Bio:

Keywords:

Agriculture | Environment | Public Policy | Social Impact 

Bio:

Vithal holds a Doctorate in agricultural development. He specializes in multiple fields such as agriculture, seed systems & policy, forestry, agroforestry, environment, and ecology. He holds a certificate degree in project management. He was a recipient of the Young Scientist award in 2007 by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria to conduct advanced research on forestry, carbon sequestration & climate change. 

He has 20+ years of international experience in developmental projects in 15 countries in Africa and Asia. He has worked with Indian forest-based industries and NGOs, coordinated international technical assistance programs with the ministry of agriculture in Ethiopia and Afghanistan, implemented international development projects, higher education, and foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Africa. He has worked for international projects supported by USAID, GIZ, World Bank, DFID, Rockefeller Foundation, CSIRO, IFAD, and corporate houses.

His areas of interest are forestry & climate change, organic farming, hydroponics, tree improvement & clonal forestry. He has a wealth of knowledge on business opportunities in Africa in the areas of international trading, agricultural investment, international development, and higher education.

Bio:

Tarun is the Director of Education Futures, UK, where he provides consultancy support for foundations and startups working in Early Childhood Education. He co-founded Social Solar, an off-grid solar power company for rural schools & communities in India. 

Tarun graduated with an MSc in Child Development and Education and MBA from the University of Oxford, where he was a Pershing Square Scholar. During his Masters, he helped scale up a chain of Montessori pre-schools in South Africa. He interned at Primo Toys, an award-winning early coding startup where he wrote their education strategy. Tarun is a former Teach for India fellow where he taught at a primary school in New Delhi. He is extremely interested in education, learning and its impact on people and has extensive research experience in the development sector. In 2014, he conducted a longitudinal study for an alternative school in New Delhi examining the influence of alternative education on students and their eventual career trajectories. He has also undertaken primary research in Odisha to analyse bottlenecks in creating livelihood opportunities. Tarun holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Delhi University where he scored the highest grade for his senior year thesis on Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation.

Bio:

Nitya has 28 years of experience in policy analysis, advocacy, strategic planning, knowledge management and project planning in the development sector. He has served as the National Policy Head at WaterAid India where he was involved in developing the communications and branding strategy, research and writing on water, sanitation and hygiene, analysis of central and state policies and writing policy papers on safe sanitation, open defecation, hygiene, safe drinking water and district-wide approach to sanitation. Prior to working with Water Aid India, he had worked with organisations like Centre for Science and Environment, Water Community, Solutions Exchange, Write Shop Infotech Pvt. Ltd. and One World South Asia. Nitya also has over 10 years of experience in the media sector where he worked in various capacities ranging from reporter to producer to a special correspondent in big media houses like United Television, Business India Television, The Pioneer Newspaper, Down to Earth (a prestigious academic journal), Business Standard, and Financial Express.

Bio: 

V. P. J. Sambhavi is a Senior Researcher specializing in education, entrepreneurship, skilling, community development, and mental health. An Erasmus Mundus Scholar and IRO Scholar, she holds a Master’s in Educational Studies from KU Leuven (Belgium) and a Master’s in Psychology from the University of Delhi.

She has extensive experience working across Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Belgium, with deep engagement in Himalayan communities and rural contexts. Sambhavi’s work focuses strongly on rural entrepreneurship, particularly initiatives supporting women’s economic participation, leadership development, and community-based enterprise models. She brings expertise in qualitative research, needs assessment, curriculum and tool development, and context-responsive program design.

Sambhavi has designed and led multi-state youth and community programs, facilitated immersive learning experiences, and supported capacity-building initiatives for women, adolescents, teachers, and grassroots groups. Her professional strengths include participatory facilitation, youth engagement, community mobilization, and program management and delivery. She is adept at working collaboratively with diverse stakeholders, building local leadership, and creating scalable, field-validated solutions.

Her interdisciplinary training enables her to integrate participatory methods, psychological insights, and educational frameworks to produce grounded, actionable knowledge. Across her work, Sambhavi remains committed to advancing rural development, gender-inclusive entrepreneurship, and community-led approaches that strengthen social and ecological resilience.

