Prathap Kasina joined J-PAL in April 2010 and is now the Assistant Director of Research. Prior to that he worked as a Research Associate at the Centre for Micro Finance for one year. He is presently based in Hyderabad and is working on a study which evaluates providing health insurance through micro finance networks. He also supervises an indoor pollution study in Orissa and smart card evaluation study in Andhra Pradesh. Prior to that, he worked as a Research Associate for Prof. Sujata Visaria at the University of Michigan conducting data analysis on a study which analyzes informational constraints faced by potato farmers in West Bengal. He completed his Masters in Public Policy in April 2009 from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Prathap is originally from Kakinada, a coastal town in the state of Andhra Pradesh and has his undergraduate degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.