VisualCV

A postgraduate in public policy with experience in the development sector

 
Interests  include client-specific strategy building, media research, micro and small enterprise bottom-lines,  health  and  education  policy,  rural markets  and  credit  access,  governance  issues,  public  finance, advocacy and knowledge-management driven communications, applied economic research, gender  inclusive economic growth, private property and  legal efficiency, market instruments for environmental policy, globalization and trade for peace.

Head - Research, Sesame Workshop India, Delhi, June 20011 Onwards:

·  Oversee over twenty different evaluation and research projects across programme, content  and organisational strategy for an Early Childhood Research-based educational television show (Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian version of Sesame Street) aired on national television across terrestrial, digital, cable and satellite media.

·   Manage all contracts, research budgetary allocations and deliverables of a wide range of research vendors, market research agencies and a research team. 

·  Translate evaluation research results into communication briefs, white papers and country brochures etc. for a wide variety of audiences including donor agencies, newspapers, television media and public relations agencies.

·  Build and maintain electronic database of research resources and reference materials for staff and external audiences based on extensive literature review of past studies on children and media.

·  Disseminate research protocol, methodologies and understanding of evaluation research to staff members.

·  Steer planning and execution of  a world-class South Asian Early Childhood Research facility.

Freelance Consultant, Development Sector, Feb 2011 - June 2011:

·  A qualitative impact assessment of Rajasthan’s Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETI) in Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur, ICICI Foundation, Feb 2011

· Questionnaire design, piloting and focus group discussion tool revision for Micro Insurance Academy, Madhya Pradesh.

·  Design and implementation advice, on the affordable-private-school (APS) rating system, Policy Innovations, Feb 2011

·  Design and implementation advice, integrated school health project for primary schools in India, Policy Innovations, Feb 2011

·  Final analysis and report writing for an evaluation study, Sesame Workshop India and Policy Innovations, Feb 2011

·  Editing and compilation of a Producer Organisations directory for Pradan, Delhi, Feb 2011

Project Head, Absolute Return for Kids, Delhi, July 2010 – Jan 2011:

·  Design an Access to Quality Education programme for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

·  Implement a voucher based school choice programme for 900 children across 125 low-cost private schools.

·  Manage India's first international quality Randomised Field Trial evaluation study on school vouchers.

·  Lead, and document communications and advocacy efforts for parental choice in schooling.

·  Design and plan local events with stakeholders including parental information sessions, school owner meetings and policy meets.

·  Think through and design a voucher allocation algorithm including endorsement from technical agencies.

·  Document and present project processes including reasons why, learning, outcomes, suggestions etc. for potential partners.

·  Demonstrate a scalable model to implement RTE compulsory reservation quota in private schools.

Research Manager, Sesame Workshop India, Delhi, June 2009 - 2010 

·  Manage all formative research for an Early Childhood Research-based educational television show (Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian version of Sesame Street) aired on national television across terrestrial, digital, cable and satellite media.

·  Manage all summative evaluations of the show including testing for impact across Knowledge, Attitude and Practice indicators in a variety of Behaviour Change Communications interventions.

·  Manage all commissioned and special research projects for the outreach arm of the show, including several Early Childhood Research-based interventions based on learning content, mediated and un-mediated learning, and audio-visual interventions.

·  Provide data support for all applied research proposals, grant proposals, concept notes and fundraising pitches.

·  Conduct intensive media analysis of television ratings of the show to support business plan related strategy.

·  Manage all contracts, research budgetary allocations and deliverables of a wide range of research vendors and market research agencies.

·  Translate evaluation research results into communication briefs, white papers and country brochures etc. for a wide variety of audiences including donor agencies, newspapers, television media and public relations agencies.

·  Build and maintain electronic database of research resources and reference materials for staff and external audiences based on extensive literature review of past studies on children and media.

·  Disseminate research protocol, methodologies and understanding of evaluation research to staff members.

·  Steer planning for establishment of a South Asian Early Childhood Research Center.

Coordinator, Fundraising, Hand in Hand – Tamil Nadu, Chennai, March 2009- June 2009:

·  Manage a three million dollar donor funded project for expansion of microcredit based interventions across four districts in Tamil Nadu.

·  Design, plan and conduct bi-weekly customised donor requested site visits in rural south India.

·  Manage relationships with Swedish, South African, American and British corporate donors for projects run in rural India, Brazil and Afghanistan.  

·  Create advocacy and marketing material for five intervention categories including literacy, child labour, enterprise development, health and environment using social media, video, audio, still photography, web based material and publications.

Project Manager, Centre for Innovative Financial Design - Institute for Financial Management Research, Chennai, Sept 2008 – May 2008:

·  Design, test and implement innovative financial products addressing lack of credit access issues from a development economics perspective.

