Director

ajithcses@gmail.com

Holds a PhD. in Economics and Master’s Degree in Statistics. Has more than 30 years of experience in socio-economic research.  His research work has been largely on (1) education (2) governance and service delivery (3) rights of children (4) welfare of marginalized communities (5) Internal Migration and (6) Kerala’s development issues.

Positions currently held include Member of the State Level Expert Appraisal Committee for Kerala constituted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India; Member, State School Curriculum Steering Committee; External Member of the Internal Quality Assurance Committee of Cochin University of Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT); and Member, Board of Studies, Department of Economics and Political Science, St. Xavier’s College, Aluva. 

Positions held in the past include: Member, Commission on Restructuring the Coir Industry in Kerala constituted by the Government of Kerala; Member of the Expert Committee constituted by the Government of Kerala for restructuring cashew sector in Kerala; Member of the Working Group on Urbanisation, Kerala State Planning Board; Member, General Council of the National University of Advanced Legal Studies; Member, Board of Studies in Economics, CUSAT; Member, Academic Council, Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam; Expert on Social Welfare Legislations, Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission; Member of the Advisory Board of the Study on ‘2018 Floods’ of the Kerala Council for Historical Research;  Member of the Panel constituted by Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) for undertaking the Social Audit of the functioning of KILA; Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Commission on Restructuring Higher Education in Kerala (Prabhat Patnaik- Chairman) appointed jointly by the Students’ Unions of all universities in Kerala; Secretary of the Organising Committee of Six State Level Workshops and National Conference on “Education in Kerala’s Development: Towards a New Agenda” organised jointly by UNICEF, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi and CSES in December 2000.

He was the team leader/principal investigator of more than two dozen studies and was a member of the study team of several others.  The major studies in which he was the team leader include: Baseline Socio-Economic Study for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation In Kavaratti Island-Lakshadweep conducted for CSIR-NISCAIR; Economic Impact of the ‘Access to Livelihoods’ programme for People with Disabilities of the Leonard Cheshire Disability, South Asia; Child Budget Analysis of Local Governments in Kerala for UNICEF; Assessment of the Programmes of the Government of Kerala for Persons with Disabilities; Study on Decentralisation in School Education for the Government of Kerala; Education of Migrant children in Kerala for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Employment and Social Protection of Cashew Workers in India with special reference to Kerala for V V Giri National Labour Institute; Status of Pre-primary Education in Kerala for the DPEP; Private Costs of Medical Education  in Kerala funded by the Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development (KRPLLD) a programme sponsored by the Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS), Netherlands at Centre for Development Studies; Evaluation of Alternative Schooling System in Kerala coordinated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India;  Need Assessment Study for ICDS for Under 3 Children for the Integrated Child Development Scheme. 

Major studies in which he was a member of the study team include: How the Poor Manages their Finances: A Study of the Portfolio Choices of Poor Households in Ernakulam District, Kerala, a study conducted for the Reserve Bank of India;  Comparative  Study of the Impact of the Donor Initiated Programmes on Research Capacity in the South involving three Asian, two African and two Latin American countries and sponsored by the Directorate General  for International Cooperation (DGIS), Netherlands; Baseline and Endlines studies of the World Bank supported Kerala Local Government Service Delivery Project, Baseline and Citizen Surveys for Services Delivered by Institutions Selected under the Service Delivery Project (SDP) of the Government of Kerala; Study on Vulnerability of Extreme Poor Households in Kerala; Study on Women-friendliness of Kochi City supported by the Government of Kerala; Studies on People Centric Service Delivery in Local Self Government Institutions  and Government Institutions for the Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission; Education of a Deprived Group in a Totally Literate Region: The Case of Tribal Children in Kerala for Action Aid India; Capability Building of the Research Community under Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development’ sponsored by KRPLLD; Evaluation of the Pre-Matric Hostels for Scheduled Tribe Children in Wayanad district of Kerala conducted by the District Institute of Education (DIET), Wayanad, Kerala; Research Project “Financing Secondary Education in Kerala” (2002-2003) sponsored by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration; Emerging Issues in Local Self Governance in Kerala sponsored by the SDC-CapDeck.