Team

Director

Niveditha Menon
Lead: Gender; Qualitative Methods

Dr. Niveditha Menon is the Director at CBPS. She has over 20 years of work experience in the area of gender, specifically focusing on violence, empowerment, sexuality, and urban poverty. At CBPS, her work includes examining various gender-related themes such as the experience of women in the IT industry, boys’ underperformance in education in Commonwealth countries, gender violence in public spaces, and collectivisation of women. She has also worked extensively in the intersection of gender and education, including projects on secondary school education as well as developing mentoring models for adolescent girls and boys.
She has a PhD in Sociology and Demography, with a minor in Women’s Studies
from Pennsylvania State University. She has also taught at the Pennsylvania State
University (USA) and the International Institute of Information Technology (India).

Former Director

Jyotsna Jha 

Trained as an economist, Jyotsna Jha has led a number of research initiatives and has written a few co-authored books and contributed chapters on issues related with equity in education, gender, women’s empowerment and public finance. In recent years, she has worked on wide range of public policies and finance issues, including gender budgeting, health finance and public spending on children. She also writes on development related issues in newspapers and news portals. Prior to joining CBPS, she worked as an adviser at Commonwealth Secretariat in London, where she undertook research and policy advocacy in a large number of countries in Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia. Before that she has worked with the union and state governments as well as with civil society organisations in different parts of India on issues of equity in education.

Senior Research Advisors

Archana Purohit
Lead: Inequalities; Quantitative Methods

Dr. Archana Purohit is a Senior Research Advisor at CBPS. She has a PhD in Public Policy from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and prior to that, a PG Diploma in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). She has over 15 years of experience across social science research and financial services sectors and has worked with organisations such as ICICI Bank Ltd. and IWMI – TATA Water Policy Program prior to joining CBPS. Her research interests lie primarily in the areas of poverty, inequality and inclusive growth.
At CBPS, she has worked on various projects predominantly in the areas of public
service delivery, education, public finance and governance and internal migration.

Madhusudhan B V Rao
Lead: Public Finance; Decentralisation

An agricultural economist by education, Madhusudhan’s interests lie in the field of decentralization, public finance and policy. He has developed expertise in the analysis of budgets of local governments (rural and urban) as well as in the field of training elected representatives and government officers on budgets. He has trained over 1,000 elected representatives on budgets during his work with various projects. He is currently involved in studies related to decentralisation.
He was at CBPS for 7 years and for a brief period of 8 months he worked as a
Senior Research Fellow, Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement, Mysuru.
He joined CBPS back in March 2017.

Research Advisors

Sridhar R Prasad
Lead: Governance

Sridhar joined CBPS in April 2017. He has a Master’s degree in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining CBPS, he has spent over a decade and a half at General Electric focusing on project management, organisational development, research and technology innovation. Sridhar made a conscious shift from the technology sector to explore his interests in public policy and effective governance. At CBPS, he has worked on various projects predominantly in the areas of governance and accountability,
decentralization, public service delivery and gender.

Neha Ghatak
Lead: Education; Mixed Methods

Neha has a Master’s in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics. She is a Research Advisor at the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies where her engagement has primarily been with the education sector and gender studies. She has worked on several projects related to school education, community participation in education, Early childhood Education, Open and Distance Education, women’s empowerment and agency. She has also worked extensively on the Right to Education, 2009. With over 10 years of experience in the development sector, she has been involved in studies that examine inclusion in education and the relationship between gender, empowerment and education.
A Sociologist by training, she has always had a keen interest in the education
sector and has several publications to her credit.

Gayathri Raghuraman
Lead: Health

Gayathri joined CBPS in August 2018. Previously, she worked as a Research Associate with CBPS in the year 2014-2015. A General Physician by education, her interests in community medicine led her to specialise in Public Health. She has completed her Master’s in Public Health degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her MBBS from MGM Medical College in Mumbai. Her main area of work has been health insurance and health budget analysis. Her areas of interest include health equity, universal health coverage, urban health and non-communicable diseases.

Senior Research Associates

Sowmya J

Sowmya is a Senior Research Associate at CBPS. She has a Master’s in Economics from Bangalore University. She has over 7 years of experience across different research domains. When she joined CBPS in 2017, she was deputed for one and a half years in the crop insurance section of the Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka. She has worked on various research projects namely public finance for children, analysis of budgets of local governments and child nutrition at CBPS.