Keywords:

Project Management | Training & Capacity Building 

Bio:

Sukanya holds the position of Associate Vice President at Outline India and possesses expertise in large-scale project management. She brings substantial experience to her role, managing projects both in the field and off-site. She has conducted fieldwork in over ten states in India and has successfully trained up to 350 field staff across these locations. Her project portfolio spans various sectors, with a primary focus on skills, livelihoods, gender, healthcare, education, agriculture, and child wellbeing.

Within her role at Outline India, She is responsible for managing large-scale, multi-state, and multi-stakeholder projects. Her responsibilities include reviewing tools, training consultants and field teams, conducting in-depth surveys, real-time monitoring of data, and drafting field and project reports. Sukanya has collaborated with a range of esteemed clients, including JSI, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, IMPAQ International, CorStone India Foundation, Sesame Workshop India, Mathematica Policy Research, Tsuda University Japan, Lifebox Foundation, American Institutes for Research, and Tata Centre of Development at UChicago, among others.

Keywords:

Quantitative Research | Project Management | Data Management & Analysis

Bio:

Swati works as an Associate Manager at Outline India. She plays a crucial role in facilitating the implementation of various research studies. Her responsibilities include coordinating fieldwork and overseeing data management and analysis.

Prior to her role at Outline India, She gained valuable experience as a researcher at the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Delhi and a Master's degree in Economics with a specialization in Trade and Finance from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

Bio:

Dr. Somya Sharma works as a Qualitative Researcher  at Outline India, where she contributes to the design and implementation of large-scale research studies with a focus on public health, gender, and impact evaluation. She brings experience in community health, evidence-based research, policy development, and program implementation, with specialized expertise in RMNCH+A, transgender health, and sustainability-focused evaluation frameworks.

At Outline India, Somya supports the development of technical and financial proposals, research design, and data collection protocols across mixed-methods studies. She has also contributed to tool development, field monitoring, data analysis, and the preparation of policy-relevant knowledge products for diverse clients, including donor agencies, CSRs, and international development partners.

Prior to Outline India, Somya worked with institutions such as IIHMR University,  World Health Organization (WHO)and Narayana Health , where she gained hands-on experience in field monitoring, program evaluation, and health systems research. Her research work includes studies on reproductive health commodity security, transgender healthcare preparedness, and community engagement strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Somya holds a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar, and a Bachelor’s in Physiotherapy from Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, Jaipur. She has published peer-reviewed papers on vaccine-preventable diseases and health service preparedness and has received multiple Academic Excellence Awards from the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences.

Bio: 
Shreyashee Pandey is a qualitative researcher at Outline India with expertise in research design, proposal development, and organizational studies. She works closely on developing study tools, training materials, and capacity-building sessions for field teams, ensuring that research is ethically grounded and methodologically robust.

Her work spans projects on menstrual hygiene among school students, child marriage prevention, agricultural surveys, and organizational development, with a strong focus on youth, health, and education. She brings a deep qualitative lens shaped by her academic training in psychological anthropology and is currently pursuing a PhD focused on mental health.

Shreyashee has published in internationally reputed academic journals and is committed to research that centers lived experiences while producing clear, usable insights for programs and organizations working at the grassroots.

Bio: 
Deepak Kumar is a Senior Research Associate at Outline India, where he supports the design and implementation of research studies with a focus on monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL). He has experience across sectors including public health, education, livelihoods, nutrition, financial inclusion, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), employability programs, and agriculture.

At Outline India, Deepak works on large-scale quantitative and qualitative studies across multiple states in India. His role includes developing sampling frameworks, digitising complex research tools, and analysing large datasets. He has led and supported household surveys, FGDs, and IDIs; contributed to tool and manual development; supervised and trained field teams; and ensured data quality through robust monitoring processes. He has also supported and led multiple impact assessments, process evaluations, producing findings that are rigorous, actionable, and policy-relevant.

Deepak holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai.