Team

Yamini Aiyar, Director

Yamini Aiyar is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and the Director of this initiative. Yamini Aiyar has extensive experience working on issues related to strengthening public service delivery systems by institutionalizing accountability mechanisms through greater citizen participation. Her work emphasizes action research to try and better understand the effectiveness of accountability tools. Prior to the Accountability Initiative, Yamini has worked at the World Bank, New Delhi Office and the Ford Foundation, New Delhi. Yamini has an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and received an M.A. degree in Social and Political Sciences at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University, UK. She also holds a BA degree in Philosophy from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University.

Email: yaiyar@accountabilityindia.org

Ambrish Dongre, Senior Researcher

Ambrish joined AI in late 2010. Ambrish has recently completed a Ph.D. in Economics from University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). His thesis rigorously analyzes the role of women 'sarpanch' in promoting child health, and the effectiveness of the 'Janani Suraksha Yojna' in increasing institutional deliveries. At AI Ambrish is responsible for leading AI’s quantitative research work. This includes designing the PAISA surveys and leading the data analysis process. In addition Ambrish is responsible for managing PAISA implementation in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. Ambrish holds Masters in Economics from University of Mumbai and Bachelors in Economics & Statistics from Ruia College, University of Mumbai.

Email: adongre@accountabilityindia.org.

Avani Kapur, Senior Research & Program Analyst

Avani Kapur has been with the Accountability Initiative (AI) since 2008. At AI, she is the Operations Manager of the PAISA Project and is responsible for managing the projects activities across various stakeholders and across the 7 PAISA states. In addition, she anchors the public finance and budget work at AI. Prior to AI, she worked at the Centre for Development and Human Rights (CDHR), with Dr. Arjun Sengupta. As part of her activities at CDHR, she was responsible for assisting Dr. Sengupta in his reports to the Human Rights Council as the ‘Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights’ and the ‘Right to Development’. Avani has an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and received a BA cum laude from Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.

Email: akapur@accountabilityindia.org

Shailey Tucker, Programme Analyst

Shailey works on the PAISA project at AI, managing project implementation in three states. Based primarily in Hyderabad previously, she was involved with research on climate change and natural resource management at the Poverty Learning Foundation, and has also worked on other development issues such as rural employment, microfinance and education. Having completed a thesis on rural-urban migration in India, Shailey has a Research Master’s degree in International and Development Economics from Université Paris-Dauphine, France, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and International Studies from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, U.S.A. During the course of her undergraduate studies, she also spent a year abroad at the Economics Department of the London School of Economics, U.K.

Email: stucker@accountabilityindia.org

Aishwarya Panicker, Research Analyst

Aishwarya joined AI towards the end of April 2012 and is currently handling the State-Business Linkages project, in collaboration with the Center for the Advanced Study of India (University of Pennsylvania). This project aims to demystify political accountability by looking at the network linkages between politicians and businesses & the influence of these links on the political and private sectors. Aishwarya has an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and a B.A (Hons) in Sociology from Lady Shri Ram College. With a keen interest in political economy, governance systems, development and poverty studies, Aishwarya has previously worked on projects in the following areas: ICT4D in Ghana (CKS Consultancy), on Gender and Poverty  (The YP Foundation) and on economic industries development (Social Development Division with CII).

Email: apanicker@accountabilityindia.org

Vibhu Tewary, Research Analyst

Vibhu graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2012 with a Master’s degree in Development Studies. For his master’s thesis, he worked on the functioning of electricity regulation in India. His research interests include public finance and development economics. 

Email: vtewary@accountabilityindia.org

Mehjabeen Jagmag, Research Analyst

Mehjabeen manages the PAISA project in Rajasthan and Maharashtra at AI. She previously worked on education policy advocacy in Delhi and as a journalist in Mumbai. Interested in the impact of community participation in development initiatives and the significance of beneficiaries’ interpretation of policy, Mehjabeen completed her MA thesis on teachers’ perceptions of multicultural education policies in England’s primary schools. She holds a Masters in Social Anthropology of Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Bachelors in Mass Media from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

Email: mjagmag@accountabilityindia.org

Our advisors

T.R.Raghunandan, Former Joint Secretary - Minister of Panchayati Raj

Mr Raghunandan is a public finance expert and an anti-corruption activist. He heads the Ipaidabribe initiative and is an adviser to the PAISA course. He was formerly Joint Secretary – Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India and Secretary-Rural development Karnataka before he took voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Service (after 26 years). He is presently a consultant and adviser to international development agencies on local government policy, fiscal decentralization and capacity development in local governance. A law graduate from Delhi University, Mr Raghunandan did his masters in Business Law at the National Law School of India, Bangalore.

Parimala Inamdar, Principal Consultant, Technology and Learning, Aquarians Management Consultancy (P) Ltd

Ms Parimala works on design innovation for technology in human learning, as well as research in pedagogy for technology enabled learning. Her work has spanned children and adult users, has targeted urban professionals as well as emerging/rural markets. She has been involved in a number of projects such India’s 1st interactive multimedia project, video based programs, ‘hole-in-the-wall’ project, web design, web content, curriculum, courseware, learning management system, knowledge management system, virtual classroom. She is most known for the ‘The Hole In The Wall’ project.  The Pompidou Center Paris, exhibited her work with French digital artist Pascal Monteil at ‘Design Aujourd’hui’ for 3 months (see Digital Art Project). She also serves on a number of international scientific panels for technology enhanced learning. You can read more about her here

Our PAISA associates

Ram Ratan, PAISA associate, Rajasthan – Ram Ratan joined Accountability Initiative as PAISA Associate in October 2010. He has completed his M.A. (Sociology) from Rajasthan University, Jaipur. Starting his career with GVNML Jaipur, Ram Ratan has over the years worked with several grassroot NGO’s in the state. His core areas of expertise include; agriculture and animal husbandry development, livelihood development, and elementary education.

Dinesh Kumar, PAISA associate, Bihar –Dinesh has worked with the Bihar Education Project – Vaishali as a VSS and VSC trainer from 2002 to 2005. Subsequently, he worked with Pratham first as a district-coordinator of their Sankalp program for two years and then as Divisional Co-coordinator BEC and Sankalp for 6 months. He joined ASER in 2010 and has been working on the PAISA project. Dinesh has graduated in History from the University Muzaffarpur.

Seema Muskan, PAISA associate, Bihar  – A B.A.Honors graduate from J.D.Women’s College, Patna, Seema has been working in ASER since 2005. She joined the PAISA project in 2010.

Venugopal Kalokota, PAISA associate, Andhra Pradesh - A BSc, Bed graduate from Kakatiya University, AP, Venugopal worked with Pratham for five years before joining the AI team in 2010. He is in parallel studying to be a Master of Social Work from Nagarjuna University, AP.

Anil Baber, PAISA associate, Maharasthra – Anil is an M.A, B.Ed from Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Marathwada university, Aurangabad. He earlier worked as a district coordinator in PRATHAM before joining Accountability Initiative as a PAISA associate.

Swapna Ramtake, PAISA associate, Madhya Pradesh – Swapna joined Accountability Initiative in October 2010. She has completed her MSW from Amaravathi University Maharasthra. She started her career with PRATHAM Mumbai in 2003 where she was responsible for setting up and managing community based learning centers for children in 7500 villages.

Vinod Verma, PAISA associate, Himachal Pradesh – Vinod is a PGDRD from IGNOU and a graduate in public administration from Govt. Degree College Sanjauli. Prior to joining Accountability Initiative Vinod had been working as District Coordinator with the Nehru Youth Club.