Aayush Agarwal is a Senior Associate with the Experiments and Evaluation team at our Centre and the Lab Manager of CSBC’s behavioural economics lab at Ashoka University. He specialises in conceptualising, designing, and administering experiments to test the efficacy of behavioural interventions in improving policy outcomes.

His current research includes investigating the role of risk exposure in the formation of social norms of cooperation and the role of beliefs in fatalism in complaint behaviour. He supports CSBC principal investigators and faculty affiliates in investigating the determinants of team behaviour in firms, voting behaviour, and support for climate change mitigation measures.

Before joining CSBC, Aayush worked with the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS), Nuffield College (Oxford University) and FLAME University’s joint experimental lab. He has experience with survey evaluations, lab, and lab-in-the-field experiments. He holds a B.A. in Public Policy and International Relations from FLAME University, Pune.

Abhishek Pandey is a Senior Associate for the Behavioural Insights Unit of India, NITI Aayog set up in the state of Uttar Pradesh. His work is primarily focused on providing strategic support and technical assistance to improve policy outcomes by generating behavioural solutions across sectors of health, nutrition, education, sanitation, financial inclusion, etc.

He has done post-graduation in public policy from the Indian School of Public Policy and an M.B.A. in development studies from the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India. Before joining CSBC, he worked with Madhya Pradesh SRLM in implementing a centrally-sponsored scheme Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP). His work aimed at developing entrepreneurial activities in tribal/rural areas of Madhya Pradesh. He is extremely fond of research and has published a couple of research papers on development and entrepreneurship.

Aditya Laumas is a Consultant at CSBC and has been contributing to the Centre’s efforts in improving health practices and financial inclusion for poor and marginalised populations.

Aditya holds a graduate degree in Economics from Delhi University and a Master’s degree in Economics from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune.

Aishwarya believes in the power of interesting people coming together to create a sustainable and inclusive world. She is a researcher with interest and experience in the issues of poverty, gender, livelihoods and climate change. She has worked with grassroots NGOs and policy think tanks on themes ranging from manual scavenging to unconditional cash transfers. Aishwarya has a background in Economics and is currently exploring data science for social impact. She is a people person and a behavioural science enthusiast - excited about the opportunity to use behavioural insights for social change. When not working, she can walk great miles for coffee!

Akanksha is a Research Associate with the Experiments & Evaluation team at CSBC. Her work includes development of experimental design protocol, field training and visits, quality control checks and project documentation.

She obtained her Master's degree in Neural and Cognitive Sciences from University of Hyderabad. Outside of work, Akanksha enjoys dancing, taking walks, travelling and trying new things.

Aishwarya Shashi Kumar is a Senior Associate with the Behavioural Design and Impact (BDI) vertical at CSBC. An economist and social psychologist by education, she is always eager to learn from multi-disciplinary teams and has worked closely with design thinkers in the past. She uses her experience to tackle human development challenges, primarily focusing on women-centric issues in public health. She enjoys contextualising research tools for vulnerable populations, to identify transformational insights and interventions. Her experience spans India and South Africa, and she hopes to continue exploring the global south.

She has previously worked at FinalMile – a behavioural science and design consultancy – and holds an M.Sc. in Applied Social Psychology from the University of Sussex.

Akhilesh has a background in Economics and Finance from Ashoka University and Social Entrepreneurship from IRMA. He worked as an Associate Consultant at a boutique Management Consulting firm before developing an interest in the Development sector. He worked at Chitrika (part of Access Livelihoods Group) - a grassroots NGO that works with the artisan community in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. He worked closely with the CEO in setting systems within the organisation and fundraising as well as with the community in implementing livelihood programs.

Akhilesh enjoys playing Badminton and going on long motorcycle rides.

Akhilesh has experience in strategic planning, implementation, and analysis. He actively contributes to the Centre's mission by engaging with government entities and stakeholders, testing impactful field interventions, ensuring extensive data collection and management, and delivering training and assessment solutions that drive results.

Akhilesh has a bachelor's degree in science, an MBA from IIM Kashipur, and certification from Macquarie University, Australia. He has successfully managed and led projects supported by The World Bank, the Vodafone India Foundation, the National Cooperative Development Corporation, and the National Stock Exchange IT Ltd. Akhilesh loves trekking and embarking on long bike rides in the Himalayas.

Ambika has extensive experience in researching and designing interventions across multiple sectors, including education, livelihoods and WASH. She previously managed the end-to-end of large-scale impact evaluations across a total of 30,000 participants in multiple regions of India. Eager to bring her evaluations perspective to the design of interventions, she then joined a youth livelihoods nonprofit where she built the research vertical, spearheading the use of data and systematic processes through the co-creation of Theories of Change and log frames, conducting needs assessments and generating accessible MEL insights. In 2023, Ambika graduated with an MSc Behaviour Change from University College London, where her thesis examined the barriers and enablers to rural youth entrepreneurship in India. In one of her projects as a student, she headed a team of aspiring behaviour scientists to leverage the Behaviour Change Wheel and EAST frameworks to combat harassment among university students. She also holds an MA in International Relations from New York University (2015).

Anandita serves as a Research Specialist in Scientific Reporting at CSBC, focusing on translating research insights into broader public dialogue. With a foundation in research and academic writing, she has spent over five years at Ashoka University, where she pursued studies in Psychology and Political Science and later taught these subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Proficient in qualitative and quantitative research methods, Anandita's prior work has focused on integrating personal narratives with theoretical frameworks and policy contexts. Her research interests primarily revolve around exploring complex forms of trauma and their implications for public health and policy. Anandita is driven by a commitment to influencing decision-makers with insights drawn from their research, aiming to contribute meaningfully to societal well-being at both policy and community levels.

Ananya is an Associate at the Behavioural Insights Unit of India, NITI Aayog. She will be supporting the BIU's work on the National Jal Jeevan Mission. Her work profile includes stakeholder engagement, field visits, programme and knowledge management, report creation and documentation. Prior to CSBC, Ananya briefly worked in the Research vertical at Sattva- an impact consulting firm.

