Author Archives: admin

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

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 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

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

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

Sometime in the beginning of 2014, Pratham Education Foundation published its Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). The report indicated a drastic improvement in the enrollment of children in elementary school in rural India, yet it also highlighted its concerns … Read More

Respondents using Avaaj Otalo (AO) – a mobile phone based agricultural extension service- are used to receiving weekly voice calls incorporating advice on a number of topics including agricultural inputs, weather, cultivation practices, etc. It never ceases to amaze me … Read More

For the remaining segments of this series, I’m going to specifically focus on the role of qualitative research in the context of impact evaluation. It is often the case that qualitative methods go under-appreciated in this context – after all, … Read More

Currently, I’m involved in the field team training for a second round of data collection for the Bricks project. As we’re in the intervention part of the study, this round is going to be as interesting and challenging as the … Read More