Event Archive

Building Human Capital Where It Matters: Homes, Neighborhoods, and Workplaces

NCAER hosted a seminar on 23 February 2026, featuring members of the People Practice Group at the World Bank, who presented findings from the Bank’s latest flagship report, “Building Human Capital Where It Matters: Homes, Neighborhoods, and Workplaces”.

The report was presented by Dr Mamta Murthi, Vice President, and Dr Joana Silva, Deputy Chief Economist, of the People Practice Group at the World Bank. Drawing on cross-country evidence from household surveys, administrative data, and labour market statistics over the past 15 years, the report examined trends in nutrition, learning outcomes, workforce skills, labour force participation, and employment patterns across low- and middle-income countries.

The report highlighted the emergence of a “silent human capital crisis” with the deficit being especially prominent for women and the youth. While core insights of the report included stepping stones for reversing the deficit, the overall analysis underscored how service access, job quality, and skill formation interact over the life cycle to shape long-term human capital accumulation.

The seminar was chaired by Mr Suresh Goyal, Director General, NCAER, who steered the discussion and highlighted the policy relevance of the report’s findings. Dr Pallavi Choudhuri, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director at NCAER’s National Data Innovation Centre (NDIC), served as the discussant, offering critical reflections on the report’s findings.

GENDER TRANSFORMATION: Insights from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS)

To mark the occasion of Women’s History Month, NCAER hosted a webinar titled, “Gender Transformation: Insights from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS)”. During the webinar, researchers from the IHDS team discussed insights on gender transformations across the country, based on IHDS data emerging from surveying the lives of men and women in over 40,000 households, over the two decades between 2004 and 2024.

Moderated by Professor Sonalde Desai, the webinar, which had over 150 attendees, was also joined by NCAER’s Director General, Mr. Suresh Goyal. The presentations by IHDS researchers Dr Pallavi Choudhuri, Dr Debasis Barik, Dr Ruchi Jain, Dr Dibyasree Ganguly, and Dr Athira Vinod from NCAER and Dr Sharan Sharma from the University of Maryland, and the subsequent discussion focused on several topics of interest and key themes, including survey methodology, changing educational patterns, evolving family expectations, women’s mobility, and the continuing challenges of measuring work and empowerment.

The panel also highlighted practical challenges in interviewing women and emphasised the importance of recruiting and training women interviewers while addressing related barriers and strengthening field protocols to improve data quality.

Enhancing Gender Statistics

The National Data Innovation Centre (NDIC) at NCAER, in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), organized a two-day conference on “Enhancing Gender Statistics” on 15th and 16th January 2026 at the NCAER campus in New Delhi.

The inaugural address by Dr Saurabh Garg, Secretary, MoSPI, drew on several flagship government schemes to highlight the importance of gender-disaggregated data in statistical systems. Against the backdrop of increasing policy attention to gender-responsive planning and monitoring, the conference sought to examine how existing data systems can be strengthened to better capture women’s economic and social realities and to inform evidence-based decision-making.

Across five technical sessions and a thematic presentation, chaired by Shri P.R. Meshram (Director General, Data Governance, MoSPI), Smt. Geeta Singh Rathore (Director General, NSS), Dr Shamika Ravi (Member, PM-EAC), Shri Subash Chandra Malik (Additional Director General, SSD, MoSPI) and Dr Sonalde Desai (Professor & Centre Director, NCAER-NDIC), participants drew on survey experience, administrative data, and applied research to guide the discussions.

Organized by a Planning Committee co-chaired by Dr Sonalde Desai (Professor and Centre Director, NCAER-NDIC), Dr Pallavi Choudhuri (Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, NCAER-NDIC) and Shri Subash Chandra Malik (Additional Director General, SSD, MoSPI), the conference brought together policymakers, researchers and statisticians from NCAER, MoSPI and other eminent institutions including Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), World Bank, ILO, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, Azim Premji University, O.P. Jindal Global University, Population Foundation of India and the United Nations Office for India to deliberate on key conceptual, methodological, and policy challenges associated with the collection and use of data from women and about women.