Ananya obtained her undergraduate degree (B.A) in Psychology from Ashoka University, with a focus on social psychology and behaviour science. She is eager to learn about the intersection of social psychology and public policy at CSBC, and wishes to build her career in this domain. Outside of work, Ananya enjoys thrillers and Bollywood movies, all food, hikes, and reading about mythology.

Astha is a Programme Associate with the Uttar Pradesh Behavioural Insights Unit at CSBC and holds a Master's in Public Policy from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai (2021) and a Bachelor's in Economics from NMIMS, Mumbai (2019). She is deeply passionate about mental health policy research in India and has previously worked as the Founding Associate of a health-tech consulting start-up in Bangalore. She has hands-on research experience, having previously worked with Sangath on multiple projects such as the systematic reviews on The Comorbidities of Alcohol Addiction in Low-and-Middle Income Countries and Understanding Trauma-Related Interventions in Non-Specialised Settings and with PATH on landscaping mental health programmes, policies, and laws for international donors such as Wellcome Trust UK and Fondation Botnar. She served as one of the fifteen Youth Advisory Panel Members from India for the Global Mental Health Data Bank Project funded by the Wellcome Trust UK. She also volunteers her time with Samaritans, a suicide prevention helpline. Astha is a trained Kathak dancer who has a penchant for writing and dancing.

Ashali Bhandari is a Senior Urban Planner with the Encouraging Low Carbon Lifestyles in Indian Cities project at CSBC. She also leads the Future Cities initiative at Transitions Research based out of Goa. A geographer and urban planner by training, she is passionate about developing pathways for equitable and resilient development in Indian cities. In the past, she has pursued her interest in the intersectionality of climate change, women’s access to urban spaces and informal livelihoods through her work in cities in India and Bangladesh.

She has previously worked at the National Institute of Urban Affairs, a think tank for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Studio X Mumbai, an architecture and planning studio as part of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. She holds a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A in Geography from Middlebury College.

Aastha has more than 15 years of experience in international development and welfare, specialising in partnerships, stakeholder management, government relations and advocacy.

She has worked on many pressing national issues in public health, anti-trafficking laws, gender, and education while holding senior positions at Teach For India, Girl Rising, and Global Health Strategies, to name a few. Over the last decade, she’s led several international multi-stakeholder communication projects involving the state/national government bodies, multilateral agencies, corporates, and academics. At the heart of it, she believes in the collective power of diversity and its role in saving lives.

I hold a BA (Honours) in Psychology from Delhi University and a Master of Arts in Education from Azim Premji University.

I have nearly 10 years of professional experience and have taken up various roles during this time as an educator, consultant and manager in leading EdTech companies. I bring expertise in stakeholder management, content design, people and project management.

I enjoy working with people to achieve common goals by building trust in the process. During my free time, I enjoy reading, nature walks and cooking.

Athulya earned her BCom in Economics and Finance from McGill University and MSc in Economics from Tilburg University, with a concentration in Behavioural Economics. Her past work experiences include internships at WWF Indonesia, then a digital startup in Montreal, one of the Big 4 accounting firms, and a nonprofit in Kenya, that caters to empowering women-led small businesses before committing to her passion in Research. Her topics of interest include the intersection of political sociology and game theory. Currently, she works as a Research Associate under the Experiments and Evaluation team to assist in designing and executing lab and lab-in-the-field experiments.Outside work, you will mostly find her sitting at a quaint cafe in the city, enjoying a cup of coffee with a book. Athulya is an avid traveller seeking beautiful landscapes, hipster towns and diverse cultural experiences.

Catherine Thomas examines the psychology of poverty and inequality and their potential remedies. Her research endeavours to uncover social psychological processes that undermine the economic mobility of individuals in poverty while simultaneously dampening public resolve to address inequality, thereby perpetuating systems of poverty and inequality. However, she demonstrates how brief social psychological interventions can disrupt these systems. Specifically, her research reveals how paying attention to culturally specific forms of agency and motivation can foster both social inclusion (such as status, dignity, and social support) and economic inclusion (such as economic mobility and support for redistributive policies). Catherine's research aims to pinpoint the drivers of social and cultural inclusion, economic equity, and their interplay. She conducts laboratory and field experiments in the United States and low- and middle-income countries, often in collaboration with nonprofits, governments, and interdisciplinary teams.

Deepak Pradhan joined as Deputy Research Manager in the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change. He works with the Pop-UP lab (Field Empirics) under the Research vertical at the centre. Deepak holds a Master’s degree in Operation from IMT-Ghaziabad (CDL). Before joining CSBC, he worked with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in different states and in KANTAR IMRB as a Senior Executive in the project management team. Deepak has a total experience of 10+ years where he worked at KANTAR IMRB with 4+ years of experience in the Market Research industry and 6+ years of experience as an Operation Manager In the Social Research Industry. He sees himself as a Team player with excellent communication skills with the field team, focused on high-quality work with cost & time efficiency, and highly self-motivated. Deepak's hobbies are travelling, watching movies, and spending free time with family.

Enrique is a behavioral scientist. He has recently joined the European University in Spain as a Professor of Economics and Director of the newly created Institute for Behavioral Economics. With the support of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, USAID and the Templeton foundation, Enrique is running field behavioral work to design behavioral public policies in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ecuador, India, Colombia, the United States, and other countries. His current research areas include the behavioral roots of poverty, the financial exclusion of rural women in conflict areas, the discrimination of Venezuelan migrants in Peru, the role played by religious beliefs in gender discrimination, and how educational entertainment (e.g., radionovelas) may effectively fight discrimination.

Ishank Daral is a Senior Behavioural Data Scientist at CSBC and heads the data analytics team at the Centre. Along with supporting the Centre in analysing various public health projects, he’s also working at the intersection of Behavioural Science and Data Science and is leading the Centre’s Machine Learning Initiative to leverage ML and AI as new-age research methods. He is passionate about using data for social good and utilising large publicly available data sources from social media websites. His primary areas of interest in research are focused on wellbeing, health and sanitation.

Prior to CSBC, Ishank worked as a Data Science SME, leading several marketing analytics projects and generating behavioural insights in retail, pharmaceutical, hospitality and CPG domains across multiple geographies. A curious “coder”, he’s also interested in teaching, and has designed and taught data science courses in multiple organisations and at LSE.

