Public Policy Researcher & Development Professional

A
researcher between the village and the policy table.

Public Policy Researcher & Development Professional

I work at the intersection of public policy, social research, impact assessment, governance, and grassroots development. My mission is to transform evidence into practical policy solutions that improve lives and strengthen institutions.

Explore My Research View Publications

2,509+: Self-Help Groups studied
28,000+: Women covered
1,500+: Survey respondents

Research Focus

8 threads, one question.

How does development spending actually change the lives of the people it is meant to serve — and how would we know?

Research portal

Public Policy

Translating district-level evidence into implementable recommendations for state and national programmes.

Women's Empowerment

Agency, voice and household decision-making inside collectivised rural settings.

Rural Development

Land, labour, credit and the local institutions that mediate access to all three.

Impact Assessment

Endline designs that measure institutional change rather than expenditure alone.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Where mandated corporate spending lands, why it lands there, and what it displaces.

Monitoring & Evaluation

Measurement systems that programme staff can realistically maintain in the field.

Social Work

Community organisation as a discipline with its own evidentiary standards.

Development Studies

Inclusion, redistribution and the political economy of programme design.

Featured Publications

Policy briefs, papers and working notes.

Selected work from ongoing research on livelihoods, women's agency and development finance.

All publications

Journal Article2026· Rural Development | Microfinance | Women's Empowerment | Social Work

Impact Assessment of Self-Help Groups towards Rural Development: A Case Study of Madhya Pradesh, India

This article is based on primary and secondary information and examines the premise that Self Help Groups (SHGs) have significant positive impacts on rural development and women's empowerment in Madhya Pradesh, India. The context for this paper derives from the current emphasis on microfinance in rural finance discourse and its increasing importance as a development tool in the fight against poverty. The methodology of the present study relied on primary data collected from 1,500 SHG members through structured surveys and interviews in Nalchha, Tirla, and Umarban blocks of Dhar District, Madhya Pradesh, supplemented by review of relevant literature. The paper concludes that SHGs play a vital role in livelihood development, women's empowerment, and community transformation when supported with appropriate training and enterprise development interventions.

Self Help GroupsRural DevelopmentMicrofinanceWomen's EmpowermentLivelihood

Shrivastava, S. (2026). Impact Assessment of Self-Help Groups towards Rural Development: A Case Study of Madhya Pradesh, India. International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR), 13(1), 486–494. E-ISSN: 2348-1269.

Work measured at scale.

Cumulative reach across evaluations, surveys and programme support engagements.

Self-Help Groups studied

Women covered

Survey respondents

Income improvement

Women's participation in decisions

Outcome indicators — endline vs. baseline

Savings behaviour86%
Enterprise survival64%
Household decision-making80%
Income improvement71%
School continuation58%

Reading the numbers

Decision-making participation moves earlier and more evenly than income. Where an income endline reports 71%, the agency instrument had already recorded 80% — eighteen months before the money became visible in the household ledger.

Projects

Research in progress, and research concluded.

2024 — Present

Ongoing

Longitudinal Study of Women's Economic Agency

A five-year panel following 1,500 households across two states, tracking the divergence between agency and income effects.

2023 — 2024

Completed

Impact Assessment of a Multi-District Livelihood Programme

Mixed-methods evaluation of 2,509 self-help groups, covering savings behaviour, enterprise survival and federation linkage.

2022 — 2023

Completed

CSR Expenditure Mapping Across Aspirational Districts

Geographic analysis of mandated corporate spending against composite district development indicators.

2027

Future

Block-Level Administrative Capacity Study

An ethnographic and quantitative account of how frontline administrative units ration official attention.

Latest Writing

Essays, field notes and policy commentary.

The long-form home of this site — where research becomes argument.

All writing

Research · 7 min read

कर्तव्य-बोध: राष्ट्र-निर्माण की खोई हुई कड़ी

अधिकारों की चेतना लोकतंत्र की आधारशिला है, लेकिन जब अधिकार कर्तव्य से अलग हो जाते हैं, तो नागरिक स्वतंत्रता व्यक्तिगत दावे में बदल सकती है। दुर्योधन की कथा से लेकर संविधान के मौलिक कर्तव्यों तक, यह लेख उस खोई हुई कड़ी की तलाश करता है जो नागरिक चरित्र, सामाजिक सद्भाव और राष्ट्र-निर्माण को जोड़ती है।

9 August 2026

Research · 4 min read

The Middle Path: Rethinking Human Progress in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

As artificial intelligence reshapes work, education, and governance, the real challenge is not whether AI will replace humans, but whether humans will continue to exercise the judgment, creativity, and critical thinking that define them. This article argues for a balanced, human-centric approach where AI augments not replaces human intelligence, and outlines key policy priorities to ensure technology strengthens society while preserving human cognitive capacity.

6 August 2026

Research · 5 min read

The Ganga’s Warning: Erosion, Barrages and the Limits of Bihar’s Flood Playbook

This week, all 108 gates of the Farakka Barrage were opened as the Ganga crossed danger marks from Buxar to Bhagalpur, placing ten districts under imminent flood threat. Unlike the embankment-pressure alerts NBRF has covered before, this crisis is defined by active erosion -a form of land loss Bihar's disaster-management architecture is not yet built to address.

2 August 2026

Contact

For research collaboration, evaluation work or speaking.

I read every message. Responses usually take two to three working days.

Arrah, Bihar, India

Newsletter

Occasional notes on new research, field work and policy writing. Once a month at most.

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Aresearcher between the village and the policy table.