Background

I have an undergraduate degree in Economics from Wellesley College, MA (2003), and a Master's degree in Public Administration and International Development (MPA/ID) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2005).

? aratan at microsoft dot com

Current work

My work at MSR India is in four areas:

Financial service delivery to the poor and technology

In what ways can the use of technological solutions to enable various aspects of financial service delivery result in more cost-effective and scalable operations for providers, as well as cheaper, better quality finance for low-income clients.

Mobile-phone-enabled banking and payments

This joint project involves looking at a range of existing and proposed m-banking and m-payment solutions across countries, understanding the usability of such systems by low-literate clients, as well as assessing the social and economic context and impact of the new channel on low-income households.

Kelsa+: IT access for low-income workers

Kelsa+ is a program that offers the low-income service staff in modern offices Internet-connected PCs for free, unrestricted use during their off-duty hours. This project assesses how such a program affects workers' self-esteem, basic digital literacy, English proficiency, and career opportunities.

Mapping household well-being and socio-economic mobility

Can we identify groups of households that exhibit similar combinations of socio-economic characteristics? Will these clusters help us identify particular socio-economic mobility factors responsible for transitions from one level of 'well-being' to another?

Resources

A Bibliography of interesting books on socio-economic development

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