Ishank holds a Master’s in Behavioural Science from London School of Economics, and a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from BITS, Pilani.

Jyotika Misra is an Associate with the Uttar Pradesh Behavioural Insights Unit. She is tasked with supporting various behaviour science-informed projects to ensure that the projects are grounded in their local contexts while carrying out intelligence briefings, supporting diagnostic studies, stakeholder engagement and field research.

She completed her MPhil in Development Studies as a Commonwealth Scholar from the University of Cambridge. She also holds a Master’s in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her areas of interest are gender, healthcare, labour, and education. While her research at Cambridge explored the impact of professionalisation of the domestic work sector on the security, agency and organisation of female domestic workers in India, her Master's research endeavoured to understand female participation in vocational education in India through the Industrial Training Institutes of Delhi. With extensive volunteer experience in education and gender, she is passionate about bridging the gap between theory and practice.

In her free time, Jyotika enjoys travelling, exploring new cuisines, music, and cinema.

Jocelyn Joseph is a gender researcher who uses ethnography and human-centred design (HCD) to best understand humans around her. She is passionate about working with adolescents and has spent much of her professional life working with them on various topics under Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and Menstruation Hygiene and Management (MHM). She strongly believes that a seemingly linear problem must always be tackled with a multi-pronged approach to best yield holistic results. This principle leads her to combine HCD, Ethnography and Behavioural Science, leaving no research stone unturned!

Outside of her 9-5 job, she conducts theatre workshops with adolescents to question gender and understand one’s own body. Alongside this, she co-founded a creative agency and often trains start-ups on creating gender-sound technology and branding.

Her antidote to stress lies in driving, trying to play instruments, brewing coffee and giving people unsolicited suggestions about great music, movies and books! Here are a few authors that she suggests everyone reads - Roland Barthes, Zadie Smith, BR Ambedkar and Bama.

Jocelyn has a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a Master's degree in Gender Studies from Ambedkar University.

Kavya leverages her education in environmental economics and political science from Mount Carmel College Bangalore and the University of Lucknow to accelerate action addressing intersectional issues of climate, health, and gender. She brings a wealth of experience spanning four years, focusing on developing advocacy strategies, managing stakeholders, and building coalitions.

At Global Health Strategies, she worked on many prioritized areas, such as Tuberculosis, COVID-19 vaccines, Family Planning, and building a conducive work environment for women in the modern age. Her proudest achievement is uniting and spearheading health and climate partners to develop the agenda for the inaugural Health Day at COP28. Kavya began her career advising private equity and venture capital firms on green and ESG investments. However, she soon transitioned to the social impact sector, driven by the cause of bringing attention to overlooked stories and advocating for sustainable change.

Keshav Kunal is the executive assistant to the CSBC Director. He also supports the experimental lab team under the research vertical.

Keshav has a Bachelor of Engineering in IT from the International Institute of Information Technology, Pune. His research interests include poverty, governance, and health literacy.

Malvika is an Associate with the Visibility Vertical at CSBC. She has prior experience in social media and content marketing. She did her undergraduate in Communication Design and went on to do her master’s in International Public Policy. She has four years of experience in social media, including design and account management. Her hobbies include driving, design, music and art.

Muskan Jain is a Research Associate at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, where she is committed to making a positive impact on society. With a passion for addressing the world's most pressing problems, Muskan focuses her efforts on climate change, supporting CSBC's work on adopting low-carbon lifestyles in Indian cities and promoting safety by tackling smoking in Indian trains through a behavioural lens. In the past, she has worked in the area of teenage health and education, where the research focused on understanding the relationship between self-esteem and the sexual and reproductive health of teenage girls and, thereafter, designing interventions to enhance their self-esteem.

Muskan has a strong background in conducting qualitative and quantitative research and project management. She holds a Master’s in Behavioural Sciences from CHRIST (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore, and an under-graduation degree in Commerce (Hons.) from Hansraj College, Delhi University.

In addition to her work at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Muskan has previous experience in consultancy work, designing surveys, and creating educational content for individuals with special needs.

Muskan is driven by a zest for making a meaningful impact in the world and is dedicated to using psychology and behavioural sciences to address complex social issues. In her free time, she enjoys travelling, cooking, and driving.

Dr Narges Hajimoladarvish is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change and Lead Behavioural Scientist of the Pop-UP Lab. Narges is a trained economist with an interest in Behavioural and Experimental Economics. She runs experiments to investigate decision-making under risk and uncertainty and has expertise in eliciting risk and time preferences.

Narges has a PhD in Economics from the University of Leicester. She has 11 years of experience teaching various courses at the University of Leicester and Alzahra University. Before Joining CSBC, Narges was an Assistant Professor at Alzahra University, where she wrote an introductory book about Behavioural Economics in Farsi and established a laboratory for Experimental Economics. She has also contributed to Financial Tribune, an Iranian English Economic Daily.

Neel Karnik is an Associate with the Behavioural Design and Impact lab at CSBC. He did his graduation from the National Institute of Technology Warangal in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He did his Master’s in Public Policy from the National Law School of India University Bangalore. His hobbies are reading books and quizzing.

Neerja Agarwal is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Social and Behaviour Change. Her passion lies in dealing with adolescent mental health issues and improving the executive function of children with ADHD. At CSBC, her work focuses on designing a curriculum that aims to improve emotion regulation among adolescents. She has a PhD in Psychology from Andhra University and has trained as a master practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and as an Advanced Life Coach. As a Rehabilitation Psychologist, she worked with Tulasi Psychiatric and Rehab Centre, treating substance abuse and other personality and mental disorders. She was a consultant with UNICEF and helped create the guidelines for Adolescent Empowerment Centers across India. Her experience working with various NGOs in the field of Mental Health led her to become a Resource Person in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan where she trained doctors, ANMs and Anganwadi workers on early identification of developmental disabilities. In addition to her work, Neerja enjoys reading non-fiction, listening to music and making Tanjore Paintings.

Nilanjana Bargotra is a Programme Manager at the Behavioural Insights Unit at NITI Aayog. She is involved in the academic and capacity-building work for NITI BIU, notably on the Jal Jeevan Mission, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission and LBSNAA.

