Uttaran Dutta studies creative ways to address development, health and social disparity issues. His research focuses on sustainable development and social change in marginalized communities, analyzing the importance of culture, communication, design and innovation in transforming the lives of people who are socially, politically and economically poor. In all his work, local participants are the key forces in identifying and developing cost-effective solutions using local resources. In one project, Dr. Dutta is developing a computer application for illiterate people in rural India to access useful information regarding local weather, employment, education, and other basic services such as healthcare. In another project, he collaborated with local people to construct a mini-hospital, library-cum-museum and a protection-wall to save sacred environmental resources in remote indigenous villages in eastern India. Additionally, he researches the folk-culture and indigenous knowledge of the underserved to document and understand alternate ways of viewing the world.