Research Fellow

Follow us@ngobox

About the Organization

IDI’s mission is to make India’s welfare spending work better for the poorest 300 mn Indians. We help leaders adopt smarter welfare programs by offering: 1. A clear menu of effective programs/reforms 2. Beneficiary survey insights to show popular appeal of these ideas 3. Hands-on support to tailor and adopt our ideas. We are incubated by Ambitious Impact, one of the world’s top non‑profit incubators, with a 1 in 200 selection rate.

Job Responsibilities

The research fellow will help with the following activities:

• Shortlist effective ideas by reviewing high-quality, evidence-focused resources and collecting expert inputs.
• Prioritize ideas based on impact, cost-effectiveness, political salience, and administrative feasibility.
• Assess context fit by mapping how each idea fits Tamil Nadu or Puducherry’s political and administrative realities.
• Build simple estimations of the fiscal cost and cost-effectiveness of these ideas
• Help draft top ideas reports and policy notes for senior government leaders

 You’ll get a front-row seat to how large welfare programs are designed and negotiated. Your research could shape decisions that impact millions of the poor.

Education Qualification/Required Skills & Experience

• Experience in evidence-based policy (economics/public policy/public health/social protection or adjacent).
• Understanding of Indian politics & governance (state capacity, schemes, decision pathways).
• Bias to action: Organized, curious, and able to move quickly with incomplete information.

Preferred:

• Prior work on social protection (targeting, cash transfers, pensions, DBT) or health (public health programs, health insurance).
• Experience in an evidence-based organization (J-PAL, CEGIS, IDinsight, or similar)

Email your resume to haindavi@idiinstitute.org . Please include 2-3 lines highlighting relevant experience, earliest start date and expected compensation.

For questions or clarifications, please use the same email.

Tags Jobs in Tamil Nadu Jobs in Public Policy Jobs in Research