government of India in the Socio-Economic Census over 2011–2013 to identify the poor conducted.
[24] He has been on a large number of advisory boards in India since 2006: He has written or edited eleven books, which are taught in universities around the world: Many other research articles can be found on this web page.