NCAER - NATIONAL DATA INNOVATION CENTRE
NCAER is pleased to invite you to a seminar featuring a presentation by Prof. Sonalde Desai, Professor and Centre Director, NCAER-National Data Innovation Centre, New Delhi; and, Distinguished University Professor Emerita, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland to be held on Monday, August 31st, from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM, in T1, Conference room. The seminar will be chaired by Mr. Suresh Goyal, Director General, NCAER. Dr Amita Baviskar, Professor, Environmental Studies and Sociology & Anthropology, Ashoka University and Mr. Aurélien Kruse, Lead Economist, The World Bank, India will serve as Discussants during the seminar.
Abstract of the paper:
The 21st Century has witnessed unprecedented transformation of the Indian society with the growth of the middle class as a key component of this transformation. The size, composition and orientation of the Indian middle class are of considerable interest to economists, sociologists and political scientists but lack of empirical data often limits informed discussion across disciplinary boundaries. Using data from India Human Development Survey (2004-2024) this seminar will address the following questions: (1) What is the size of the Indian middle class and who forms a part of it? (2) To what extent the objective and the subjective markers of middle-class status overlap? (3) How does the middle-class lifestyle and worldview view differ from that of poor and the near poor?
Presenter:
Sonalde Desai is a Distinguished University Professor Emerita, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland and Professor and Centre Director, NCAER-National Data Innovation Centre, New Delhi. She is a demographer whose work deals primarily with social transformation and its impact on the lives of individuals with a focus on education, employment, gender, and maternal and child health.
She leads the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) of over 40,000 households, one of the few national panel surveys in India providing a rich and free public resource for studying the transformation of the Indian society in the 21st century between 2004 and 2024. Desai has published extensively in Indian and international journals and served on editorial boards of several major journals. She is a frequent contributor to Indian English language newspapers.
Desai received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and post-doctoral training at the University of Chicago and RAND Corporation. Desai was elected President of Population Association of America for 2022 and has been named a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Chair:
Suresh Goyal is the Director General of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). He has over 30 years of experience across the private and public sectors. He joins NCAER after his assignment as the Managing Director and CEO of the National Highway Infra Trust (NHIT), which was set up by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and the National Highways Authority of India to support the National Monetization Pipeline. Starting as the first employee in 2020, Mr. Suresh Goyal built NHIT into one of the largest road platforms, with an enterprise value of ~INR 48,000 crore. He successfully managed multiple stakeholders, including a 10-member board comprising government, institutions, and independent directors, steering NHIT to deliver consistent performance. Before moving to the government role, Mr. Goyal had spent his career in the private sector, with his last stint at Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets as Senior Managing Director and Head of India and South-East Asia, based in Singapore.
Mr. Goyal is an Electrical Engineer and has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
Discussants:
Amita Baviskar is a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology & Anthropology at Ashoka University. Her research addresses the cultural politics of environment and development in rural and urban India. Currently, she is studying the social experience of changing heat, dust and rain in north Indian cities.
Baviskar received a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University. She is the author of two monographs, In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley, and Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi. Her publications include the edited book Elite and Everyman: The Cultural Politics of the Indian Middle Classes (with Raka Ray).
Aurélien Kruse is currently the Lead Economist of the Economic Policy team in India. Before starting this position on April 1, 2023, Aurélien worked as an economist in Ghana, Kazakhstan, Nepal, and Kenya. His work spanned Decentralization and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, Debt Management and Debt Restructuring, and Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies. He has led and contributed to numerous flagship reports, including country strategies, economic updates, and memoranda.
Aurélien joined the World Bank as a Young Professional in 2007. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard.
We look forward to your participation in this engaging and insightful session. Tea/coffee and light refreshment will be served.