Yukti Jain

Yukti Jain is a Senior Research Associate at CBPS. She has earned her Master’s in Public Policy from Xavier’s Institute of Management University, Odisha and has over four years of experience in Accounting, Finance and Public Policy Analysis. She has worked with Members of Parliament, State Government’s, Academic Institutions and Civil society organizations across policy areas. Her work at CBPS spans across domains mainly Governance, Accountability and Public service delivery.  Her research interests include Public Finance, Urban Economics, Investment Promotion, Ease of doing business and Climate Finance.

Research Associates

Amukta Sistla

Amukta joined CBPS in October 2020 and currently engages with projects on gender and education. During 2019-2020, she worked in the roles of research assistant and trainer respectively. In 2019, she received her Master’s Degree in Development from Azim Premji University (APU), Bangalore. During master’s, she engaged in two major research undertakings – firstly, on the theme of intoxication and domestic violence in rehabilitation slum at Bawana, North Delhi; and secondly, regarding dry waste management in urban Bangalore. She worked on the topic of prohibition of liquor in India and its links to welfare, through a
law-based research paper.

Raghavi Purimetla

Raghavi joined CBPS in October 2020 as a Research Assistant. She is working in a project titled, ‘Gender violence in public spaces: Studying the approaches and theorising the pathways of change‘. She completed her Master’s in Public Policy and Governance from Azim Premji University and BA in Public Administration, History and Geography from Osmania University. Prior to the internship with CBPS, she interned at the Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore and at the District Collectorate of West Godhavari, AP.  Her areas of interest include policy analysis and evaluation in the domain of public health, human rights and women
empowerment.

Susmita Chatterjee

Susmita is a Development Researcher and Practitioner with a strong insight of grassroot developmental work with a Master’s in Development from Azim Premji University. She has a deep interest in understanding the concept of gender and rural livelihoods. She has worked with non-profits like Sustainable Livelihood Institute (SLI), Auroville and SwitchON Foundation. Her work has been a mix of project management and research. She has specifically worked on Eco-Tourism as a livelihood intervention, entrepreneurship training for SHG women, clean energy access in agriculture, Energy-Water-Agriculture nexus and has brought in her gender lens in all the initiatives. She has explored the fields and communities of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jharkhand during her previous work tenure. She has also worked as a part time Consultant with Adecom Network, a Dalit Women Rights based organisation in Puducherry. Her interest lies in undertaking action research and evaluation studies to critically assess interventions and policies on ground.

Research Assistants

Abida U C

Abida U C joined CBPS in September 2022. Abida has completed her Masters in Development Studies from TATA Institute of Social Science Mumbai and Bachelors in Economics (Hon) from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi. She has previously interned with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Her research interest includes Social exclusion, Social institutions, employment and livelihood and labour.

Tina Maria D’Souza

Tina joined CBPS as a Research Assistant in January 2023. She has a Master’s Degree in Applied Sociology and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Political Science, Sociology, both from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru. Before joining CBPS, Tina worked as a Research Assistant on an urban-economic ethnography project under Dr Maya M, Assistant Professor, CHRIST (Deemed to be University). She has also interned with Solidarity Foundation, Bengaluru, where she worked and assisted with multiple projects such as developing a sensitisation programme on LGBTQ+ identities for corporate
workers. Her research interests include education, gender and sexuality, and urban studies.

Vidhi B Shah

Vidhi joined CBPS in February 2023. She holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Sociology from CHRIST (Deemed to be University). With a background in psychology and economics, she has interned at the Department of Psychiatry in Sion Hospital (Mumbai), and at Muktangan Education Trust. During the course of her education, she volunteered with SOCHARA and Centre for Social Action, where she worked on projects pertaining to health and sanitation sensitization, along with organising community interactions and awareness sessions on sustainability, waste management, and other community issues. Before joining
CBPS, she was a social media intern and market researcher at Poocho, and worked as a graphic designer with The Mood Space, a mental health company.

Syed Mohiuddin Khadri

Mohiuddin joined CBPS in June 2023. He has a Master’s degree in Economics and a Bachelor’s degree with triple majors in History, Economics and Political Science, both from St. Joseph’s University (Bengaluru). During his studies at St. Joseph’s, he undertook two research projects namely: (i) Micro-Financing in Badamakan, Channapatna – A Study of Self- Help Group Grameenkoota and (ii) A Study of Sluggish Growth Prevailing among the Wooden Lacquered Toy Manufacturers of Channapatna. Before joining CBPS, he was a research assistant intern with the International Institute of SDGs & Public Policy Research (Aligarh).
His research interests include public finance, local institutions, informal market structure and small financial organisations.

