Doctoral Researcher
📍: Room no 209 // Ext no. 155
📧: prerona.sengupta@iiitb.ac.in
Education: MSc Behavioural and Economic Science (Economics Track), University of Warwick, UK
Prerona Sengupta holds an MSc in Behavioural Economics from the University of Warwick, UK and has 3.5 years of research experience across development and policy projects. She has worked on a UNICEF-funded project, contributed to research under the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (RDPR) of Karnataka, and most recently served as a Senior Research Associate at IIM Bangalore under the Jal Jeevan Mission, GOI. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Behavioural Economics, Technology, and Public Policy, with a focus on education, health, and gender. She is passionate about designing and evaluating evidence-based interventions that can inform and shape policy for inclusive development.
Behavioural Economics, Technology, Public Policy, Gender, Health, and Education
Jal Jeevan Mission Cell, IIM Bangalore (Senior Research Associate, 2023–2025)
At IIM Bangalore’s Jal Jeevan Mission Cell, I worked on strengthening rural drinking water systems across Karnataka and India. I conducted a detailed case study of the Gokarna multi-village schemes, assessing their technical, financial, operational, and institutional sustainability. I developed a Technical Note on rural water pricing and created an economic template that helps local bodies compute costs and set user charges for SVS and MVS systems. Alongside the Chair Professor of JJM at IIMB, I co-led two major training programs on financial management for piped water service delivery, training more than 150 government officials and development-sector professionals. I also designed a behavioral framework to improve psychological co-ownership within communities and contributed to national-level cost estimation for JJM schemes, which informed the 16th Finance Commission proposal submitted to the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
2. RDPR Project on MGNREGS & Distress Migration (Research Associate, 2022-2023)
For the RDPR, I studied how MGNREGS influences distress migration in North Karnataka. I designed the survey on Qualtrics, trained field investigators, organized and cleaned the dataset, and analyzed primary data in STATA. This project allowed me to understand how employment guarantees shape migration decisions in vulnerable regions.
3. UNICEF Project on Government Support to Households (Research Associate, 2021-2022)
In a multi-state UNICEF study spanning Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, I examined the spread of direct and indirect government support reaching households. I designed the survey tools, developed the quantitative framework—including a vulnerability index—supervised fieldwork, trained research assistants, and led the analysis using STATA and R.
Received Merit in MSc in Behavioural and Economic Science (Economics Track)