Rathin, when he is not trying to retire and learn the art of doing nothing, is an independent facilitator working with UN agencies, development organizations, enterprises, civil society and communities interested in innovation and creative problem solving for livelihoods and lifestyles that reduce consumption and ecological footprints, food sovereignty and governance systems that are mindful and that actually work

He read electrical engineering, public health and political science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. As a researcher and development practitioner he worked with the Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad and the Shri A. M. M. Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre, Chennai, advised the Swedish International Development Agency in its social and community forestry efforts in India and spent almost a decade and a half working on facilitating management of small-scale fisheries as a senior professional with the Fisheries Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.

Rathin sits on the Board of the Villgro Innovation Foundation, a not-for-profit company that helps take innovative products and services to the market to benefit the rural poor & and chairs the Board of eFarm, a company that facilitates and enables value chains to help farmers reach markets by providing advisory services, training and mobile phone and internet based linking and trading platforms. He sits on the Ethics Committee of XCode Life Sciences Private Limited and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Mamoun Beheiry Centre for Social and Economic Studies and Research in Africa, Khartoum, the Sudan

His interests include the practices of reconciliation using dialogue, visual thinking and sketchnoting, calligraphy, gardening, cooking and what can be best described as the archeology of the ordinary