Research Fellows (Cohort 2024-25)

Arvind Thadi

Arvind joined CBPS in July 2024 as a Research Fellow. He completed his Bachelor of Science (Research) in Economics from Shiv Nadar University in 2024, with a minor in Sociology. Prior to joining CBPS, he worked with institutions like The Habitat Trust and TISS Hyderabad, as well as conducting individual research, gaining diverse experience in areas such as public finance, geo-spatial data analysis, climate change and social conflict, and developmental economics. His research interests broadly encompass the intersections of empirical social science and public policy.

Ariyan Pal

Ariyan Pal joined CBPS as a Research Fellow in July 2024. He has completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from KJ Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce, Mumbai. Prior to joining CBPS, Ariyan worked as a Market Research Analyst for Yelow Financial, a Fintech firm in Delhi. He has also interned with Queer Institute in a paper titled – “Interplay between LGBTIQ+ Health, Social Support, and Economic Opportunities” and worked as an Independent researcher to curate a Policy Note titled “Alternative Path for the Parel Slow Local: A Policy Proposal for Enhanced Commuter Convenience.” His research interest areas include the intersection of Development & Economics, Education, and Urban Public Finance.

Akshitha Unnithan

Akshitha joined CBPS as a Research Fellow in July 2024. She is a graduate of St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru with a double major B.A. in Political Science and Sociology. Previously, she was a research assistant at the office of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Akshitha has also worked as an educator at Spandana (By CARE and Ashirvad Centre), a non-profit organisation in Bengaluru that aims to improve the learning outcomes of underprivileged children of migrant families. Additionally, she has presented research papers at national and international conferences on topics such as disability justice and crisis standards of care, environmental racism, climate justice and neo-colonial development models. Her research interests lie at the intersection of feminist political philosophy, anti-caste and anti-racist praxis, and community-based approaches to development.

Research Fellows (Cohort 2023-24)

Surya George

Surya George joined CBPS in July 2023 as a Research Fellow for the cohort 2023-24. She has completed her graduation in BA (Hons.) Economics from the University of Delhi. During her course of education, she worked as a Researcher for AYO RECENT, a pan-research centre affiliated with ASEAN Youth Organisation, and has published a paper titled ‘Data Protection in Contemporary ASEAN: Analyzing Incidents of a healthcare data breach in Indonesia’. Was an Undergraduate Research Fellow for the Department of Economics, Jesus and Mary College, and worked on co-authoring a report titled ‘International Labour Migration to India: The study on the migration pattern of Nepali workers, a case study from Nainital’. Worked in bridging the educational gap among slum children in the neighbourhood of Dwarka suburb with Nanhi Kashtiyan, an NGO based in Delhi as a research intern. Her areas of interest primarily lie in the intersection of economics and public
policy with a focus on education, migration, and data protection.

Taabinda Jameel

Taabinda is a Research Fellow at CBPS. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru (formerly known as St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), where she majored in Journalism, International Relations and Peace Studies, and Public Policy (JIP). Prior to joining CBPS, she was a consultant at The Quantum Hub, a policy research and advocacy firm, where she supported projects in the domains of climate philanthropy and women empowerment initiatives of the central government. She has also interned at The News Minute, a South Indian online news platform, where she covered civic and
crime stories, and breaking news. During her time at college, she completed YLAC’s Policy In Action Fellowship, and produced a term paper titled ‘Academic Freedom In India’. She has previously presented at the 2020 Student Seminar on Climate Change and Disaster Relief at Stella Maris College in Chennai, and volunteered to teach children at the NGO U&I. Her interests lie broadly in the fields of Education, Governance and Civic and Climate Action.

Kumar Chandan Samal

Kumar Chandan Samal joined CBPS as Research Fellow in July 2023. He has completed a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Delhi School of Journalism, University of Delhi. Before joining CBPS, he worked in many Corporate CSR Initiatives including working with acid attack survivors and hearing and speech-disabled persons. In addition, Kumar has a keen interest in podcasts and has successfully produced the podcast ‘Ae-Ri Sakhi’ in collaboration with UNESCO. He has published his articles in The Print, Youth Ki Awaaz, Humsafar Trust, and others. At CBPS, he aims to deepen his understanding of the public policy landscape and develop a niche. One of Kumar’s core values is unwavering support for LGBTQIA+ rights. He believes in fostering a more inclusive society and strives to create an environment where everyone feels accepted and valued.

