Research and Policy Experience

Education is an invaluable tool in facilitating personal and national growth, and every additional year of schooling raises the national GDP growth rate by 0.37%. With around 700,000+ Indian students studying abroad annually, causing the country to lose $60 billion in Foreign Exchange outflows, the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 aimed to promote the entrance and operation of campuses of top Foreign Higher Educational Institutions (FHEIs). Thus, as an education policy intern at the Maharashtra Institute of Transformation (The State Government's Policy Think Tank), I consolidated the key problems that exist in setting up foreign universities in Maharashtra, specifically: high land costs, arbitrary taxation policies, inequitable fees structure, fragmented government regulation, and lack of degree equivalence across professions. I then drafted a policy with recommendations to fix these structural barriers, based on research on education hubs across the world and interactions with Senior Education Policymakers.

Education financing in India is a growing industry, yet there exists limited empirical research on its impacts across dimensions. My research paper aimed to address this gap through a large-scale survey as an intern at Credila, India's largest education loan NBFC. Over 8 months, I examined the long-term socio-economic impacts of education loans on three interconnected dimensions: career trajectory, financial security, and overall quality of life through a mixed-methods survey conducted through email, telephone interviews, and video testimonials. Alongside capturing demographic and product-related information, the survey, which was distributed among 100,000+ customers, measured qualitative as well as quantitative metrics, which, with the help of members of the Product department at Credila, I analysed and consolidated into a research paper whose findings were eventually included in Credila's Annual Report. The three metrics were evaluated based on the following questions: Career trajectory, Financial Security, and Quality of Life.

For my IB Economics Extended Essay on Economic Policy, I evaluated the extent to which the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has improved rural employment and household income in Nagpur, Maharashtra, between 2021 and 2024. It is hypothesised that, since India is primarily an agrarian economy, MGNREGA's guaranteed 100 days of wage employment bring relief by providing additional income to rural households who otherwise remain dependent on unskilled, insecure jobs in the agricultural off-season. The period of analysis is defined by macroeconomic shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, demand-pull inflation, and drought, providing a unique context for assessing the program's effectiveness across multiple scenarios.

The study employs a quantitative approach, using secondary data from the MGNREGA Management Information System (MIS) maintained by the Ministry of Rural Development, complemented by a primary survey of 100 households in rural Nagpur. The analysis focuses on the key indicators of employment generation, the impact of income earned, and unmet work demand, supported by the theoretical frameworks of the labour market, the Keynesian Multiplier, and developmental economics' poverty trap.

India's higher education system is the largest in the world but currently fails to meet the needs of the majority of the student population. Through this research paper, I aimed to examine the structural shortcomings between government-subsidized education loans offered by Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) under the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) Model Education Loan Scheme and private Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) driven by profit motives. This paper analyses the current Indian Higher Education Loan Framework on the basis of accessibility, affordability, delivery, and performance.

Although SCBs aim to serve lower-income students through their collateral-free loans, operational inefficiencies and unwillingness to lend large amounts limit their effectiveness. NBFCs, because they lend to premium customers who are less likely to default, display superior asset quality through lower Non-Performing Asset Rates (< 0.5%). However, large-ticket loans from these NBFCs are inaccessible to low- and middle-income students due to their high co-signer and income requirements, and even higher interest rates.

This paper also proposes structural policy reforms to expand access to the higher education framework: from extending government credit guarantees (CGFSEL) and interest subsidies (CSIS) to NBFCs to mandating income-based repayment systems within the Model Education Loan scheme. Further, there is an apparent need to facilitate refinancing of education loans and introduce targeted forgiveness schemes for social workers.