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As a development economist with two decades of experience, I, Varna Sri Raman, have led numerous cross-sectoral research projects across four continents. My work in development economics involves studying economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries and improving living conditions for the world's poor. I've collaborated with global organisations like Sesame Street, ARK, BBC MediaAction, The Verian Group, AIF, Evidence Action, Oxfam India and Girl Effect.

I have executed research projects for funding organisations like Blockchain for Impact, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, The Gates Foundation, the World Bank, ICICI Foundation, Policy Innovations, Micro Insurance Academy, CARE India and International, ABT Associates, GiZ, UNDP, UNWomen, UNICEF, DFID, OPM, CIFF, PLAN India, ICRW, Ungender, Janpratinidhi and Halabol among other organisations. I have also worked in the research Industry at the Verian group, Karvy Insights, Purple Audacity, Outline India and many more.

I've taught at Delhi University's Janaki Devi Memorial College (JDMC), Gargi College, Delhi School of Economics and The School of Business Studies. I've also taught at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) and The ICFAI School of Public Policy in Hyderabad. Subjects I've taught include microeconomics, research methods, sociology, gender studies, experimental economics, environmental economics, health economics, law and economics, development economics, and public finance.

I've also worked with global consulting firms such as The Blue Lotus Advisory, ENY, and KPMG. I also run the widely read and widely circulated Research Rundown, a monthly newsletter for those interested in research on education, climate change, public health, gender, gender and data from a uniquely South Asian perspective.

Finally, I've worked with several ministries of the Government of India (MoPSI, MoHUA, MSJE, Education, MoHFW), the Department of Interior USA, the Department of Agriculture and Conservation in Kenya, and the Department of Civil Society and NGO Administration (NGO Admin Bureau) in Bangladesh.

I've served as the head and external member of internal POSH committees in several organisations, have worked in feminist litigation at the Supreme Court of India and am a lifelong member of the Feminist Evaluation Network (FEN) and the Gender and Equity Network South Asia (GENSA)

I currently lead PinPoint Ventures (called Idealog Works, too), focusing on evidence-based solutions for global issues. In my role as an advisor and consultant to the worldwide development community, I'm particularly proud of the following pieces of work:

Building the India Health and Climate Resilience Fellowship Programme, which focuses on augmenting Human-Centred Design (HCD) capacities at the district level to establish a “learning layer” in the Indian administrative system to solve complex public health and climate resilience problems over the next decade, 2023-2025.
Being the principal consultant to an extensive MEL portfolio for a major donor, supporting primarily on Women's Economic Empowerment and Public Health projects.
Leading, as Principal Investigator (PI) on research and programme design effort to develop family reunification strategies for runaway platform children from the Delhi-Bengal railway corridor, focusing on climate change and livelihood challenges faced by these children across six central Indian states, 2023
Leading, as the PI on a study on unpacking Parental Attitudes to Low-Cost Private Schooling, especially for girl children in seven states of India, 2023 for Catalyst Consulting
Leading, as the PI on a study on Menstrual Practices and Menstrual Product Choices in five Indian states for Currently Married Women (CMW) and their daughters in four states of India for Tata Trusts in 2022
Leading as the PI and Lead Author of the India Inequality Report and the India Discrimination Report for OXFAM India and OXFAM Global. The brief notes that privatisation of health and education has progressed while government expenditure in the same areas has proved insufficient. These documents reached thousands across the globe as supplements to the Davos 2022 meeting.
Editing and co-authoring a book on human experiences of the second wave of the Pandemic in India for OXFAM, 2022.
Mapping COVID data availability during the second wave of the pandemic in India and creating the world's first “testing at scale” toolkit for a non-public health intervention on seasonal migration in 2021.
Creating a high-quality MEL framework and Programme Quality Assurance (PQA) process for global development programmes, 2020, including at American India Foundation and Save The Children (India and Global)
I led the programme design, research design, and implementation of No Lean Season, a seasonal migration and agricultural incomes study associated with YALE RISE economists, via an RCT across three countries in 2018.
Established a MEAL unit for the American India Foundation (AIF) from scratch and developed measurable MIS indicators and plans for over six programmes nationwide in 2017.
Authoring the ‘Because I am a Girl’ report focusing on Gender Based Sex Selection (GBSS) laws and enforcement in India, 2016
Estimating attitudinal archetypes for WATSAN innovations for rural India along with pricing and behaviour change communication insights, 2017.
Creating the School Readiness Instrument (ECCED) for India, leading the field trial and implementation of India's first gold standard RCT on education vouchers in India, 2010
Testing and helping create a world-class curriculum for Lifeline programming response and resilience (RR), 2014.
Developing a methodology to measure progress on the Global Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 – focusing on Goal 5, 2017.
Designing, implementing and helping scale a microfinance loan product for rural Indian women to aid institutional delivery, 2008.
Evaluating and contributing to programme development work in more than 200 studies across the Indian and global nonprofit space.

In addition to my extensive experience in development economics and research, I also possess a solid technical foundation. I am proficient in using TidyVerse for data manipulation and visualisation and SQL for database management and extraction. I have used Stata extensively for statistical analysis and Tableau for data visualisation projects. I also have experience in data analysis with Python and R, which includes cleaning, transforming, modelling, and visualising data. Furthermore, I have worked with MAXQDA for qualitative data analysis. These technical skills have been invaluable in my work, allowing me to efficiently analyse and interpret complex data sets and draw meaningful insights.