Joann Miriam Mathew

Joann joined CPBS in July 2023 as a Research Fellow. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, Political Science, and Sociology from St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Bengaluru, (now known as St. Joseph’s University). During her degree program, she actively participated in the research wings of GirlUp Clubs, a UN Foundation initiative focused on leadership development and gender empowerment. where she worked on a research paper titled “Unconscious Biases in the Indian family unit”. She also worked on a research paper titled ‘Gendered Parenting and its Implications on Parent-Child Interactions’. In addition to her
work, she has also collaborated on various research projects. Joann’s primary
interests revolve around gender, family, and governance.

Yasmin Daniel

Prior to joining CBPS as a Research Fellow, Yasmin volunteered with People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), summarising reports for their Library, and has conducted data analysis and inferencing for an NLSIU PhD researcher’s thesis on legal aid awareness. She interned for three months with Critical Childhoods and Youth Studies Collective (CCYSC) as a blog editor, soliciting, curating, and contributing articles on children and youth voices in journalism. Yasmin is a graduate of St. Joseph’s University (formerly St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Bengaluru, with a triple major B.A. in Journalism, International Relations &
Peace Studies, Public Policy. Over the course of her degree, Yasmin has presented papers on climate migration and increased securitisation in Europe and the significance of social justice in the Indian Constitution at workshops conducted
by St. Joseph’s University and the National Institute of Advanced Studies. Furthermore, she engaged with journalistic and academic interests and forms of writing culminating in two published articles – a long-form narrative on an online edition of the Love, Sex, and Data conference (published on TheOpenDosa.in), and a feature essay on digital youth activism in Kashmir
and the Northeast (published on the CCYSC website). She is interested in gender, governance, youth, and policy formulation and analysis.

Administration Team

Thyagarajan R.
Administrative and Liaison Officer

Thyagarajan has been associated with CBPS since 1998. Since 2008, he has been working as a Administrative and Liaison Officer. He now coordinates administrative issues of the organisation in different projects and also involves himself in documentation and other activities.

Usha P.V.
Finance and Accounts Officer

Usha has been a Finance and Accounts Officer at CBPS since 2006. Her major responsibilities are overall maintenance of Accounts, facilitating the research team in their field travel and other administrative issues. Prior to CBPS, she worked as an accountant at MYRADA/PLAN.

Mrinalika R. Pandit
HR and Information Manager

Mrinalika joined CBPS in 2013. She has a Masters in Commerce from the University of Bangalore with a specialisation in Marketing and Finance. Earlier, she worked as Junior Project Manager with Swissnex, scientific wing of Swiss Embassy, Bangalore. She was also a consultant at IDPMS. She is a Certified Human Resource Management Professional (C.H.R.M.P). At CBPS, she handles human resource management and data archiving.

Anita Ramesh
Communications Manager

Anita joined CBPS in January 2024 as the Communications Manager. She has over ten years of experience in creative communication and documentaries with non-profit and inter-governmental organisations. She has previously worked as a Research Communications Associate with UNDP India. She has also worked with Akshaya Patra Foundation and Learning Links Foundation as a Senior Communications Executive, and with Big Synergy Media as an Assistant Director. She holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism and AVC from Convergence Institute of Media Management Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Economics
from Jyoti Nivas College, Bengaluru.

Vanaja S
Administrative and Accounts Assistant

Vanaja S joined CBPS from 1 August 2017 as Administrative and Accounts Assistant.  She had worked Tide Technocrats Private Limited, Bangalore for 3 years as Administrative and Accounts Assistant and Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE), Bangalore for 11 years as Administrative Assistant (Front Office Maintenance).  Overall, she has nearly 22 years of work experience.

Ramesh K
Office Assistant

Ramesh has been working at CBPS as an office assistant since May 2010. Prior to CBPS, he worked as a Supervisor to House-Keeping staff at India Satcom Ltd.

Some of our past employees

Shreekanth Mahendiran 

Shreekanth Mahendiran worked with CBPS from November 2011 to July 2019. His work at CBPS mainly focused on education related projects. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Department of Strategy, Globalization, and Society, University of Lausanne. He has a Masters in Economics from Madras School of Economics, Anna University.

