Author Archives: admin

Hospital Participation in India’s National Health Insurance Scheme (RSBY)

Evaluation study on the response of hospitals to National Health Insurance Scheme (RSBY) in order to observe how RSBY impacts hospital decisions geared towards capacity expansion, adoption of new technology, specialized services and pricing for the non-insured. … Read More

Financing Practices in SHG

This study aims to better inform relevant policies for SHGs by observing intra group dynamics across financial and social interactions in SHGs and gain clarity on group behaviour, performance, preferences and aspirations of group members. … Read More

Yale Economic Growth Center’s Tamil Nadu Socio-economic Mobility Survey Part 2- Predicting Toilet Take-up in Rural India

Tanay Balantrapu, Ashwati Menon

The Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission aims to make India “open-defecation free” by 2019. While it is a laudable goal, it is worth noting that a variety of government-driven sanitation programmes of the past, which included both subsidies and … Read More

Electronic Data Collection – An Overview for Beginners

Sneha Mani, Suraj Nair

Today, electronic data collection finds application in various walks of life – be it in hospitals, industries, or offices. Since the advent of Open Data Kit (ODK) and Survey CTO,among other software platforms, electronic data collection has drastically changed the … Read More

How Cultural Beliefs and Attitudes of Women Influence Women’s Participation in Economic Development

LEAD Research Team

Previous studies on women’s role in agriculture and nutrition have indicated that women’s empowerment in agriculture is positively associated with per adult equivalent calorie availability and dietary diversity (Malapit 2013).  Research has also found that a woman’s decision-making autonomy has … Read More

Bridging the Last Mile: Evaluation of Mobile Phone-based Agricultural Extension

LEAD Research Team

In 2011, we launched a large-scale field experiment to evaluate a service (Avaaj Otalo, or AO) that delivers mobile-phone-based agricultural information to cotton farmers in western India. This service provides weekly agricultural advice in the form of voice calls to … Read More

Can Qualitative Research be Rigorous? Part 3: Sample Size

LEAD Research Team

Since the last post, I’ve had the opportunity to witness a couple of dialogues on the quantitative vs. qualitative debate; some were more encouraging than others. The first was during a panel session at the fall conference in Manila, where … Read More

Women’s Empowerment: The Importance of Micro-Level Indicators

Arpita Khanna, Monisha Mason

Women’s empowerment is usually measured by several macro level indicators such as fertility rates, literacy rates, participation in the labor force, and involvement in political affairs. While the importance of these is undisputed, we believe there is also a lot … Read More

Yale Economic Growth Center’s Tamil Nadu Socio-economic Mobility Survey Part 1- Does Improvement in School Quality Result in Increased Returns to Education in India?

Tanay Balantrapu, Dahyeon Jeong

There is an increasing emphasis on improving learning outcomes in discussions on education policy in India. With encouraging improvement in enrollment rates in primary schools over the past decade, it seems only natural that the focus is shifting to school … Read More

Why do We Use GPS? Application of Data

LEAD Research Team

For the past one year, GPS recordings have been important data points for all the phases of recent studies at IFMR-LEAD. This is because the relevance and application of GPS data has evolved enormously. Given its relevance in our work, … Read More