Chandrika Ghosh is a Research Associate in the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) Chair Unit at NCAER. Her work involves empirical research and data-driven policy analysis in areas pertaining to financial awareness and regulatory frameworks. Prior to joining NCAER, she worked as an Academic Associate at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, where she supported teaching and research activities in the area of economics.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of international trade, firm dynamics, and environmental economics. She is particularly interested in how trade policies shape firm behaviour, market outcomes, and resource allocation. She is proficient in the use of empirical research tools such as Stata and LaTeX, and has working knowledge of R.
She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, with a specialisation in International Trade and Environmental Economics.
Astha Sen is a Research Consultant at NCAER. She is an applied microeconomist specialising in experimental, public, and tax policy. She has over ten years of experience in teaching (as a tenure-track faculty member) across multiple universities, as well as in academic, public policy, and corporate research.
Prior to joining NCAER, she was a Senior Research Associate at the Public Finance Research Cluster Policy, a think tank housed in the Economics Department at Georgia State University, Atlanta, US. There, she contributed to various research projects and policy reports for local government departments, including those dealing with tax, labour, and education. She also worked on research handbooks and academic studies.
Her research spans tax analysis, policy evaluation, and business strategies, with publications in peer-reviewed journals, including a study on India’s subnational Value Added Tax, published in the National Tax Journal.
Astha has a doctorate in Economics from Georgia State University. In her empirical research, she employed causal inference methods, including laboratory experiments, difference-in-differences analysis, and the synthetic control method. She has also designed and administered survey questionnaires to address public and business policy issues.
Kritika Soni is a Research Associate in the National Growth and Macroeconomic Centre at NCAER. She holds a Master’s in Economics from the Barcelona School of Economics and a Bachelor’s in Economics from the University of London, with academic direction from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Her research interests lie at the intersection of international trade, macroeconomic policy, development economics, and applied econometrics. Her past work includes a cross-country SVAR-based study of financialisation and government spending in OECD economies, and policy evaluation of housing, mutual fund performance, and trade vulnerability using diverse empirical approaches.
She has experience in working with public datasets such as UN COMTRADE, Trade Map, and national economic databases, and has applied econometric techniques including SVAR, RDD, and index construction in her academic and research work.
Prior to NCAER, she worked as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Indian School of Business and Finance (ISBF), where she taught advanced undergraduate courses in macroeconomics and mathematical methods. She also led the institution’s Research Cell, curating academic competitions and mentoring undergraduate students for their theses.
Nitesh Khandelwal is a Research Associate in the Agriculture, Industry, Trade, Technology, and Skills vertical at NCAER. He earned his Master’s degree in Economics from Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy, and his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from GLA University. His academic interests lie in development economics, health economics, and international trade. Prior to joining NCAER, he was involved in primary research for the Aspirational Cities Program, a project being implemented by the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
His master’s dissertation focused on analysing public health expenditure in India, while his undergraduate studies entailed research on India’s agricultural trade potential. He is proficient in the use of R and Excel software as well as econometric techniques such as time series analysis.
Ravindar Mahto is a Research Associate in the Agriculture, Industry, Trade, Technology & Skills vertical at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Azim Premji University and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Delhi.
His academic training and research interests lie at the intersection of development economics, policy analysis, and applied microeconomics, with a particular focus on caste, gender, labour, social conflict, climate change, and environmental economics.
He is proficient in Stata, R, Python, MATLAB, and LaTeX, and skilled in econometric techniques such as panel data analysis, causal inference (including RCTs, IV, RDD, and DID), and data visualization. He has hands-on experience working with large-scale datasets, including NFHS, PLFS, HCES, NCRB, AIDIS, and SAS.
