Ujala Kumari is a Consultant at NCAER, in the Research Theme of Computable General Equilibrium Modelling and Policy Analysis, with a strong focus on Public Finance. With over three years of experience, she has worked extensively in the social development sectors, analysing and interpreting large financial datasets to drive meaningful policy insights.
Before joining NCAER, Ujala served as a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), where she contributed to budgetary research and advocacy. She was also involved in the building and management of the Open Budgets India portal, an effort led by CBGA to build transparency and open access to machine readable and analysable budget data. Her core areas of interest include Health Economics, Sustainable Finance, and Public Budgeting, particularly in decoding Union and State Budgets for evidence-based policymaking. Passionate about leveraging data-driven approaches, she aims to bridge the gap between fiscal policies and social development outcomes.
Farzana Afridi is a Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi and a Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn. She has taught economics, in various capacities, at the University of Michigan, USA; Syracuse University, USA; Delhi School of Economics, India; Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland; National University of Singapore; and, the University of Toronto, Canada.
Dr Afridi’s research lies at the intersection of development and labor economics, covering three broad themes: gender and social identity; human capital; and, governance. She has collaborated with governments, non-profits and businesses to conduct several field-based projects, using both administrative data and randomized experiments. Her work has contributed in designing more effective transfer programs; understanding the role of information in improving health and learning outcomes; and, assessing the impact of identity and networks on performance, productivity and labor market outcomes.
She is a recipient of the National Mahalanobis Memorial Medal, conferred by the Indian Econometrics Society for her contributions to quantitative economics. Dr Afridi received her PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA; Master’s in Economics from Delhi University; and, Bachelor’s in Economics (Hons.) from Lady Sri Ram College for Women, Delhi University.
