.svg){kind=icon}
.svg){kind=icon}
%201.svg){kind=icon}
%201.svg){kind=icon}
.svg){kind=icon}
.svg)
.svg)
Kumar Das
Kumar Das is Programme Policy Manager for IGC Bihar. He holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Sociology from Presidency College, Kolkata, an M.A. in Development Studies from Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, and M.Sc. in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining the IGC, Kumar worked as Senior Technical Consultant for UNICEF India Country Office, focusing on Evaluation, Research, and Policy.
His postgraduate research focussed on health service delivery in India, involving a policy analysis of India’s Menstrual Hygiene Scheme to examine the role of policy networks, policy actors, and politics of framing.
.svg)
Webinar video: Navigating Covid-19 impact on agriculture supply chains
In October 2020, the India Programme of the International Growth Centre (IGC) and Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) organised a webinar on ‘Navigating the Impact of Covid-19 on the Agriculture Supply Chain in India’. The panel comprised N. Saravana Kumar (Secretary, Agriculture Department, Government of Bihar), Siraj Hussain (Senior Visiting Fellow, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and former Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India), Shekhar Tomar (Assistant Professor, Indian School of Business). The discussion was moderated by Mekhala Krishnamurthy (Associate Professor, Ashoka University).
IGC Panel Discussion: Financing growth and diversification of Bihar’s agriculture
In a panel discussion held at Patna, Bihar in December 2018, Anjan Mukherji (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Mekhala Krishnamurthy (Ashoka University), Avinash Kishore (International Food Policy Research Institute), Bharat Ramaswami (Ashoka University), and Pronab Sen (IGC) discussed the issues related to agriculture in Bihar and what can be done to promote growth and diversification in the sector.
IGC Panel Discussion: Does Ayushman Bharat address the issues of healthcare delivery in Bihar?
A year ago, as part of the Union Budget 2018-19 speech, the government announced a new National Health Protection Scheme called Ayushman Bharat. In a panel discussion held at Patna, Bihar in December 2018, Sanjay Kumar (Principal Secretary, Health Department, Government of Bihar), Sisir Debnath & Tarun Jain (Indian School of Business, Hyderabad), Anup Malani & Kiran Pandey (University of Chicago), Chandrakant Lahariya (public health specialist), and D. Narayana (Gulati Institute of Public Finance), deliberated on key issues around Ayushman Bharat in the context of healthcare delivery in Bihar.
IGC Panel Discussion on gender and education: From policy to practice
The International Growth Centre, in collaboration with the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), the Gender Resource Centre (GRC), the Women Development Corporation of the Government of Bihar, and the Centre for Catalyzing Change (C3), organised a panel discussion on Gender and Education in Patna in December 2019. The panel comprised Zakir Hussain (Presidency University, Calcutta), Ashmita Gupta (Asian Development Research Institute), Lakshmi Narasimhan Gadiraju (International Labour Organisation), Anu Rammohan (University of Western Australia), and Raghabendra Chattopadhyay (Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta). The session was moderated by Abhiroop Mukhopadhaya (Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi).
IGC Panel Discussion on gender and education: From policy to practice
The International Growth Centre, in collaboration with the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), the Gender Resource Centre (GRC), the Women Development Corporation of the Government of Bihar, and the Centre for Catalyzing Change (C3), organised a panel discussion on Gender and Education in Patna in December 2019. The panel comprised Zakir Hussain (Presidency University, Calcutta), Ashmita Gupta (Asian Development Research Institute), Lakshmi Narasimhan Gadiraju (International Labour Organisation), Anu Rammohan (University of Western Australia), and Raghabendra Chattopadhyay (Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta). The session was moderated by Abhiroop Mukhopadhaya (Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi).
Research gaps and policy priorities: Evidence from Bihar
The gap between research and policy priorities has always presented an enormous challenge both for academics and policymakers. With a scarcity of rigorous evidence in certain areas, this gap is particularly large in the state of Bihar. To address this, International Growth Centre (IGC) India, in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), is working to identify the current state of research and evidence in Bihar for a core set of priority sectors – Health, Agriculture, Financial Inclusion, and Gender. This exercise will enable policy stakeholders to demand more research in crucial areas and understand where new programming and investments can have the greatest impact.