Event Archive

Convening | India’s Transformation: The Evolving Landscape of Digital Inclusion

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NCAER collaborated with The Quantum Hub (TQH) to organise a convening titled India’s Transformation: The Evolving Landscape of Digital Inclusion on 12th June 2026. The convening brough together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, industry representatives, and civil society organisations to discuss, “India’s Transformation: The Evolving Landscape of Digital Inclusion”, a research report jointly produced by NCAER and TQH using NCAER’s IHDS-III data.

The report moves beyond conventional measures of digital access to examine how Indians access, use, and benefit from digital technologies, highlighting the ways in which age, gender, education, geography, and socioeconomic circumstances continue to shape digital participation.

Mr. Suresh Goyal (Director General, NCAER) delivered the Opening Address of the convening. Dr Sonalde Desai (Professor and Centre Director, NCAER-NDIC) delivered a Special Address with emphasis on digital connectivity and the evolution of technology facilitating the same.

The convening featured presentations on the report’s key findings by Dr Dibyasree Ganguly (Associate Fellow, NCAER) and Ms. Garima Agarwal (Analyst, Public Policy, The Quantum Hub), followed by a keynote address by Dr Deepak Mishra (Distinguished Visiting Professor, ICRIER), who situated India’s digital inclusion journey within a broader global context.

In a fireside chat titled “Voices from the Ground”, Dr Jahnvi Andharia (Director and Research Fellow, ISST), moderated a discussion among three panelists whose experiences reflected the changing realities of digital participation in India.

The event concluded with a panel discussion on “From Access to Meaningful Digital Participation”, moderated by Ms. Aparajita Bharti (Founding Partner, The Quantum Hub), featuring Ms. Andrea Wojnar (Representative, UNFPA India), Ms. Anupriya Mohta (Manager, Government Affairs & Public Policy, YouTube), Dr. Bornali Bhandari (Professor, NCAER), and Mr. John Khiangte (Director, Public Policy & Government Affairs, Microsoft India & South Asia). Drawing on the report’s findings, the discussion explored pathways for advancing more meaningful and equitable participation in India’s digital economy.

Dr Pallavi Choudhuri (Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, NCAER-NDIC) delivered the Closing Address of the event with reflections on the proceedings of the day and gratitude for all participants. The convening served as a reminder that the challenge ahead is to ensure that India’s digital transformation creates opportunities that are accessible, meaningful, and equitable for all.

Read the report below:

https://ncaer.org/publication/the-evolving-landscape-of-digital-inclusion-in-india/

Suggested citation:

Ganguly, D., Agarwal, G., Bharti, A., Vaddadi, H., Chaudhry, S., Choudhuri, P., & Desai, S. (2026). The Evolving Landscape of Digital Inclusion in India. National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and The Quantum Hub (TQH), Delhi, India.

6th India Public Policy Network (IPPN) Conference

The National Data Innovation Centre (NDIC) at NCAER collaborated with the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to organise the 6th India Public Policy Network (IPPN) Conference from 8th to 11th 2026 at the NLSIU Campus in Bengaluru. Participating researchers and policy practitioners utilised the theme of “Public Policy Praxis in the Global South: Building Coherence and Capacity for Future Challenges” to present their work.

Dr Pallavi Choudhuri (Senior Fellow and Deputy-Director, NCAER-NDIC) served as the Chair for a panel discussion on “Challenges in measuring women’s income & wealth” on the second day of the conference. The panel comprised Dr Indradeep Ghosh (Executive Director, Dvara Research), Dr Neetha N. (Professor, Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi), Dr Praveena Kodoth (Professor, Centre for Development Studies, CDS Trivandrum) and Ms. Mansi Shah (Senior Coordinator, Self-Employed Women’s Association of India, SEWA).

Key insights emerging from the panel discussion underscored the need for stronger evidence to better understand women’s economic realities and inform policy design.

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.

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.

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.