Key takeaways:

Strengthening the integration of survey data, administrative records, and applied research as a key pathway to enhancing the measurement and policy relevance of gender statistics.
Improving the measurement of women’s economic empowerment, including labour force participation, livelihoods, access to resources, and participation in skilling and STEM education for the development of future data systems.
Opportunities to refine data collection instruments and administrative systems to minimize gender bias and improve the quality of gender-disaggregated data.
Systematically incorporate gender perspectives into emerging data dimensions, including innovative survey methodologies and evolving labour market contexts.
Advancing gender-responsive monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals through improved indicators and reporting frameworks.
The value of sustained collaboration among statistical agencies, researchers, and policymakers to drive methodological innovation and ensure data systems remain responsive to changing social and economic contexts was recognized as critical to impactful change.

The conference provided a platform for cross-institutional dialogue and exchange, fostering shared learning across disciplines and sectors. Overall, the deliberations reaffirmed the central role of high-quality, inclusive, and gender-responsive data in supporting effective policymaking, monitoring progress, and advancing development outcomes.

Lessons from the Global Advocacy for Gender Justice in the Population Field: 1975-2025

National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and Feminist Economics Saturday Discussion Group (FESDIG) jointly organized a cconversation with Ms. Judith Bruce, The Population Council, on Lessons from the Global Advocacy for Gender Justice in the Population Field: 1975-2025 on Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at NCAER Campus, 1^st Floor Seminar Hall.

Since the first world conference on the status of women held in 1975 in Mexico City, feminist advocates have struggled to place gender justice at the center of population discourse. Ms. Judith Bruce, a senior advisor based in the Population Council’s New York office, reflected on lessons learned over the past fifty years.

Judith Bruce served as co-chair of the UN Expert Group Meeting on the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl-child. She has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and received the Association for Women in Development’s bi-annual award for outstanding contributions to the field. A graduate of Harvard University, Bruce has written and lectured extensively on population policy, the quality of reproductive health services, the status of adolescent girls in the developing world, family and partnership dynamics, and women’s access to and control over resources inside and outside the household.

Through policy analysis, evidence-based intervention design, advocacy, and capacity-building, she has changed the way the world thinks about quality of care from the client’s perspective and about the power and potential of the poorest, most excluded girls. This seminar will draw on her five decades of experience in this field to reflect on the challenges facing it in the coming years and on how lessons learned may energize research and advocacy to overcome new obstacles.

Roundtable Discussion: Translating Research on Women’s Economic Empowerment into Policy: Progress and Prospects

On 30th January 2025, the National Data Innovation Centre (NDIC) at NCAER collaborated with The Quantum Hub (TQH) to organize a roundtable discussion titled “Translating Research on Women’s Economic Empowerment into Policy: Progress and Prospects”, held at the NCAER campus in Delhi The event explored how policymaking can be driven by evidence and how research can be made relevant to policy. Over thirty intellectuals from research, academia, development, and policy sectors lent their voices to the discussion, contributing data, insights, and experiences and thus eliciting a myriad of pathways to answering a complex two-fold question. The event featured a keynote speech by Dr. Sonalde Desai, special remarks by Dr. Devaki Jain, and two moderated sessions led by Dr. Pallavi Choudhuri and Ms. Aparajita Bharti respectively.

Ms. Bharti delivered the introductory remarks highlighting the relevance, application, and impact of contemporary research on women’s economic power in India. Dr Sonalde Desai traced the historical interactions between social science research and policy in India, urging scholars to collaborate and integrate feminist perspectives into decision-making. Dr Desai highlighted critical emerging areas, including the changing nature of work, the dynamics of platform and gig work, and evolving family structures in India. In her special remarks, Padma Bhushan Ms. Jain highlighted the need to recognize women’s economic contributions, stressing collective efforts for meaningful change. Ms. Jain shared the journey of feminist economics research in India, drawing from her extensive experience with the Planning Commission and the South Commission.

The session on “Evolving Research Landscape on Women’s Economic Empowerment”, moderated by Dr. Choudhuri, examined the role of data in policymaking, particularly in recognizing unpaid family work and expanding definitions of labor. The session on “Pathways to Translating Research into Action”, moderated by Ms. Bharti, explored strategies for integrating research into policy interventions. Speakers emphasized the importance of women’s education, progressive curriculum reforms, and collaboration at all levels.

The roundtable discussion provided valuable insights into the complex relationship between research and policymaking on women’s economic empowerment in India. The event underscored the need for evidence-driven policies and greater recognition of women’s economic contributions. Key discussions underscored the need for fair compensation, data-driven policy linkages, and cross-sector collaboration. The discussions emphasized that a collective, unified approach is essential for translating research into impactful policy interventions that can drive real, systemic change for women in the workforce.