She is an economist who holds an MSc. in Development Management from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a a MSc. in Quantitative Finance from the Madras School of Economics (MSE). She was also a former graduate consultant with the International Labor Organization, studying digital economies in Africa. She has led projects for the World Bank, IWWAGE and was part of a technical support unit for women MSMEs in the National Rural Livelihood Mission, focusing on improving final inclusion and labour market aspirations for women nano-entreprenuers.

Her areas of interest and enquiry are bargaining, risk and financial behaviour.

Nymphea Noronha is a Senior Programme Manager, Design and Advisory; and a Behaviour Science Researcher at the UP, Bihar and NITI Behavioural Insights Units at CSBC. She conducts research and designs interventions to address behavioural challenges in development. She has been working in nutrition (exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding), gender (family planning, domestic violence), WaSH (water quality related behaviours), developing Behavioural Design processes (toolkits, frameworks, Design Studio, teaching tools), and providing behavioural advisory services to external stakeholders.

She is interested in the use of behaviour science, socio-cultural insights and empathetic design for social good. Previously she was an Associate Director - Brand Strategy at Futurebrands Consulting, where she worked in socio-cultural and design research, consumer insights, and developing strategies with implications in products, services, design, branding and communication, across categories.

Having received her Bachelors in Physics from St. Stephen's College (Delhi University), and Post Grad. Diploma in Liberal Arts at the Young India Fellowship (Ashoka University), she weaves a scientific temperament with a multi-disciplinary problem-solving approach.

Pallavi has extensively worked at an intersection of the public and private sector over the last 14 years. She has worked with the leading insights-based consulting organisations Nielsen, Kantar and Quantum. She has led research projects of various scales in the realms of public health, nutrition, and financial inclusion, among others. She has delivered data-driven intelligence to policymakers, donors, and implementing partners to measure impact and strengthen and scale interventions. In her leadership role, Pallavi has implemented comprehensive business generation strategies to drive revenue growth and fostered high-calibre professionals to drive organisational success.

Pallavi is a Deputy Director- Operations and External Engagement at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Ashoka University. She has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Delhi University and graduated with a Master’s in Development Studies from Ambedkar University, Delhi. She also completed an Executive Programme in Communications for Public Policy Delivery from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore.

Pratyusha Govindaraju is a Senior Research Specialist and Lead - Experiments & Evaluation at CSBC. She applies her training in economics and public health to conduct policy-relevant empirical research. Her research is focused on maternal and child nutrition and tuberculosis. Pratyusha holds a Master's in Economics from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and was a Fulbright-Nehru Master's Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In her last role, Pratyusha worked with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to evaluate a peer referral programme to improve the detection of tuberculosis cases.

As a Senior Advisor, Priyanka Thompson is leading the effort to strengthen the program and financial management systems at CSBC. Working closely with senior leadership, she guides overall organisational strategy and execution plans.

Priyanka has over 13 years of professional experience in the financial and development sector. She holds a degree in Finance from the University of London, International Programs and a Master's in Business Management from the Institute of Management and Technology, Ghaziabad. Passionate to apply her finance and business skills to support social sector organisations led her to transition from Capital and Finance markets to the development sector.

In the development sector, she has experience working with multilateral organisations, national and international non-profits and philanthropy foundations. Across her career span, she has worked extensively on investment portfolio management, strategy development, program planning and monitoring, and capacity strengthening. In her last assignment, she led program management of the Urban Sanitation India portfolio at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Purnima Mehrotra leads Measurement & Learning across various projects at the CSBC. She is also the lead on capacity-building programs in behaviour change for professionals and government personnel. She draws on her background in development communication, advertising, communication pedagogy, capacity building and evaluation research to fulfil her mandate at CSBC.

Currently, she is working with several partners in the entertainment-education domain to systematize concept testing, monitoring and feedback loops, impact evaluation, documentation and dissemination, such that content creation becomes evidence-driven with clear behavioural indicators as benchmarks of assessment. She is also working in partnership with key academic partners on developing a multi-disciplinary curriculum in behaviour change. Previously, Purnima was with UNICEF in the Communication for Development division, where she worked on the development and evaluation of a social and behaviour change communication strategy for maternal, infant and young child nutrition. Before UNICEF, Purnima was a Senior Researcher at the Population Council, where she led multi-year projects on evaluating a community mobilisation effort to improve RMNCH behaviours among most marginalized women and assessing the programmatic success of government schemes-related incentive payments directly to beneficiaries. Purnima has also taught graduate and undergraduate courses in communication and research methodology at the University of Kentucky and the University of Connecticut. She obtained her PhD in Communication from the University of Kentucky, USA and a post-graduate diploma in marketing communication from MICA, Ahmedabad.

Rachita Vig is a Research Specialist at CSBC overseeing the design and implementation of a suite of projects in the livelihoods and health sector. Previously, she was a Research Professional at the Becker Friedman Institute, University of Chicago conducting experimental and quasi-experimental research in sectors of conflict and political economy in Pakistan and Nigeria. She has also been a Senior Research Associate at The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) where she worked at the intersection of research and policy supporting the Government of Haryana (GoH), India scale up interventions to boost immunization demand and transform adolescents’ gender attitudes. She also advised GoH on how to make administrative data research ready and led capacity strengthening initiatives for the health department. She has a masters in Analysis and Policy in Economics from Paris School of Economics, France and an undergraduate degree in Statistics from the University of Delhi, India.

Radha Rani is a senior research associate with the Experiment Evaluation team. She holds a bachelor's degree in statistics and is currently pursuing data science. Over the past six years, she's been dedicated to the development sector, with her initial two years spent as a Gandhi Fellow in the field of education and the subsequent four years focused on impact assessment, monitoring, and evaluation. In her free time, Radha finds joy in nature, gardening, and indulging in movies and series.

Richa Shankar is a Public Health specialist with over 16 years of experience working in the health and development sector with multi-laterals, non-profits, and private foundations. At CSBC, she is leading the strategy and operations function, supporting the Managing Director in providing leadership, guidance and mentoring to all verticals ensuring timely progress on all fronts required to achieve organisational goals.

