Ashish Desai
  •  ashish.desai@spjimr.org

Ashish Desai

Associate Professor, Information Management and Analytics

Ashish has over 27 years of experience building greenfield technology-driven financial services businesses in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. His experience spans straddling entrepreneurship, industry, and policy-making. He was Director of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), NITI Aayog, responsible for monitoring schemes M and E of all trade finance and commerce ministries. He was responsible for working on the TIME Lab (Technology and Innovation for Monitoring and Evaluation) and training the state government in Monitoring and Evaluation. He has worked across various organisations in various domains, including digital payments, branchless banking, digital lending, and MFI in organisations such as Jumo, Aditya Birla Group, Motorola, First Rand Bank, and Comviva.

Ashish Desai’s research interests are firmly rooted in the intersection of technology and financial services. He is particularly interested in digital financial literacy and livelihoods, remote sensing and alternative data for public policy and private goods, digital public infrastructure and its positive externalities, and co-creation and collaborative governance of technology. His academic contributions are recognised through his roles as a senior visiting fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research and a senior visiting scientist at the Rural Data Research and Analysis (RuDRA) Lab at IIT Bombay. Ashish holds a degree in engineering from VJTI, Mumbai, an MMS from JBIMS, and a PhD from IIM Kozhikode.

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Education

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode

Ph.D.

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS)

MBA

Electrical Engineering, VJTI, Mumbai

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  • Teaching interest

    Information System and Data analytics :
    Big data for public policy

    Fintech Risk Management

    Economics of Platforms

    Digital Public Infrastructure

    Data for Development

    Programme Monitoring and Evaluation

    Data Analysis and Visualisation for Public Policy

    Remote Sensing and Satellite Data

  • Academic faculty

    IIT Bombay, Centre for Policy Studies, Visiting Faculty, June 2022 – present

    Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policy (Co-teaching with Prof NC Narayanan of Centre for Policy Studies; 3.0 credit)

    IIT Bombay, Centre for Technology Access in Rural Areas (CTARA)

    Remote Sensing and Satellite Data Regression

    IIM Kozhikode, Economics Department, Visiting Faculty, June 2022 – present

    Residential MDP for Mid-Career Indian Economic Service Officers.

    Module: Data and Policy, Digital Public Infrastructure.

    Executive Certificate Program on Public Policy

    Module: Digital Public Infrastructure and Economic Externalities

  • Administrative assignments

    SNDT University, Mumbai Member of Academic Council (Governor Of Maharashtra Nominee) December 2023

  • MDPs/FDPs

    State Bank of India-Batch 16, Leadership Development Programme (February 2025).

    State Bank of India-Batch 15, Leadership Development Programme (February 2025).

    State Bank of India-Batch 14, Leadership Development Programme (February 2025).

    State Bank of India-Batch 13, Leadership Development Programme (February 2025).

    State Bank of India-Batch 12, Leadership Development Programme (February 2025).

    State Bank of India-Batch 9, Leadership Development Programme (January 2025).

    State Bank of India-Batch 8, Leadership Development Programme (January 2025).

    State Bank of India-Batch 5, Leadership Development Programme (December 2024).

    State Bank of India-Batch 4, Leadership Development Programme (December 2024).

    State Bank of India-Batch 3, Leadership Development Programme (December 2024).

    State Bank of India-Batch 2, Leadership Development Programme (December 2024).

    State Bank of India – Batch 1, Leadership Development Programme (November 2024).

    Amara Raja, First Time Managers Programme (November 2024).

    Erulearning Solutions Pvt Ltd – John Deere, Digital Transformation (September 2024).

  • Board memberships

    MannDeshi Mahila Sahakari Bank (India’s first women-only rural bank)-Member of Board of Management, 2019–2022.

  • Editorial positions

    M and E@70: Strengthening India’s Evidence Systems for Accelerated Reforms and Inclusive Growth; DMEO, NITI Aayog (ISBN: 978-81-953811-6-6)

    Collaborative Governance and Digital Transformations in the Global South: Evidence and Insights from India, International Journal of Public Administration (ABDC Category B; Under process to be published Q3 2024)

  • Reviewer experience

    Reviewer for International Journal of Public Administration

    Reviewer for Asia Pacific Journal of Evaluation

  • Social impact

    Advisory to Manndeshi Foundation and MannDeshi Mahila Sahakari Bank (India’s first women only rural bank)

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