In this episode, we converse with Prof. Karthik Muralidharan, who is the head of global education research at JPAL. He is also the Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His research spans development, public, and labour economics with a focus on improving the effectiveness of public spending in the social sector. Here, Karthik breaks down for us what research for social impact is, the role of research to inform policy, role of independent evaluations and assessments in saving money, time, and effort. He also talks about why has he remained in this sector for so long, and what keeps him going, and what should the people joining the sector know about it. This episode was originally published on June 25, 2019.

In this episode, we converse with Anil Swarup. He is the Former Secretary of School Education and Literacy and comes from a long tenure in the civil services. In his career, he has been known to bring about a change in the way technology is used in governance, and has used social media extensively to advocate the #NexusOfGood movement, which identifies local heroes and homegrown solutions which have worked across India. He is also the author of Not Just A Civil Servant in which he articulates his journey. During the conversation, he tells us more about the #NexusOfGood movement, sustainable solutions, technology in Education and Governance, and scaling interventions. This episode was originally published on June 3, 2019.

In this episode of EI Dialogues, we have Dr. Dhir Jhingran in conversation with Pranav Kothari. He is the Founder Director of the Language and Learning Foundation. He has worked in the primary education sector for over two decades, within and outside the government. As an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, he served as Principal Secretary, Education with the Government of Assam and as Director in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Mission Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as well as the District Primary Education Programme. During the conversation, Dhir highlights the learnings from his career, give some tips on multilanguage teaching, talk about how to take transformative ideas to scale, and describe his personal experiences in starting an organisation from scratch, after his stint in the government sector. This episode was originally published on April 5, 2019.

In this episode, we have Kruti Bharucha, the CEO of Peepul, in conversation with Pranav Kothari. Prior to Peepul, Kruti was Country Head for Ark India and led Ark India's work to pioneer PPP schools in Delhi as well as work with governments on improving governance and accountability systems on education. Kruti moved to the development space after working in the corporate sector for 19 years. The video highlights her journey, what made her move back to India to start the Peepul schools, how did she reach from an enrolment of 4 students in her first year to 800 students in a span of three years, what are her experiences in doing teacher professional development, and what does scale mean to her. This episode was originally published on February 15, 2019.

In this episode, we listen to Parth Shah, President, Centre for Civil Society in conversation with Pranav Kothari, VP, Large Scale Education Programmes, at Educational Initiatives. Parth breaks down the basics of policymaking, some benevolent aspects of the RTE policy, and his views on the recent amendment on removing the no-detention clause. The conversation further steers towards democracy in policy decisions and the top three ways to implement the RTE act differently. This episode was originally launched on December 10, 2018.

In this episode of EI Dialogues, Pranav Kothari converses with Amitav Virmani, the Founder CEO of The Education Alliance. Amitav talks to us about what is really meant by good quality education, how his organisation is creating effective partnerships by connecting governments with non-profits to leverage the strengths of both, and how they are creating a layer of accountability within the system for improving student enrolment, student and teacher attendance, and more importantly, learning outcomes. Amitav moved from corporate America to come work in the Indian social developmental sector, and in this episode, he busts some myths regarding the same. This episode was originally published on April 26, 2019.

In this episode of EI Dialogues, we converse with Ramya Venkatraman, co-founder of Center for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA). During the conversation, Ramya shares about her passion for education, her journey from McKinsey & Co to CENTA, and CENTA's work and why we misunderstand the teaching profession. 

Vinod is the co-founder at TheTeacherApp,  a not-for-profit education technology startup that creates open-source, digital learning experiences for the professional development of teachers in low-resource schools of India. Vinod has been driving the conversation on collaboration in the development space with over 20 partners ranging from government, content creators, media production, and funders. He drives home an important point regarding the availability of pedagogically sound content for teachers in vernacular languages and talks about how technology can be leveraged to reach the rising population of teachers with high-quality content.

This episode was originally published on January 11, 2019. 

During the conversation, Ashok talks in-depth on building organisations that are scalable and sustainable. He also sheds light on his transition to the development space after spending 24-years in the corporate sector and his experiences with Akshara thereafter.

Ashok Kamath has been Managing Trustee since 2003 and Chairman of Akshara Foundation since July 1, 2008. In April 2019, he has conferred the prestigious 'Namma Bengalurean' award for exemplary work in education. His alma mater, IIT-Bombay, presented him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013 for his various initiatives and contributions to the field of child education. 

Meeta Sengupta is a writer, speaker and advisor on education with a cross country perspective on policy, skills and pedagogies. She has written extensively on school systems and impact, pedagogies and processes, assessments and outcomes, teachers and leaders, and on education gaps and funding. During the conversation, Meeta elucidates on the role of educational research, India's participation and preparation for PISA, and developing the right kind of assessments. She also sheds light on the education policy in the country, the process of policymaking, and the role of public-private partnerships in education.