India Program

India’s support of economic reforms and structural changes have resulted in high growth rates and substantial reductions in poverty. By embracing technology to improve service delivery in important sectors, the country is poised to significantly enhance the lives of its citizens and its role in the global economy.

The India Program at the Stanford King Center on Global Development provides the means for Stanford faculty and students to engage with India in this process, through research, student programs, and collaborations with research centers and institutions in India. Conferences and workshops enable the exchange of ideas between researchers, policy makers, and business and community leaders, from India and other countries.     

Research and Collaboration

The India Program advances a broad range of robust, data-driven research by Stanford faculty and students and their strategic partners around the world. This includes providing on-the-ground support for researchers in collaboration with the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (Stanford Seed) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and working closely with faculty across Stanford’s schools.

Studies supported by the program have produced path-breaking insights into key issues affecting India’s public and private sectors. These include:

• Management. Stanford researchers are co-piloting a large-scale survey of manufacturing operations in India to generate ground-breaking insights into why factories struggle to grow and innovate. The survey includes unique data on customers and how they are acquired.
• Agriculture. Satellite imagery and field surveys tracking crop development across space and time are shedding new light on farm management and decision-making in the face of environmental and technological changes.
• Government outreach. A Stanford study that examined the challenges government officials faced in communicating critical information during India’s demonetization provides insights on how to effectively reach rural populations.

Engagement

The program collaborates with institutions in India to organize events, including an annual conference on Indian economic policy and regular workshops featuring Stanford faculty research. The program also hosts India’s leading policy makers, providing opportunities for the Stanford community to interact with key influencers.

Student Opportunities

The program advances student research through graduate fellowships and provides opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to work as field-based research assistants in India. The program also partners with leading institutions in India to offer internships in innovative programs.

The Deshpande Foundation Sandbox in Hubli (Karnataka), India, offers students opportunities to intern with a program that works to develop English skills amongst elementary-aged students. Stanford students will focus on the role of teachers and teacher training, among other issues.

Students can also apply to intern at MakerGhat, a non-profit community makerspace and incubator in Powai, Mumbai. MakerGhat's goal is to change how innovation is traditionally viewed as the domain of the highly educated, by providing disadvantaged students access to engineering and emerging technology.

Previous opportunities have included the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission (MSRLM) internship, for which students charted the growth of the program aimed at building sustainable institutions for the rural poor, and the Kakatiya Sandbox, which offered Stanford students opportunities to work directly with NGOs in health, agriculture, water and sanitation, education, or building databases in Nizamabad, Telangana, India during the summer quarter.

For more information, please contact Anjini Kochar, the India Program Director, at anjini@stanford.edu.