Curriculum Vita Omkar Sharad Joshi
Synopsis
Over 7 years of experience in research and analytics from corporate, government and academics in the area of economics and governance issues.
Professional Experience
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) October 2011- to date Consultant
The main responsibilities are to perform data analysis and report writing and research papers.
Major Projects
India Human Development Survey- This is a nationally representative, multi-topic survey of over 41,554 households in 1503 villages and 971 urban neighbourhoods across India. The first round of survey was completed in 2004-05 and the second round data collection is over. I am currently examining the impact of Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on household welfare and different dimensions using IHDS-I and II data.
Building Policy Research Capacity for Rural Governance and Growth in India- This is a multi-year research programme funded by Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) examining the relationship between decentralization and rural governance in India. I have assisted in writing a few chapters of the report titled “Decentralization and Empowerment for Rural Development: The Case of India” which uses household level REDS (Rural, Economic, and Demographic Survey) data collected from 242 villages spread across rural India. Also co-authoring two papers- one on the long run relationship between inequality and growth and the second on the welfare impacts of political reservations with Dr. Hari Nagarajan (ex-Senior Fellow, NCAER and currently RBI Chair Professor, IRMA) and Prof. Hans Binswanger (Adjunct Professor, Beijing Agricultural University) and writing Policy Briefs on the research papers produced as a part of this project.
Varieties of Governance: Effective Public Service Delivery- This is a project supported by Global Development Network (GDN) covering 16 multi-disciplinary teams covering 30 countries analyzing the effects of governance mechanisms on service delivery through a political economy lens. As a part of the project travelled extensively in Maharashtra for field supervision and training for the survey. I am the co- author of the report on service delivery in Water and Education sectors in states of Maharashtra and Orissa titled “Varieties of Governance and Varieties of Outcomes”
ASER Centre-Pratham June 2011- September 2011 Senior Research Associate
The primary responsibility is to oversee data analysis and report preparation along with capacity building, monitoring of survey and team handling.
Major Projects/ Programmes Peoples’ Assessment of Health Education and Livelihood (PAHELI 2011) – PAHELI 2011 is a survey supported by the Government of India-United Nations Joint Programme on Convergence (GoI-UNJPC), PRATHAM/ASER Centre along with local district organizations and other partners which include Accountability Initiative and Arghyam. It was carried out in 8districts of India to provide a unique peoples’ assessment of status of health, education and livelihood in the district. I was involved in training of volunteers, monitoring of survey, designing of data validation process and implementation. Capacity Building- Guided an intern in the organization, in creation of training course material on Statistics. Was involved in training the volunteers at national level programmes
All India Institute of Local Self Government June 2010-January 2011 Junior Programme Officer
Major responsibilities included coordinating research based activities, data management and statistical analysis, developing need-based Training Modules and conducting training on Urban Sector Issues in the Western Zone.
Major Projects/ Programmes
Workshop on Urban Street Vendors Policy and Model Law- Worked as a Co-ordinator for the National Level Workshop on National Policy on Urban Street Vendors and Model Law. Conducted workshops on the same subject across the state of Maharashtra and Goa for elected representatives and officials. City Sanitation Plan- Coordinated and Conducted Training Programme on Social Mapping for Community Level Workers in 16 Corporations of Maharashtra. Held meetings with the municipal commissioners and senior bureaucrats helping them to formulate the city sanitation plans. Performance Assessment System- Part of the Data Collection and Analysis team which worked on the data of Water Supply and Sanitation of 238 Urban Local Bodies form Maharashtra.
Sankhya Analytical Research Private Ltd. July 2008 – June 2010 Statistical Analyst
Handling end to end analytics projects in various domains like Macro-Economics, Banking, Insurance and Financial Services, Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM), Retail Sector and Market Research, Networking and business development, delivering training to corporate and educational institutions on statistical tools, techniques and application in business.
Major Projects
Review of Indian Economy Report-Prepared an extensive review and progress report of the Indian Economy for the period of 2004-2008 covering Real and Monetary Sectors using multivariate statistical techniques like Factor Analysis Prediction of Real Exchange Rates- Developed the model for prediction of REER using the significant macro-economic indicators like dollar index, oil prices, T-bill yield difference, Forex Reserves Pairs Trading- Part of the team which prepared the Pair Trading Approach and Strategy involving identification of Pairs using Co-integration, Estimation of the investment proportion, Identification of Trade Signals and Specification of the Trigger System for a stock-broking firm Segmentation of Commercial Banks- Carried out segmentation of 94 Indian, Foreign Commercial banks on the basis of Financial Performance Ratios using Cluster Analysis. Insurance Cross-Sell Modelling- Evolved a cross-sell model for selling a health insurance product to existing life-insurance customer base of a leading insurance company which involved extensive Data Mining and Data Preparation. Infrastructure Assessment and Feasibility Study-Carried out a detailed infrastructure assessment and feasibility study for Data Management, Channel Migration and Cross-Sell Opportunities
Technical Skills
Statistical Software Packages- STATA ,SPSS, SAS, R Other Software Packages- Unica Affinium Tools-Model, Detect and Campaign Reporting Tools- Microsoft Excel Word, Power Point Statistical Techniques- Data Mining, Regression: Liner, Logistic, Econometric Analysis: Macro-Modelling, Time Series, Panel Data Analysis, Multivariate Techniques: Cluster, Factor, CHAID, Discriminant Analysis Research Papers
1. MGNREGA: Employer of the Last Resort? Omkar Joshi, Sonalde Desai, Reeve Vanneman, Amaresh Dubey
2. Investing Growth and Inequality in Indian Villages Hari K. Nagarajan, Hans Binswanger-Mkhize, Omkar Joshi
3. Public Governance in India: Insights from Kautilya’s Arthashastra Omkar Joshi
4. Fiscal Decentralization and Regional Inequality in India: A Panel Data Approach Omkar Joshi
Teaching Experience
Teaching experience of 6 years for undergraduate courses in Economics for B.Com, B.M.S (Bachelor in Management Studies) and M.B.A courses in colleges affiliated with University of Mumbai. I have taught papers of Micro- Economics, Macro-Economics, Indian Economy and Managerial Economics for these courses.
Education
University of Mumbai, Department of Economics Master of Arts, Economics (April 2005)
University of Mumbai, Ramnarain Ruia College of Arts and Science Bachelor of Arts (Economics & Statistics) (Apr. 2003)
Awards and Achievements
Acted as a Convener of the conference on “Emerging Trends and Challenges in Business Analytics” Successfully cleared the Main Examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for selecting candidates in Civil Services viz. IAS, IFS and appeared for Personality Test Acted as a Speaker on behalf of India in a conference of SAARC Countries organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Awarded Late Sujata Pabrekar Endowment Prize for excelling in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities 7th Rank in the Merit List and obtained National Merit Scholarship in H.S.C.