Area of Research:
- Estimating the costs and benefits of health and labour market policies, use of quasi-experimental and experimental research designs in answering policy-relevant questions, India’s health care budget and the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS)
The Health Insurance Experiment (HIE) in India is a randomised experiment being undertaken by the Public Health Foundation of India and the University of Chicago, in close collaboration with the Government of Karnataka. It is targeted at households just above the poverty line in two districts of Karnataka- Gulbarga and Mysore. The primary objective of Indian Health Insurance Experiment (IHIE) is to measure the health and financial benefits of health insurance in the context of RSBY, the most widely available form of health insurance in India. A secondary but related objective is to measure the impact of RSBY on investments in the human and health capital of the children (for example, more expenditures on children’s schooling or more regular consumption of healthy food items). The results of this study could potentially inform the current debate on India’s health insurance expansion efforts as outlined in the most recent Union Budget.
In another strand of research, I examine the impact of India’s efforts to expand rates of complete immunisation for children. The Government launched a program called Mission Indradhanush with the target to fully immunise one million children from the 200 poorest districts in India. Using primary data, we have collected, in this project we seek to identify the role of demand and supply factors in explaining India’s middling performance on immunisation. Finally, we are working on a project on the costs and benefits of alternate health technologies in the management and treatment of chronic kidney disease in India.
For the complete profile, Visit https://srmap.edu.in/faculty/dr-shailender-swaminathan/
Dr Gitanjali Sen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the SRM University-AP. She specialises in Development economics, with interests in Applied micro-development areas. Her research interests include policies for inclusive development, through affirmative action, access to education, health and finance; with inter-connectedness among developmental outcomes reflected through education, health, living standards, poverty and inequality. It brings her immense pleasure to be able to identify the causal impact of social sector policies and recommend policy actions in the areas as mentioned above. Dr Sen has published in internationally acclaimed peer-reviewed journals such as World Development, Journal of Development Studies, and Economics and Political Weekly.
Before joining SRM University, AP in August 2018, Dr Sen has held a faculty position at the Shiv Nadar University for more than five years, where she has been responsible in teaching, research, advising the undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students on their theses. She has been member few bodies at the university, including that of Board of Studies, Ethics committee on research and departmental post-graduate committee in the university. Before joining Shiv Nadar University, Dr. Sen has worked as a faculty of Economics at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad, where she was responsible for conducting Management Development Programs, teaching short courses in different areas of Economics to the officers of Indian Statistical Services, and serving as consultants in projects. After completing PhD from the University of Missouri-Columbia, in 2002, in past one and a half decade, she has also worked at Bangalore based Jain Group of Institution- a post graduate management college, at Comat Technologies– a consultancy company in Bangalore, at Observer Research Foundation (ORF)– a public policy think tank in Delhi. Her work at Comat technologies involved impact evaluation (with Poverty Action Lab of MIT) attempting to evaluate the impact of introduction of ICT in Public Distribution System of Karnataka. At ORF, she has worked in areas of affirmative action in Indian Higher Education in an ESRC (UK) funded project.
For the complete profile, Visit https://srmap.edu.in/faculty/dr-gitanjali-sen/
Area of Research:
The area of my research focuses on applied economics especially with issues on development economics, agricultural productivity, crop insurance, banking and credit, financial inclusion, and government program and policy evaluations. My doctoral research focused on addressing the issues related to the program implementation and adaptability of crop insurance program in India, especially the Modified National Agricultural Insurance (MNAIS) and Pradhan Mantri Fasasl Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Though the government of India had been making efforts to introduce crop insurance in the country from time to time, it is very unfortunate that the programs have not been very sustainable and have failed to address the concerns of the farmers in distress. Henceforth, it becomes relevant to identify the factors and the constraints faced by the farmers in the adoption of the crop insurance policy, in the demand side and the limitations faced by the implementing authorities. The research also elaborates the problems associated with the bank insurance model as a method to deliver insurance program to the insurers. Therefore, the research has direct implication to policy making by the relevant authorities.
For the complete profile, Visit https://srmap.edu.in/faculty/dr-sabina-yasmin/