Richa has an in-depth understanding of the socio-demographic landscape, including – issues and challenges that India faces, the stakeholders striving to bring about social change, including the government and non-government organisations, and opportunities and challenges that organisations face while operating in the sector. She has led large multi-disciplinary teams while working with national and international non-profit organisations and ensuring the successful implementation of programs across her career span. In her last role, she led the family planning policy portfolio at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ronika Postaria is a Research Associate working with the ‘Encouraging Low Carbon Lifestyles in Indian Cities’ project at CSBC. She is also working on the Future Cities programme as an Urban Planning Associate at Transitions Research, Goa. She is keen on People-oriented design and Sustainable development. In the past, she was involved with urban development and policy formulation projects for the government and other public authorities.

As an Urban Planner and Designer, she is inclined toward making cities inclusive and liveable by concentrating on the correlation between the public realm, gender, and age. She is a member of Women in Urbanism, Brussels, where she is actively engaged in reimagining public spaces through women's perspectives. She also advocates for PlacemakingX, supporting innovative urban design and placemaking initiatives worldwide. Ronika holds an MSc in International Planning with a specialisation in Urban Design from University College London (UCL).

Rubiya Javed is a seasoned professional with a decade of experience in Hospitality Services, Facility Management, Team Management, Inventory Management, Vendor Management, and Event Management.

Beyond her impressive career, Rubiya is a fun-loving individual who's embracing motherhood. She's also a local expert on the vibrant city of Lucknow, making her our go-to person for all things Lucknow-related. And, when she's not managing teams or events, you'll find her in the kitchen, bringing her culinary magic to life.

Sheral is a Senior Research Associate with the Behavioural Insights Unit of India, NITI Aayog. She holds a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Warwick. Before joining the BIU, Sheral was a Research Associate with J-PAL, wherein she worked in education and gender. She is experienced in managing and conducting field research and data collection activities. Her primary interests lie in gender and social norms. She is enthusiastic about creating impact and bringing about behavioural changes through her association with CSBC/BIU.

Shreya Hasurkar is a Senior Research Associate with the Research Vertical at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change. As part of the Field Empirics team, she works on conceptualising, designing and monitoring various qualitative and quantitative studies, studying social norms and testing behavioural interventions across subject domains.

Shreya graduated from Ashoka University with a B.A. (Hons.) degree in Political Science. She is passionate about women's preventive healthcare and education in rural communities and spends her time outside work pursuing personal projects.

Siddharth Tiwari is a post-graduate with a Master's in History from the University of Delhi. He has devoted the past two years to multifaceted roles emphasising social media planning, content production, outreach management, and collaborations. His experience extends to overseeing podcast creation and managing versatile communication channels. Siddharth holds a firm conviction in harnessing communication for meaningful impact. Beyond his professional pursuits, he finds fulfilment in traversing diverse locales, delving into local histories, and expressing his creativity through the lens of photography.

Siyamak is a senior Statistician at the CSBS, collaborating with the Experiment and Evaluations team with data analyses and consulting the team about the statistical approach in research projects.

He has previously worked for multinational corporations in the fields of planning, operations and marketing for 10 years. He holds a Master's in Mathematical Statistics from Stockholm University and a B.S. in Statistics from ATU, Tehran. He has also translated some Economics books to Farsi.

Shweta Bankar is Senior Fellow – Qualitative Research, at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC). Currently, she is working across teams to provide qualitative research inputs and leading several qualitative studies at the centre. Shweta is working with several partners to develop the empirics at the distance platform to engage with qualitative research, experiments and testing. She leads the Secretariat for the South Asia Social Norms Learning Collaborative in partnership with Project Concern International (PCI), India.

Her professional and research experience includes developing and executing numerous projects in the development sector with a prime focus on adolescents and gender. Before CSBC, Shweta was with Dasra where she led the designing and execution of the Community of Practice for adolescents in the state of Jharkhand. Preceding Dasra, she was with International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW). At ICRW, Shweta led the sports for development program in Mumbai and other adolescent research programs in rural Maharashtra using various qualitative techniques. She led the Document, Drive and Deliver (3D) Program for Girls and Women at the district level in Pune in collaboration with district administration, non-government organisations and corporates. Her work involved the identification of challenges in policy using qualitative research and designing interventions for change with the partners and donors. Shweta has a Masters in Clinical Psychology from S.N.D.T University.

Simran Saraf is a behavioural and economic scientist with a passion for research. Her previous academic research covered the topics of catcalling, victim-blaming, and the description-experience gap in memory and learning. Other projects involved the area of healthcare, including COVID-19 and wellbeing, social prescribing for mental health and prostate cancer risks. Simran is greatly interested in the application of behavioural insights to tackle societal challenges through high impact scalable solutions in the non-profit sector. She hopes to further explore the effectiveness of interventions for marginalised populations through her work at CSBC. In her free time, she enjoys thrifting, overanalysing television shows and books, and asking strangers if she can pet their dogs.

Simran holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Psychology and an M.Sc. (with Distinction) in Behavioural and Economic Science from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.

Satheesan is an accomplished NGO management professional with a long track of experience in NGO operations. He has been working in the development sector for more than two decades in different roles such as grant management, donor relations, HR & operations, procurements, communication, and media engagement. With his valuable organisational knowledge of dealing with large-scale managerial challenges, he is also a proven professional operations expert. With a Post Graduate Management in HRM and Diploma in Financial Management & Accountability, his career spread over three major organisations: Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), Learning Links Foundation (LLF) and Quest Alliance. At PRIA, he led the Procurement & Contract Management Unit for a decade and with LLF and Quest, he engaged with CSR donor-supported projects as well. Satheesan has experience with projects supported by organisations such as SDC, CIDA, Ford Foundation, Asia Foundation, UNFA, UNDP, MoPR, World Bank, APPI, WaterAid, DFID, DVV International, various state departments, Bank of America, CISCO, Dasra, and more. Satheesan loves movies, music, especially Carnatic and Hindustani, and books. Satheesan volunteers for Clone Cinema Alternative, a platform that promotes offbeat movies in India and is also a member of the science communication program group "Open Science / Science People."

Taniya is the Associate Director - Behavioural Advisory & Business Development at CSBC. In her role, Taniya leads CSBC's business development and rapid-response Behavioural Advisory projects with clients and key stakeholders.

