Abhishek Arora

Collaborator

Abhishek is working with Prof. Melissa Dell as a pre-doctoral fellow at Harvard University on projects that involve the use of cutting-edge Natural Language Processing and vision techniques to analyse novel datasets....

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Anant Singh

Research Associate ( Nov 2023 - Jan 2025)

Anant Singh is a research associate with the Digital Labour and Women's Economic Empowerment vertical at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in New Delhi. He holds a Master's Degree in Economics with a specialisation in Econometrics from Banaras Hindu University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics with Honours from the Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar.

Prior to ISI DELHI, he served as a research associate at IIM Ahmedabad, where his keen analytical skills and dedication contributed to impactful research projects. His internships with the Reserve Bank of India and the Ministry of Finance show his commitment to understanding the intricate facets of the economic landscape. His key responsibilities included analysing data and extracting valuable insights. He possesses a strong enthusiasm for using data-driven methods to address social issues.

Anant's research interests lie in the domains of macroeconomics and development economics, reflecting a passion for driving positive change through insightful economic analysis.

Ankita Kumari

Communication Manager (Jul 2023 - Mar 2024)

Ankita is a Communication Manager with the DP-WEE Initiative, she leads the branding and communication of the project. She is a development communication strategist with cross-sector experience spanning communications, corporate sustainability, ESG, diversity, and inclusion for over the last 9 years.

Ankita has led stakeholder engagement strategies and developed the organizational strategy to align businesses with the UN Global Compact Principles, the Sustainable Development Goals, and Women Empowerment Principles. She is experienced in building strategic partnerships with multi-stakeholders.

Ankita has previously worked in the UN Global Compact Network India (UNGC India), largest corporate sustainability initiative of United Nations. She holds a Master’s in Development Communication from AJK MCRC Jamia Millia Islamia and Bachelor’s in Journalism and Mass Communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

Deepti

Research Associate

Deepti holds a Master’s degree in Computational Social Science from IIT Jodhpur, with a specialization in computational economics and mathematics. Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender studies, labour economics, and public policy. She has worked extensively with large-scale labor and health datasets, focusing on issues like employment, health expenditure, and social protection.

Previously, she was a Project Intern at the Research and Innovation Lab at TCS, where she explored behavioral insights and financial discourse using AI and NLP tools. Deepti enjoys working on data-driven questions that inform inclusive policy design.

Outside of work, she sifts through human behavior, befriends ambiguity, and occasionally mistakes existential dread for academic curiosity.

Farzana Afridi

Project Head

Farzana is a Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi) and Research Fellow at the IZA (Bonn)....

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Gautam Raj

Project & Communication Manager

Gautam has joined DP-WEE as Project & Communication Manager. Gautam manages administrative requirements of the project along with information dissemination and organizing workshops. He also oversees resource and partner management, coordinates with research team, and communicates updates to stakeholders.

Prior to joining DP-WEE, Gautam was an Analyst at NDDB Dairy Services in New Delhi, where he played a pivotal role in providing comprehensive institution-building services to 22 Milk Producer Companies, from incorporation to operational activities. During his tenure, Gautam was instrumental in establishing robust, policy-based governance systems, developing and facilitating workshops and training sessions for various stakeholders, and ensuring adherence to core design principles. He also managed budget preparations, monitored monthly progress, and extensively designed IEC materials, including newsletters, pamphlets, and social media posts.

Gautam holds a Master’s in Livelihoods and Social Entrepreneurship from the School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His research interest areas include women economic empowerment and youth skill development.

Jagriti Chakrabarty

Research Associate

Jagriti joined the DP-WEE project as a Research Associate right after her Master's. Previously, she was a Fiscal Fellow at CivicDataLab, where she drafted recommendations for Child Budget '23-24, including suggestions for better public finance communication, for the Govt. of Assam. Apart from that, she was a Summer Research Intern at IISER-K, working on intergenerational mobility in India..

Jagriti holds a Master's and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics – both from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Her research interests include microeconomic theory, development economics, public policy and political economy. Beyond these, she's a passionate advocate for the data for good movement.

Kanika Mahajan

Collaborator

Kanika is an Associate Professor of Economics at Ashoka University, Sonepat, India. Previously...

