Gargi Pal

Gargi Pal leads the Air and Water labs initiative at J-PAL South Asia (SARWA) and the Energy, Environment, and Climate Change sector. She provides strategic oversight to SARWA's embedded impact labs, stewards J-PAL South Asia's research and policy agenda in the sector, and works closely with key government partners to identify priority challenges, share evidence from existing solutions, and test and scale evidence-based interventions to improve clean air, water and energy access.

Over her eight years at J-PAL South Asia, Gargi has worked across the full arc of research and policy, from hands-on field implementation to strategic portfolio leadership. She has stewarded a cross-sectoral portfolio of studies spanning energy, environment, gender, and health, working with multiple principal investigators across diverse field contexts and policy settings. Prominent among them is the Emissions Trading Scheme, now on a scaling pathway through the Emissions Market Accelerator. Gargi has also led multiple strategic initiatives including the second round of the Indian Scholars Program, aimed at funding research and building the capacity of early-career Indian academics with a focus on climate change and health. Additionally, she has provided strategic direction and researcher demand-generation support to the India Climate and Health Data Capacity Accelerator (IDCA) aimed at increasing data science capacity in the social sector. Prior to this she led the consolidation and institutionalisation of learnings for another initiative on administrative data use in research - the IDEA initiative. 

Across her tenure, Gargi has been instrumental in deepening government partnerships with the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation at the Centre, Central Pollution Control Board, State Pollution Control Boards of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Punjab, electricity distribution companies in Haryana and Tamil Nadu, and the National Health Mission.

Prior to joining J-PAL, Gargi worked with KPMG for three years, delivering multi-sectoral research and analysis to support clients' market entry and business strategies.

Gargi holds a Master's in Economics from TERI University and a Bachelor's in Economics from Maitreyi College, University of Delhi.

Relevant links - 

Institutionalising a Culture of Data-Driven Decision Making, working paper with Aparna Krishnan and Tithee Mukhopadhyay, Clear South Asia, October 2024.