While talking about his time in CBPS, Shreekanth makes a statement, “It is the people that make the place” and says that this fits very appropriately for CBPS. He also mentions that during his time, there was a team of researchers who patiently taught him how to write academically, develop research questions, and manage projects. He has personally not come across
another office environment where colleagues invested time and energy to develop another colleague’s skills. He shares that his time at CBPS has also helped him with his approach towards his PhD and he continues to draw from the experiences he had at CBPS.

Puja Minni

Puja Minni worked with CBPS from September 2012 to July 2019. Her work at CBPS mainly focused on education-related projects. After this she worked partially on two book chapters with her mentor and ex-boss, Dr. Jyotsna Jha. One of these book chapters was extremely special to her as it involved years of her work and ideas that she was finally able to consolidate.

She was requested by Mount Carmel College (Autonomous), Bangalore to take a course on Public Finance for their Master’s in Public Policy students. During the academic year 2021-22, she taught courses on Public Finance, Research Methodology, Decoding Public Policy, Ethics and Public Policy and Policy Formulation. She currently works as an independent Researcher and Guest Faculty for Masters in Public Policy, Mount Carmel College (Autonomous), Bangalore.

Varun Sharma

Varun worked as a Research Advisor at CBPS in 2012-13. It was a great experience working with the team at CBPS, and he had ample opportunities to learn and demonstrate his expertise. He left CBPS to pursue post-doctoral research at the Tata Institute of Social Science in Mumbai. Soon after completing his PhD, he worked as a senior researcher for an anti-human trafficking organisation and for a brief stint as a health economist with Oxford Policy Management. Following that, he worked as a Research Manager at TISS Mumbai and then as an Associate General Manager Research at Child Rights and You (CRY). Presently, he is associated with Jhpiego as an MLE Specialist.

Shobha Veigas

Shobha was a Project Coordinator with CBPS from July 2009 to May 2012. She worked as a part-time retainer consultant with CBPS from June 2012 to June 2014. After leaving CBPS, Shobha worked as a consultant. She trained around 4000 corporate employees on Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act 2013. She worked at Participatory Research in Asia, New Delhi from 2018 to 2019 as a Senior Manager. Thereafter, she continued as consultant to various organisations. In 2020 she joined UNDP -SDGCC Karnataka as an Awareness Generation and Capacity Building Lead. As an Awareness generation & capacity building lead, she is providing technical support to the Planning Department, Government Karnataka. 

Shubhashansha Bakshi

Shubhashansha worked with CBPS from 2009-2013. Being in a great company of established policy professionals and academicians, she was trained to look into policy issues with great depth and was encouraged to learn and apply the best analytical tools and techniques to understand the problem statements of my research projects. She went on to pursue a PhD in Development Studies in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The title of the thesis was ‘Indian Fiscal Federalism: A Study of Negotiations, Motivations and Optimal Allocation of Resources’. She is currently an Assistant Economist, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom.

Anaka Aiyar

Sandeep MS

Sandeep worked with CBPS from March 2009 and August 2011 and his work largely focused on empirical work in the drinking water sector during his tenure. Sandeep is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems and Technology Management at UNSW Business School. He holds a PhD in Business & Management from Loughborough University, UK.

His dissertation studied impact sourcing – a social innovation in outsourcing, in which he explored processes and strategies of social entrepreneurship, community engagement and sociocultural transitions. He has published in reputed journals such as European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems and Information & Management.

Tanushka Sharma

Tanushka had joined CBPS in February 2022 as a Research Assistant. She was working on a project titled, ‘Gender violence in public spaces: Studying the approaches and theorising the pathways of change‘. She has completed her graduation in Political Science Honours from Delhi University and Masters in Public Administration from Panjab University. During her course of education, she has interned with the Ministry of Women and Child where she has worked on RTIs and Grievances and reports under the Domestic Violence Act. She has also interned in ‘Becoming-I’ foundation where she has taught economically weaker section students of a private school in New Delhi. Before joining CBPS, she worked as a
Research Officer on Dr. Ambedkar Chair in Social Justice, Indian Institute of Public
Administration.

Rajat Chaudhary

Rajat had joined CBPS in April 2022. He has a Master’s degree in Development Studies from IIT, Mandi and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Delhi. He was also an Urban Fellow at Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru. Before joining CBPS, he was working as a Research Assistant on a project titled ‘Covid-19 and Punjabi Migration to Canada’ which was carried out by York University, Canada and O.P Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India.

Some of our past interns: