Professional Experience:
• PKGFS Project Intern, January 2012 – Present
Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
My work is concerned with the implementation of an impact evaluation project conducted by the CMF, Harvard University and Pudhu Aaru Kshetriya Grameen Financial Services (PKGFS) called “Evaluating the Returns to Rural Banking: Village and Household Evidence from Southern India”. The project is aimed at understanding the impact of banking services (credit, savings, insurance and remittances) on the lives of rural poor in Thanjavur and Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu, India.
• Policy Research Intern, September 2011-December2011
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Responsibilities: I am a co-editor of the CMF Research Report document called “Five Years of Researching Financial Services for the Poor”. My assignment was to compile about 25 major completed and ongoing studies of CMF in the last 5 years. The Report emphasizes on the policy implications of these studies in matters concerning the development of ultra-poor, agricultural insurance products, financial inclusion, health technologies for the poor etc. The Report is aimed at helping our policymaking clientele to make informed decisions. The Report will be presented at the Reserve Bank of India’s College of Agricultural Banking Conference in January 2012.
Experiences: At CMF, I have received a broad overview of the rapidly growing work in applied development microeconomics in India. As the organization majorly conducts Randomised Control Trial experiments in India, I have been able to learn how these experiments are implemented in the field and especially about ways to cope with the difficulties faced in developing countries. It has also been enriching to learn how natural experiments are chosen when researchers are faced with non-experimental data.