In the past, Taniya has worked as a Nonprofit Advisory Consultant both as an Independent Consultant running her practice and with institutions such as Sattva Consulting as an Engagement Manager and a Business Development Manager at Atma - Accelerator for Education. Her work so far has been at the intersection of Nonprofit capability-building, strategy development, and fundraising/sales.

Taniya holds a Master's Degree in Literary and Cultural Studies from the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, a Master’s in Social Entrepreneurship from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, and a Bachelor's Degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She is an alumna of the Gandhi Fellowship (2011-2013), and she is empanelled as a mentor at the One Future Collective, an organisation focused on gender justice, feminist leadership, and mental health in Mumbai.

Vaibhav works as a consultant in the Popup lab at CSBC. He handles field experiments and supports in all areas of research work. He obtained his Master's in Social Work, from Banaras Hindu University. He is very enthusiastic about working in social development sector and always keen about exploring new knowledge so that he can apply those in his field. He pursued his internship at HCL Foundation under “Happy School” project. Previously, Vaibhav worked for Care India as a Block Manager under multiple Healthcare programs led by Bihar Government.

Vartika Shukla is a Financial Inclusion consultant with 12 years of experience in the digital finance and microfinance domain, working with financial service providers in 8 developing countries – India, Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi, Nepal, Lao PDR. Her work focuses on assisting clients to implement digital financial services solutions. This work includes strategy development, agent network development, institutional diagnostics, training curriculum design and qualitative market research to understand customers’ needs, product development and process re-engineering. Vartika also delivers workshops and training to support this work. She has worked on consulting and research assignments for microfinance institutions (MFIs), banks, NBFCs, MNOs, ANMs, and donor agencies.

Dr K. “Vish” Viswanath is the Centre’s academic partner, focusing on public health communications. He advises the Centre on several projects related to designing a health information trends survey to track changing patterns in people’s use and access to health-seeking information, undertaking a literature review on effective communication to reduce anaemia among pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls.

He is Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) and in the McGraw-Patterson Center for Population Sciences at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). He is also the Faculty Director of the Health Communication Core of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC). Dr Viswanath’s work, drawing from literature in communication science, social epidemiology, and social and health behaviour sciences, focuses on translational communication science to influence public health policy and practice. His primary research is in documenting the relationship between communication inequalities, poverty and health disparities, and knowledge translation to address health disparities.

He has written more than 200 journal articles and book chapters concerning communication inequalities and health disparities, knowledge translation, public health communication campaigns, e-health and digital divide, public health preparedness and the delivery of health communication interventions to underserved populations.

Dr Pramath Raj Sinha is a Senior Advisor of the Albright Stonebridge Group, India and the Founder and Managing Director of 9.9 Mediaworx Private Limited. Before founding 9.9 Media, he was a Partner at Mckinsey and led the ABP Group, one of India’s leading and most diversified media conglomerates. Pramath helped set up and served as the Founding Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB). He continues to be a member of its Board of Governors.

Pramath is a Director on the Boards of PRADAN, India’s leading development institution focused on improving livelihoods in the country’s poorest district and of the Central Square Foundation, a philanthropic fund focused on improving the educational outcomes for low-income children in India. He holds a bachelor's degree from IIT Kanpur and an MSE and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

Pravin has joined CSBC UP BIU as a Senior Project Associate. With over four years of experience in government consulting and project management, Pravin brings a wealth of knowledge to our team. He transitioned from engineering to a development professional, earning a master's degree in Development Studies from TISS Mumbai. He also received public policy and management training from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow.

Driven by his passion for community and rural development, Pravin joined the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India, as a Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow. He was assigned to Mau, Uttar Pradesh, as a District Skill Committee member. In this role, he strategised and worked on various national and state-level schemes in education, skill development, entrepreneurship, and livelihood, ensuring their implementation under the guidance of the district magistrate. Beyond the professional work, you'll find me on the badminton court, lost in sketches or weaving words into poetry.

Pavan is an empirically informed senior advisor in the policy space and a social scientist. Substantively, he pursues two streams of professional work and scholarship - law/policy and applied behaviour science.

He currently serves as the Director of the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change at Ashoka University and works closely with the NITI Aayog. He has led the initiative to set up India’s first Nudge Unit, the Behavioural Insights Unit of India. He has also helped set up Behavioural Insights Units for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. His main work focuses on development-related issues in education, health, nutrition, and gender.

He has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Oxford and a Master’s (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School.

Dr Sharon Barnhardt is the Director – Research at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change at Ashoka University. She is an applied development economist and behavioural scientist who uses experiments to study policy-relevant topics in India. Her behavioural research focuses on sanitation and malnutrition.

Sharon is also active in Executive Education for the policy sector, having taught Behavioural Economics at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and program evaluation with J-PAL South Asia and CLEAR.

She is a Faculty Affiliate at the Jameel Abdul Latif Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn). Her experience includes positions at the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (Nuffield College’s lab in India), the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad, IFMR Business School (at Krea University), the World Bank, and J.P. Morgan.

Sharon’s academic record comprises a PhD from Harvard University, an M.P.A. from Princeton University, and a Bachelor's from NYU.

Shweta comes with more than 15 years of experience in both Program and MEL in various domains of the non-profit sector. Prior to this, she worked for more than a decade (2013 - 2023) in Public Health as senior Program Officer in the TMS project (funded by BMGF) at Care India,Patna. As part of the senior team rendered techno-managerial support to the Government of Bihar to improve RMNCHA+N outcomes state-wide and accelerate progress to achieve impact goals for Health. Before joining the Program team she worked as Senior MLE Specialist within their Concurrent Monitoring and Learning Cell.

Prior to this, she worked as Program Co-ordinator, heading the Action Research Unit at CIMP, Patna semi-funded by GoB. She started her career in Chennai as an Analyst, working for the Centre for Development Finance and FMR Trust which was funded by ICICI Foundation. She has done PGDRM from the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand in the year 2006-2008. She graduated in Physics from the Patna Women’s College and did her schooling at Notre Dame Academy, Patna.

Diksha Radhakrishnan is the Deputy Director at the Centre for Social & Behaviour Change, leading the Centre’s Behavioural Design & Impact Lab.