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Nabankur Huda (Nov 2023 - Mar 2025)

Research Associate

Nabankur is a Research Associate with the DP-WEE Project, holding a Master's Degree in Economics from University of Calcutta. Nabankur's research interest encompasses Political Economy, Identity and "Post"-Colonial Studies. He considers himself to be more of a social-justice "worrier" than a "warrior". In addition to worrying, in his free time he can be found exploring the city and trying out local food.

Nikita Sangwan

Collaborator

Nikita Sangwan is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Centre for research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy and Environment (CECFEE), Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi) and an EfD Early Career Research Fellow. I am a Ph.D. scholar from the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Center...

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Nilanjan Bhattacharya

Collaborator

Nilanjan Bhattacharya a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Centre for Research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy & Environment, Indian Statistical Institute Delhi (CECFEE). He has a doctoral degree in Economics from the Department of Economic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His research interest lies in Development Economics, Applied Microeconomics, and Experimental Economics.

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Prabhat Barnwal

Collaborator

Prof. Prabhat Barnwal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Michigan State University. His research spans the fields of energy, environment and economic development, with a focus on addressing critical issues faced by low-income households.

Dr. Barnwal’s work on energy and the environment examines the efficiency and equity implications of energy transition subsidies, as well as localized strategies to mitigate environmental risks faced by vulnerable households. In the realm of economic development, his research explores welfare delivery design, the impact of modern agricultural technologies on human welfare, and growth-oriented policy reforms that foster economic growth.

Dr. Barnwal earned a Ph.D. in Sustainable Development from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He also holds an M.A. in International Development from the International University of Japan and a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Surat, India.

His innovative and interdisciplinary research contributes significantly to understanding the intersections of energy policy, environmental sustainability, and socioeconomic development.

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Rachel M. Heath

Collaborator

Rachel is an associate professor in the department of Economics at the University of Washington...

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Rohan Regi Varghese

Research Associate (Dec 2022 - May 2025)

Rohan is a Research Associate with the DP-WEE Project, working on the Information and Matching projects. He holds a Master's Degree in International Business Economics and Finance from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from St. Berchmans College, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.

His research interest areas are labour economics, economics of science & innovation, and political economy.

Ruchika Rao

Research Associate

Ruchika is a Research Associate with the DP-WEE Project, working on the LPG - digital jobs project. She holds a Master's Degree in Economics (specialisation in development and public policy) from Azim Premji University, Bangalore and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Maitreyi College, Delhi University.

Her research interest areas are labour economics, feminist economics and applied micro economics.

SK Jane Alam

Research Associate

Alam is a Research Associate with the DP-WEE (Data, Policy, and Women’s Economic Empowerment) Project, where he currently manages the deployment of pollution sensor interventions in treatment and control villages across Gujarat on the project working on the LPG - digital jobs project. His responsibilities include coordinating field teams, ensuring device functionality, and overseeing data quality protocols to monitor household air pollution levels.

Prior to joining DP-WEE, Alam worked as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy, and Environment (CECFEE) at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi. There, he contributed to a randomized controlled trial on electric cooking adoption, leading survey implementation, device deployment, and Stata-based data quality systems in both Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. He also previously supported research on gender diversity in agricultural economics at the Centre for International Trade and Development (CITD), JNU.

Alam holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Delhi. His research interests include development economics, energy transitions, environmental health, and gender. A first-generation college graduate, he is passionate about using data and field research to inform inclusive and effective policy.

Sagara Ann Johny

Research Assistant ( Nov 2024 - May 2025)

Sagara is a Research Assistant at the Center for Research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy and Environment (CECFEE) at ISI Delhi, under the Clean Energy project. She holds a Master's Degree in Economics from the University of Warwick and a B.Sc. (Honours) in Economics and Finance from Ashoka University. Her research interests include political economy and environmental economics.

Shubham Singh

Research Associate

Shubham Singh is a Research Associate on the DP-WEE Project. He holds a master’s degree in development economics from the University of Sussex, UK, and a bachelor’s degree with honors in Economics from O. P. Jindal Global University. Before this, he worked as a Summer Fellow with Causal Design in Cambodia, contributing to evaluation projects; as a Research Fellow at Development Alternatives, where he developed a novel evaluation toolkit for green enterprises; and as an intern at Sattva Consulting, where he worked on evaluation of education-related projects and managing survey data collection. His research interests focus on applied microeconomics, particularly in agriculture, labour markets and political economy, using experimental methods to explore developmental, economic and social issues.

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Shwetangi Sahoo

Research Associate (Oct 2022 - Oct 2023)

Shwetangi is a Research Associate with the DP-WEE Project, working on the study- ‘Enhancing Women's Employment Opportunities through Skilling’. Previously, she worked as a Senior Programme Coordinator at Agrasar, an NGO, working on a study titled ‘The Invisible Home-based Workers

She holds a Master's Degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi.

Her research interests encompass labour economics, climate economics, and public policy. Beyond work, Shwetangi finds joy in painting, playing the guitar, and occasionally solving Rubik's cube.

Sneha Ganguly

Project Manager (Dec 2022 - Dec 2024)

Sneha is a Project Manager with the DP-WEE Initiative, she leads the operational activities of the project. Along with managing the grant, she indulges in extensive project stakeholder management and contributes to communicating research into policy measures.

Sneha has previously worked in several capacities to implement projects at the grassroots across areas like financial inclusion, gender and livelihoods. Before joining here, Sneha was a consultant at the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) of NITI Aayog. At DMEO, she was involved in Central Government initiatives pertaining to outcome monitoring of schemes and programmes, helping enhance India’s ranking in global indices through policy interventions, evaluating usage & quality of data used by various M/Ds and building State capacities on M&E.

Sneha holds a Master’s in Livelihoods and Social Innovation from the School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her research interests are focused on system strengthening, gender, labour and climate change specific policy design.

Soubhagya Sahoo

Collaborator

Soubhagya is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Centre for research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy and Environment (CECFEE), Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi)...

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Sugat Chaturvedi

Collaborator

Sugat Chaturvedi holds a PhD in Economics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi. Prior to joining Ahmedabad University, he worked as a Research Fellow in Economics of Innovation and the Future of Work in the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex and served as a Visiting Faculty in the Department of Economics at Ashoka University.

His research interests are at the intersection of labour economics, political economy, and innovation—focusing on topical social and economic issues such as women's labour force participation in South Asia, the impact of emerging technologies on the future of work, and the relationship between political representation of minorities and their economic outcomes. In line with this, he leverages computational linguistics tools to investigate the use of gendered attributes in online job ads, identify emerging digital automation technologies from patents and publications, and infer group identity using personal names.

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Tanu Gupta

Collaborator

Tanu is a Visiting Assistant Professor at CECFEE, Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), New Delhi...

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Taryn Dinkelman

Collaborator

Taryn Dinkelman is a development economist at the University of Notre Dame who studies labor markets and human capital in developing countries, including Botswana, Chile, India, Malawi, and her native country of South Africa. Barriers to full labor market participation and limitations on earnings capacity, particularly for women, are key themes in her work. She is a Faculty Research Associate at the NBER, a research theme leader at STEG (Structural Transformation and Economic Growth), and a Research Affiliate at BREAD, the CEPR, IZA, J-PAL and SALDRU (the South African Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town). Prior to joining the department at Notre Dame in 2018, Dinkelman held positions as Associate and Assistant Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and Assistant Professor at Princeton University. Her research has been published in leading journals, including the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Economic Journal, and the Journal of Development Economics.

Vikas Lilhare

Research Associate (Oct 2022 - Oct 2023)

Vikas Lilhare is a research associate with the Digital Labour and Women's Economic Empowerment vertical at ISI (Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi).

Before joining ISI, Vikas made significant contributions as a key member of the Digital Innovation team at the Pratham Education Foundation. His responsibilities revolved around providing data-driven insights and research support for a variety of hybrid learning-based programs. These initiatives were designed to address the educational needs of disadvantaged children, with a particular focus on improving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN), life skills, and vocational skills. Through his active involvement, Vikas helped shape and execute projects that sought to uplift the educational outcomes of underprivileged children and upskill youth.

Vikas holds a Master's Degree in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (University of Delhi).

Yogita Shamdasani

Collaborator

Yogita is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the National University of Singapore...

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