·  Project manager of a randomized evaluation study on ‘Financing for Predictable Expenses’ – which studied if financial access for pregnancy could increase institutional delivery rates.

·  Refined and designed research questions -- including testing the hypothesis that savings behaviour can predict repayment behaviour in small lending and savings micro-credit contexts.

·  Managed savings and repayment data of over one hundred data points generated from the study

·  Designed and maintained a database management information system containing data on over six hundred individuals.

·  Train, hire and manage survey and mid-management field based staff for a pilot study across rural Tamil Nadu.

·  Liaison with the project’s partner organization to ensure successful execution of the project on time and under budget to create scalable financial innovations in rural contexts.

Charles G. Koch Fellow, Reason Foundation, Washington DC, Summer 2008: 

·  Researched water privatization, urban governance, international development and participated in seminars on analytical policy frameworks. 

·  Developed policy briefs on public works financing, fiscal responsibility in public utilities financing, eminent domain and land acquisition, water indices and potential price indicators for water markets.

·  Analysed the motives and characteristics of civil society protest groups in the context of privatization for a policy discussion paper.

·  Produced a working group paper and presentation on Indian agriculture focussing on futures trade, farmers’ debt and associated suicides, credit availability and resource utilization and land ownership rights.

Summer Intern, NASSCOM Foundation, Delhi, 2007: 

·  A field based study on ICT based interventions for gender across six coastal states of India

·  Analysed qualitative data collected from open-ended questionnaires and group discussions for an evaluation study.

·  Generated inputs for a potential documentary titled ‘ThatchWorks’ on knowledge centres and gender empowerment through ICT in the NASSCOM Knowledge Network.

Summer Intern, Centre for Civil Society, Delhi, 2004:  

·  Researched informal waste trade markets by undertaking field based visits to urban waste management centres.

·  Studied the impact of globalization on the market for handicrafts through a quantitative comparison of trade volumes before and after trade liberalization in India.

· Sri Raman, Measuring School Readiness: The Sesame Workshop India Experience, New Delhi - India, November 2011, Entertainment Education Conference (EE5) JHUCCP.  

· Nagar, Joshi and Sri Raman, Building Communities for Change: An Experience in Mumbai, Singapore, Aug 2011, Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Early Childhood Development. 

· Batada Sriraman & Banerjee, Meeting children where they are: Sesame Workshop India’s efforts to promote healthy habits through multi-platform and multi-level interventions, Singapore, June 2010, ICA 2010 Health Communication Pre-Conference.

· Annual Privatization Report 2008, Reason Foundation:  Top contributing author for the water privatization section and background researcher for governance issues, APR is the world's longest running and most comprehensive report on privatization news, developments, and trends.

· Masters  dissertation  titled  ‘Gender Differentials in Trade Liberalization Outcomes, ICFAI: A Study of Trade Rules and Select Developing Country Experiences in Commodity Trade’, which  studies  the  impact  of  trade  openness  on  gender  divergence  in developing economies.

· Research Papers, ICFAI: Education Vouchers for India, An Assessment of Employment Guarantee Schemes in India, Aspiration Traps for the Poor, The Economics of Climate Change, Total Economic Value of forests and The Political Economy of Anti-Defection Laws in India.

· Blog for a 40,000 + strong readership

· Contributed to The Hindu and Financial Express.

· Editor, Journal of the Commonwealth Collegiate Group of India and Content Designer, ‘Beyond Borders’ programme of the British Council, Delhi, 2004.

• As collegiate debater, among the top two percent at the IHC Young Visionary Award. Won seven national and three international debating awards.
• As student volunteer, responsible for logistics at the Global Development Network international conference on 'Understanding Reforms' in 2004.
• Four years of voluntary experience, including with the Spastics Society of India teaching creative movement and with EXNORA working on environmental education design for primary schools.

• Linguistic:  English (native), Hindi (fluent), Tamil and Bengali (speak only)
• Digital:  Python| VB| HTML| CMS|Adobe CS3 
• Research Tools: Spreadsheets| SPSS, STATA, SAS, MATHEMATICA| ATLAS.Ti, NVIVO 8| Tableau| ConfirmIT| LateX
• Research Skills:  Research Design, Performance Evaluations, Comparative Content Analysis, Frame- and Logic Model-based Analysis, Case Approximation and Development, Participatory Appraisals, Project Management and Public Programme Evaluation, Cost-Benefit and Cost Effective Analysis, Econometrics, Game Theory, Analytical Process Metrics, Data Visualization and Measurement Methodologies.
• Work Attributes: As a team player, I am ethical, motivated, creative & solution-oriented. I am also an effective communicator and negotiator. I work well in an environment of cultural diversity, and particularly enjoy writing and living the many colourful experiences that life has to offer.