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Evidence For Social Impact Lab

About

The founders

Most studies come apart at the seam between research design and field execution. We are two people who have each spent a career on one side of that seam.

Portrait of Rahul Kumar

Rahul Kumar

Co-founder & CEO

Based in
New Delhi
LinkedIn profilefor Rahul Kumar (opens in a new tab)

Rahul works on evaluation design and quantitative analysis — turning a research question into a specification that can be measured, and turning collected data into defensible results.

Working across education, labour market and public policy research, he has designed quasi-experimental evaluations on administrative datasets, run impact analysis in Stata, and built process monitoring frameworks to measure whether programmes were delivered as designed. He has drafted research protocols and secured US IRB approval for studies involving human subjects.

What they do

  • Randomised and quasi-experimental evaluation design
  • Impact analysis in Stata: regression, Item Response Theory, propensity score matching
  • Research protocols, IRB submissions and theory of change development
  • Process monitoring and implementation-fidelity reporting
  • Field operations for studies covering 7,800+ respondents

Education and credentials

  • MA Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi (2018)
  • BA (Hons) Economics, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi (2016)
  • UGC-NET JRF (2019)

Published research

Cultural norms and women's health: Implications of the practice of menstrual restrictions in Nepal

World Development Perspectives, 27 (2022)

Portrait of Arun

Arun

Co-founder & COO

Based in
New Delhi

Arun runs field operations — the recruitment, training, supervision and tracking that decide whether a study's data is usable when it comes back.

He has led field teams of up to 150 staff, managed baseline assessments across hundreds of schools and thousands of households, and built the back-check and tracking systems that keep large collections on schedule and verifiable. He has worked directly with government officials, NGOs and partner organisations to secure approvals and resolve field problems.

What they do

  • Field planning, logistics and daily operations across multiple districts
  • Recruitment, training and supervision of field teams up to 150 staff
  • Back-checks, field monitoring and real-time tracking dashboards
  • Coordination with government officials, NGOs and partner organisations
  • Survey, protocol and consent-form translation (Hindi and English)

Education and credentials

  • MSW, Indira Gandhi National Open University (2017)
  • BA, University of Delhi (2008)

Prior experience

What the founders have run before.

The figures below describe work carried out by the founders in previous roles. They are not engagements delivered by this firm.

Combined research and field experience
20+ yearsCombined research and field experience
Students assessed across 240 schools
10,000+Students assessed across 240 schools
Households surveyed across Rajasthan
5,500+Households surveyed across Rajasthan
Largest field team recruited and trained
150Largest field team recruited and trained

  • Randomised evaluations

    Implementation of RCTs in education, labour markets and welfare access, from assignment through follow-up rounds.

  • Education evaluations

    Student and teacher surveys, standardised learning assessments and school-based data collection at district scale.

  • Multi-site field coordination

    Field teams, schedules and reporting run across several districts and states at the same time.

  • Digital survey systems

    SurveyCTO programming, tablet-based collection, CATI protocols and multilingual instrument translation.

  • Research data management

    High-frequency checks, back-checks, cleaning pipelines in Stata and documented, reproducible datasets.

  • Analysis and reporting

    Quasi-experimental analysis, process monitoring reports and analytical work prepared for donors and government stakeholders.

Organisations the founders have worked at

  • J-PAL South Asia
  • Avanti Fellows
  • Foundation for MSME Clusters
  • EPoD India
  • Ashoka University
  • IIM Indore
  • Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi

Listed as previous employment of the founders. These organisations are not clients or partners of Evidence For Social Impact Lab.

Prior experience, and this firm's track record

The experience described here was gained by the founders in previous roles. The firm itself is newly established. Engagements delivered under its own name will be listed as they are completed and clients agree to be named.

How we work

A core team, staffed to the study.

Studies differ in size, geography and language. We build the field team around the study rather than fitting the study to a fixed roster.

  • Design and field, under one roof

    One founder comes from evaluation design and analysis, the other from field operations. Most studies fail at the seam between the two, so we do not split it across organisations.

  • A small core team, staffed per study

    Engagements are led by the founders and staffed with field personnel recruited and trained for the specific study. Team size follows the sample and the geography, not a fixed roster.

  • Written before executed

    Field protocols, check specifications and cleaning rules are written down and agreed before data collection begins, so decisions can be reviewed later.

  • The investigator holds the research decisions

    Design, sampling strategy, randomisation and analysis remain with the research team. We implement, document and report what happened.

  • Documented handover

    Every engagement ends with source files, code, a codebook and the reports needed for another analyst to pick the work up.

Technical capabilities

The tools we actually work in.

Listed because someone on the team uses them on studies — not as a catalogue of everything on the market.

Data collection

  • SurveyCTO
  • XLSForm programming
  • Tablet-based CAPI
  • CATI / phone surveys
  • Standardised assessments
  • GPS mapping

Analysis

  • Stata
  • SQL
  • Python (working knowledge)
  • Regression and quasi-experimental methods
  • Item Response Theory
  • Propensity score matching

Study operations

  • Sampling-frame construction
  • Randomisation implementation
  • Consent workflows and translation
  • Research protocols and IRB submissions
  • Field tracking and sample disposition
  • Back-checks and field monitoring

Reporting

  • Advanced Excel
  • Google Sheets and Forms dashboards
  • Process monitoring reports
  • Analytical tables
  • Donor and government reporting

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