Sharanya Chandran

Director - Policy & Communications, J-PAL South Asia
Sharanya leads strategic planning and day-to-day management of the policy vertical at J-PAL South Asia and provides strategic oversight to the different sector teams.
Concurrently, Sharanya leads the Labor Markets and Firm sector teams at J-PAL South Asia. As part of this mandate, she leads engagements with governments, civil society organizations and private partners to forge new research partnerships, disseminate insights from global evidence and catalyse evidence use in these sectors.
Further, Sharanya manages J-PAL SA’s partnership with the Government of Punjab (India) which aims to institutionalise an evidence informed approach to policymaking through research, capacity building and policy collaborations.
Prior to joining J-PAL, Sharanya worked as Principal Consultant for the National Skill Development Agency, Govt. of India (formerly office of Advisor to the Prime Minister on Skill Development), where she worked with multiple stakeholders on addressing policy and implementation gaps in the skill development.
Sharanya holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (as an Inlaks scholar) and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University