Sharanya Chandran

Sharanya provides strategic oversight to J-PAL South Asia’s 30+ member Policy and Communications vertical. As part of this mandate, she leads engagements with state and central governments in India, civil society organizations, private partners and donors to forge new research partnerships, disseminate insights from global evidence and catalyse the scale up of evidence backed programs across J-PAL’s focus sectors including Education; Labor Markets; Gender; Health; Political Economy and Governance; Environment, Energy and Climate Change; among others. 

Sharanya, along with the policy team, leads several strategic partnerships to institutionalise the generation and use of rigorous evidence. Some of these include a decade-long partnership with the Government of Tamil Nadu, and with the government of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha; with the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, among others. The policy team at J-PAL South Asia is also working closely with state governments and NGO partners to catalyse the scale-up of evidence-backed programmes in education, gender, livelihoods, and health. 

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 skill development. She was also a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum and former curator of its New Delhi hub.

Sharanya holds a Master’s in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (as an Inlaks scholar) and a Bachelor’s in Economics from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University.