Contributor : Profile
Varad Pande leads strategy, impact and new initiatives at Omidyar Network India. A social impact and public policy professional, Varad has held diverse roles across government, strategy, multilateral, investment organisations working on issues of economic development, social impact, and base-of-pyramid (BOP) business models.
Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Varad was Special Advisor to India’s Minister for Rural Development and Environment and Forests, where he drove the agenda on sustainable livelihoods, sanitation, environment, and climate change.
Varad was a member of the Government of India’s Low Carbon Expert Group. He was Principal Advisor to Abhijit Banerjee on the UN-Secretary General’s Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda (SDGs) and was a Sherpa on the UN-Secretary General’s Global Sustainability Panel.
He led the set-up of the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship that connects India’s youth with grassroots development.
Varad holds an Masters in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School, an Masters in Economics from University of Cambridge, and a Bachelors(Honours) in Economics from St. Stephens College, Delhi.
Posts by Varad Pande
A five-minute loan to unlock micro-entrepreneurship in India
Micro-entrepreneurs are grossly underserved by traditional lenders, as they typically do not have collateral or credit histories to make them creditworthy. In this article, Pande, Memon and Goyal of ...
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Vibhor Goyal
Niloufer Memon
Varad Pande
11 January, 2017
- Notes from the Field
Swachh Bharat Mission: The long walk from rhetoric to implementation
Swachh Bharat Mission – the flagship sanitation programme of the Indian government – aims to realise the dream of a ‘clean India’ by 2 October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gand...
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Varad Pande
01 October, 2014
- Perspectives
Creating the climate for India's low-carbon growth story
The ‘Expert Group on Low Carbon Strategies for Inclusive Growth’ recently laid out a detailed roadmap for India to take on climate change mitigation proactively. In this note, Varad Pande – a m...
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Varad Pande
28 July, 2014
- Notes from the Field
Direct Benefits Transfer: An idea whose time has come
About a year ago, the Government of India launched a Direct Benefits Transfer programme that involves transferring government benefits and subsidies directly to residents through a biometric identifi...
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Varad Pande
14 March, 2014
- Notes from the Field
Connecting India's youth with development in red bastions
The Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship is an initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development that recruits young professionals to work with local governments for grassroots development in...
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Varad Pande
13 November, 2013
- Notes from the Field
A second debate on the Land Acquisition Act
Of all the recently enacted parliamentary legislations, none is more important for industrial investment and growth than the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilita...
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Varad Pande
21 October, 2013
- Perspectives
Getting to a greener picture of India's growth story
The Expert Group on Green National Accounting calls for including natural as well as human capital in our national accounts, and defining economic growth in terms of ‘wealth per capita’ instead o...
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Varad Pande
08 May, 2013
- Notes from the Field
India's five-year plan-what's the big deal?
‘Faster, inclusive, and more sustainable growth’ is the defining motto of India’s latest economic plan. But how will it work? This column outlines the five big ideas in India’s Five-Year Plan.
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Varad Pande
17 December, 2012
- Articles
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: is it working?
MNREGA is one of the government´s largest flagship schemes, and is the largest job creation programme of its kind in the world. Supporters believe that it is necessary to help rural workers smooth in...
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Jean Drèze
Ashwini Kulkarni
Neelakshi Mann
Varad Pande
Martin Ravallion
29 November, 2012
- Symposium
Himayat - A silent skills revolution in the making
In this Note from the Field, Varad Pande of the Ministry of Rural Development discusses the Himayat programme in Jammu and Kashmir which offers skills-training and a job to unemployed young people in ...
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Varad Pande
31 October, 2012
- Notes from the Field
The fight against left-wing extremism
In this Note From the Field, Varad Pande of the Ministry of Rural Development argues that left-wing extremism and violence is a major challenge for India. He says that while this is definitely a secur...
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Varad Pande
23 October, 2012
- Notes from the Field