Previously, she served as CSBC's Founding Lead for the establishment of the Behavioural Insights Unit at NITI Aayog, where she led the delivery of multiple high-stakes behaviourally-driven projects for the Government, including a communication campaign to promote mask-wearing, SBCC component for PM's rural transformation initiative in Varanasi and generation of evidence-driven solutions for improving nutritional practices in rural communities (complementary feeding and IFA supplementation).

Diksha has extensive experience in the domain of applied behavioural research, at-scale program design, and operating in the public health landscape. She has previously worked at Evidence Action Kenya, responsible for identifying, designing and scaling evidence-based solutions with government partners, across countries in East Africa and South Asia. She also served as a Research & Training Manager at J-PAL South Asia on multiple public health evaluations, working closely with senior academics and with high-ranking bureaucrats from state governments of Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and Bihar. She holds an MSc. in Development Studies from the School of Oriental & African Studies, the University of London and a B.A. in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.

Dr Shagata Mukherjee is the Lead of Behavioural Insights Unit of India, NITI Aayog and a Deputy Director at the Centre for Social and Behavioural Change at Ashoka University.

Prior to this position, Shagata was an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Mumbai and an Affiliated Faculty at the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS) Nuffield -FLAME. He received the Vernon L. Smith Young Talent Award in Experimental Finance for his research on gender and microfinance. He is a co-founder of the Mumbai Behavioural Network.

Shagata holds a PhD in Behavioural and Experimental Economics from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, a Master's degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a B.Sc. in Economics from Presidency College.

Gautam Patel advises on scale-ups in government systems. Gautam has worked with governments for over 20 years: as a direct employee in the UK, Rajasthan, Gujarat for one decade; and led government partnerships at J-PAL South Asia and CSBC across many states for another decade. Gautam has also spent two decades as a volunteer community worker to motivate, educate and empower children of low-income families, including children who are out of school, or at risk of dropping out. Gautam has graduated from the London School of Economics with a Masters in Development Management (2007), and with a Masters in Biochemistry from Oxford University (2003).

Gopi is a strategic communications professional with over nine years of experience working with corporates, development organisations, think tanks, and educational institutes. He holds a Masters in Political Communications and Strategy from the Brussels School of International Studies (University of Kent) and a Bachelor's in Engineering from Vinakaya Missions University. His interests include public policy, technology, behavioural science, circular economy, and digital culture.

Dr Dinabandhu Mondal is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Behavioural Insights Unit of India, NITI Aayog at CSBC. He has a PhD in Geography from the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). His doctoral thesis delved into peri-urbanization and the emerging inequalities in the dynamic peri-urban areas around cities in India. He also holds MPhil and MA degrees from JNU.

His area of interest lies in development studies, with a particular emphasis on peri-urbanization, labour, WaSH, health, gender, and inequality. He possesses expertise in empirical research, employing advanced statistical and spatial analyses and proficiency in conducting and analysing primary field surveys.

Before joining CSBC, he also served at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS) on a collaborative project with the International Labour Organization (ILO) focusing on measuring unpaid domestic and care work.

Gaurav Singh is a Chartered Accountant by profession with more than 6 years of experience in the corporate and development sectors in audit, accounting, financial management, direct and indirect tax consultancy and litigation matters. At CSBC, he is responsible for grants and overall financial management with the support of senior leadership. He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Delhi University, a Diploma in Information System Audit from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is pursuing Law. In the development sector, he has worked with various organisations in different roles and provided consultancy in various Central Government initiatives, including the DDUGKY scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development, Learn and Earn scheme of the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Jan Shikshan Sansthan scheme of Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Skill Development.

Dr. Luis Artavia-Mora is an applied behavioral scientist with international experience as a manager, researcher, and consultant of social and behavioral change initiatives. Luis is currently working as an independent consultant and his experience includes providing technical support to private sector, governments, research centers, and international organizations such as World Bank, USAID, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Center for Social and Behavioral Change, and The Palladium Group. He has worked on projects related to migration, ethnic discrimination, financial inclusion, non-communicable diseases, stigma and mental health, gender norms, and the use of evaluation findings. He enjoys collaborating in teams to produce research papers, project deliverables, and write up grant proposals for public and private initiatives all around the world.

In his past, Luis has worked as Managing Director at the Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences and as an affiliate at the Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics, both at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also designed, supervised, and assessed research projects in social and behavioral change for graduate-level students in Erasmus University of Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and University of Pennsylvania (USA).

He is also editor and chapter author in the forthcoming book, “Behavioral Science for Development: Insights and Strategies for Global Impact”. By training, Luis holds a Ph.D. in Development Economics from Erasmus University of Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and a master’s degree in development economics with a specialization in impact evaluation (EUR). He is a citizen of Costa Rica and the United States of America.

Sanjit Dhami is a Professor of Economics in the department of Economics at the School of Business, University of Leicester. He did his MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto, Canada and an MPhil from the Delhi School of Economics, India. Before coming to Leicester in 2003, he worked at the University of Essex and Newcastle University for six years. He is also a CESifo network member at LMU, and Fellow of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Prof. Dhami has authored the following books:

1. The Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis published by Oxford University Press in 2016. This 1800 page book was then split into 7 volumes, edited and updated to include new material, before being published by Oxford University Press in 2019/20. It is the leading book in its area and endorsed by 3 Nobel Prize winners.
2. His new book, joint with Professor Cass R. Sunstein, titled Bounded Rationality: Heuristics Judgement and Public Policy was published by MIT Press in July 2022. It is a research monograph on bounded rationality and economic policy for an interdisciplinary audience that examines open problems, challenges, and the way forward for the social and the behavioural sciences.
3. His forthcoming book, approximately 900 pages long, on behavioural economics at the advanced undergraduate level is currently under production at Cambridge University Press, and to be published next year. It is an ambitious project that does not shy away from challenging frontier material. It is comprehensive yet comprehensible to undergraduate students in economics, and hopefully an interdisciplinary audience as well.

Prof. Dhami's research spans most areas in behavioural economics such as decision theory, social preferences, time discounting, game theory, emotions, and bounded rationality. His main interest is in examining the theoretical and empirical foundations in these areas. His work has been published in the leading journals in economics such as Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, European Economic Review, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Literature, Oxford Economic Papers, Economica, Mathematical Social Sciences, Economic Letters, Games, etc. He has also contributed to several edited book volumes published by OUP and MIT Press.