Certifications:

Food Cultures via SALTED
Generative AI via 100DaysofAI
Chatbots and GPTs via Growthschool
Visual Ethnography via NYIP
Blockchain for Good via TechSoup
Data Visualisation via GESTALT Ed.Tft
Quantitative & Qualitative Analysis via VERIAN
Applied Econometrics via IIS
CLEAR SA Programme Eval JPAL-IPA
Preschool Educator SURAASA
Design Thinking for Social Service Delivery via KPMG
Legal Research, Supreme Court of India Apprenticeship
Machine Learning for Global Good, MITLabs

Startup Experiments:

I am the proud co-founder of StoryWell Books (see www.storywell.in), an independent book publisher. This venture is more than just a business operation for me. It serves as a conduit for my passion for literature and the arts. It is a platform that allows me to express my creativity and love for storytelling, and it gives me immense joy to share this love with others through StoryWell Books. It is a space where I can curate a collection of books that resonate with me and, hopefully, with other avid readers. This project is a testament to my belief in the’ power of stories and their ability to inspire, educate, and transform lives.
I am also the co-founder of MakeItPop Online, a comprehensive digital marketing company with a particular focus. We dedicate our wide range of services to nonprofit organisations, understanding their unique needs and tailoring our strategies to help them effectively reach their goals. Our mission is to use the power of digital marketing to create a significant positive impact for these organisations and the communities they serve.

Other Projects

Working on a book about problem-solving in global development.
Building a marketplace for sustainable home products.

Code and Dataverse:

GitHub Repository is available here:

https://github.com/Varnasr/R-Code-Repository

Personal TechStack is here:

Varna Sri Raman's profile on Product Hunt | Product Hunt

List of technical skills|projects: Coming Soon

Awards and Recognition

As a permanent Harvard Square Leaders Excellence group member, I won the Women's Economic Forum award in 2019 for "making the world a better place." I've also won a Data Innovations Award, a Decadal Award for Social Research, and a Woman Achiever's Award in 2016.

The Harvard Square Leaders Excellence group is an online leadership collective. The Women's Economic Forum is a global platform for women and their contributions to finance and economics. The Data Innovations Award focuses on efforts that enhance the world's data pipeline, making evidence-based policymaking a reality. The Decadal Award for Social Research acknowledges substantial contributions to social science research. The Woman Achiever's Award is awarded to women making remarkable contributions to their professions.

VSR Photo.jpg

CV

Varna Sri Raman CV.pdf

linkedin.com

Skill Map

As a development economist and experienced researcher, I have diverse skills that allow me to navigate the complex world of global development. My skills include:

Economic Analysis
Research Methods
Project Management
Data Management
Event Management
Collaboration
Communication
Problem-solving
Leadership
Written Products
Training Pedagogy
Programme Evaluation
Outcome Assessments
Realtime Monitoring
Android Data Collection

Select Papers:

Sri Raman, Measuring School Readiness: The Sesame Workshop India Experience, November 2011, Entertainment Education Conference (EE5) JHUCCP
Sriraman and Banerjee, Study of Impact of ECE on primary level outcomes, the Galli Galli Sim Sim intervention in ICDS (Mumbai), 2012, Journal of Child Care and Education Policy
Sanitary Practice Adoption Barriers and Facilitators in Urban Slums in India, whitepaper for BMGF, 2016
Barriers to Modern Family Planning Methods Uptake in Rural India – What Should BCC Campaigns Focus On, whitepaper for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2016
Schooling in Urban Slums in India - Choices, Capabilities and Constraints, 2016, HDCA Journal, Helsinki
A framework for operationalising the Capabilities Framework in Poverty, 2016, HDCA and World Bank Poverty Measurement Journal
Strengthening Public Schooling Systems in India – A Teacher-Centric Model Might Make All the Difference to Education – 2018 International Development Review
The India Inequality Report and the India Discrimination Report for OXFAM India and Global.
Editing and co-authoring a book on human experiences of the second wave of the Pandemic in India, A Year of Havoc, for OXFAM, 2022.
Budget and Social Welfare Allocations Review, CBA 2023
Bringing Justice to Manipur, Live Law via PTI 2024
Op-eds are in ET, The Wire, BS, OneWorld South Asia, The Hindu, and the Washington Post. – 2023 and 2024

Education

My academic background includes the following:

→ Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School (CBSE), Chennai

Graduated in 2000 – 92%, 1st Division.

→The School, Krishnamurti Foundation India (CISCE), Chennai

Graduated in 2002 – 94%, 1st Division.

Electives: Economics, Environmental Studies, English, Health Studies

Delhi University, Delhi, South Campus

BA (Hons), Philosophy – 67% 1st Div Gold Medalist

ICFAI School of Public Policy, Hyderabad,

MPP, (Public Finance) – 8.33/10 CGPA Summa Cum Laude 1st Division

National Institute of Business Management, Chennai

MBA (Corporate Law) – 4.3/5 CGPA, Summa Cum Laude 1st Division

TATA Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, 2014*

Places you can read me online and offline:

Blog Posts

A collection of articles on economics and evidence in general:

Varna

An article/blog post on why the American India Foundation created. The brief notes that privatisation of health and education has progressed while government expenditure in the same areas has proved insufficient, a MEL department for the first time. I was their first MEL Director. Also available here.

Why Evidence Matters – AIF (Varna Sri Raman Article 1).pdf

An article/blog post on why Evidence Action chooses to test at Scale when smaller pilots already show success. I wrote it while the Global Programme Director of the No Lean Season programme. It is also available here.

Why (and when) we test at scale_ No Lean Season (Varna Sri Raman Article 2).pdf