Fund Devolution to Slum Dwellers Association in Odisha (with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy)
Creating a conceptual framework on how funds can be devolved from Urban Local Bodies to the Slum Dwellers Association (SDAs). in Odisha. I have been the core member of the team in designing the devolution framework - selecting the sources of funds, ascertaining the magnitude of devolution, and attached conditionalities of devolution.
Making villages water sufficient- Role of local leadership (with WIN Foundation and IIT - Gandhinagar)
Exploring how different groundwater conservation efforts and interventions like Water Security plans advocates for efficient water use among communities. We are also studying the role of local leaderships, community resource persons and district implementational partners in making a village water sustainable. Going ahead, we are interested in designing informational interventions to bring demand driven behavioral changes among villagers.
Mainstreaming digitization of public expenditure in India
(Study-Co-Lead, Funding- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and housed at George Washington University, USA)
Interacted with all tiers of government across four states of India to understand their perception on needed reforms in public financial management. Created a d4PEAT framework and ranking methodologies for states.
Study to assess the availability of resources for generating Own Sources of Revenue (OSR) by the Gram Panchayats in India
(Co-Principal Investigator, Funding-Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India)
Spearheaded this large scale telephonic survey of 5042-gram panchayats across 23 states of India during the COVID times. We assessed the local governments’ awareness, challenges, and opportunities of generating own sources of revenue
Assessing India's Infrastructure Investment Priorities, Opportunities and Key Challenges
(Funding: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, formerly DFID )
Contributed a chapter on Infrastructure Financing in India and provided overall support to the project.
A Study to Assess Alcohol Taxation, Affordability, and Price Elasticity Patterns in India
(Co-Principal Investigator, Funding: World Health Organisation-India Office )
Secured the funding for the project, compiled tax and revenue data of alcohol, created a pricing strategy and computed the price-inelasticity of alochol products. Created state specific factsheets and presented to state officials.
Water-to-Cloud: Correlating socio-economic indicators with river water quality data collected using real-time mobile sensors
(Co-Principal Investigator, Funding: Tata Center for Development at University of Chicago )
Conceptualised the study, created toolkits, supervised the survey to fisherman of Ganga river from stretches of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. We studied their perceptions of health and livelihood implications of Ganga river water pollution Studies on Impact of BS VI and Ethanol Blending on Human Health Index
(Funding: Indian Oil Corporation Ltd)
Led the project to study the health cost of air pollution among bus drivers and street vendors of Delhi. Presented the findings to the board members of the Indian Oil Corporation