Prof. Dhami has given invited seminars at the leading Universities, such as Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, and Zurich, and taught several invited courses in behavioral economics at the Bavarian Joint PhD program, LMU Munich, and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Samyak is listed by Forbes as one of Asia's top young entrepreneurs. He is the Founder and Chief Architect at Workverse- a simulated workplace environment to train and assess graduates in 21st-century soft skills like creative problem-solving, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and storytelling. The aim is to prepare graduates, especially from tier 2 & 3 colleges, for the 5th industrial revolution, where human creativity & intelligence will be required to collaborate with artificial intelligence. As a passion project, he is also building a movement, Adopt India, to encourage and enable millennials to consider adoption as a family planning alternative. He started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 16 when he took the concept of Model United Nations & youth conclaves to schools and colleges located in the far-reaching corners of India. Over 10,000 students from across 80 cities participated in this initiative. He also presided over the first-ever Indo-Pak Youth Peace Summit during the same time.

In the past, he also executed The Green Batti Project in 2013 - India's largest 1-1 life-and-career mentoring program that paired 5000 under-resourced youth with educated professionals who served as role models. Samyak also partnered with the Election Commission of India to launch ‘Operation Black Dot' to enable students across 60 colleges in Mumbai to cast an informed vote in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and 2016 BMC Elections. He was instrumental in building the country's leading youth marketing and communications agency as the Chief Youth Marketer at DDB Mudra Group, for which he also won the Young Emvie of the Year presented by the Advertising Agencies Association of India. While working at DDB Mudra Group, he adopted and transformed an educational institution in Dharavi slums to make it future-ready by introducing multi-media learning, life skills programs and sex education. Samyak has done his schooling from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi post, where he pursued a Bachelor of Mass Media from Jai Hind College.

Dr Sanna Balsari-Palsule is a Senior Research Specialist at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change at Ashoka University. She is a behavioural scientist interested in the dynamics of behaviour change and the mechanisms that link intrinsic, psychological traits (e.g. personality, motivation) to a variety of important life outcomes.

Sanna holds teaching positions at the Department of Psychology, Ashoka University and previously at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Prior to joining CSBC, she was a Senior Behavioural Scientist at Dalberg, where she led the set-up of a behavioural sciences team and advised projects on data privacy, nutrition and financial inclusion. Sanna is a passionate personality scientist. She is a columnist for Psychology Today, Fast Company and Inc. and founder of Tango Metrics - a personality-based startup.

Sanna received her PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Swetha joins the Field Empirics team as Senior Research Specialist. Most recently, at J-PAL South Asia, she managed resource development and advisory for various state governments and central agencies towards making their administrative data research ready. She has also managed a large-scale research study jointly run with the Government of Tamil Nadu, and has worked as an RA on a large-scale evaluation in Odisha. Previously, as RA at the MIT Department of Political Science, she led fieldwork for a large-scale RCT on civic leadership training in the Philippines. Swetha has a Master’s in Global Policy Studies with a focus on econometrics and quantitative methods from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor's from the University of Warwick. She enjoys long walks, literary fiction and philosophy.

Dr Sneha Shashidhara is a senior research consultant at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, with a teaching position at the Psychology Department of Ashoka University. She is a cognitive neuroscientist by training to work as a researcher studying mechanisms of the brain underlying higher-order cognition and decision-making, and she is interested in the interaction between cognition and social psychology. A Gates-Cambridge scholar, she did her PhD, studying the multiple demand network in the brain, at the University of Cambridge. This network is active in different demands, be it language, memory, math etc. and handles many types of task difficulty. Prior to that, she did her Master's in Neuroscience at International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS), Goettingen, Germany.

Sonal is a monitoring and evaluation professional who worked with NITI Aayog before joining CSBC. She has an M.A. in Economics from Ambedkar University Delhi and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Miranda House, University of Delhi. As part of NITI Aayog’s evaluation team, she designed and managed the evaluation of government programmes relating to agriculture, food security, health, and nutrition. Before her stint at NITI Aayog, she had worked with several NGOs on the issues of SRHR, health media campaigns, and deworming. At CSBC, she is managing the behavior change project on improving teacher uptake of effective pedagogical practices. Her areas of interest include development economics, education, and gender issues. Sonal is a trained dancer, and in her free time, she likes to dance, read books, and visit museums and parks.

Sonika is a consultant in the Popup Lab at CSBC. She conducts field experiments, manages field operations, and provides field support in all types of research work. She has been working in the Social and Rural Development sector for more than five years and has experience on Various Projects in Healthcare, Education, and Financial Inclusion.

Prior to Joining CSBC, she was a Program Mentor for the Foster and Forge Foundation and managed multiple districts of Uttar Pradesh where she worked on Training and capacity building Under Mission Prerna of the Uttar Pradesh Government.

Sonika has also served as a Gandhi Fellow Under the Piramal Foundation where she has worked with NITI Aayog. Sonika holds a Master's degree in Social Work and a Post Graduate Diploma in Integrated Rural Development and Management from Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

Vikrom Mathur has over 20 years of international experience in multidisciplinary research and policy analysis at the interface of technology, society and sustainability. His research explores the role of human choice and societal decision-making in the face of normative and scientific uncertainty in relation to climate change, emerging technologies and human settlements.

Vikrom is currently helping set up India’s first urban living lab – Project Urban Living Lab (PULL) in Panjim – as a platform to test and fine-tune socio-technical innovation to address urban challenges in the real-life laboratory of cities and neighbourhoods. His ongoing work on Future Cities uses systemic foresight to understand transformations in India’s growing midsized cities and examine policies to ensure these are just, resilient and sustainable. His ongoing research on Human Choice and Climate Change examines the human and social dimension of climate change in India - how do we deeply and rapidly alter politics, norms, attitudes, behaviour and incentives to act?

He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University, Institute for Science, Society and Innovation. The focus of his research was on institutional frameworks for climate adaptation decision-making. He holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from McGill University.

Vikrom is the Founding Director of Transitions Research, India; Senior Fellow of the Observer Research Foundation, India; and Associate Fellow of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden.