Ashoka Reflections - Mar 2023
Welcome to interactive presentation, created with Publuu. Enjoy the reading!
ASHOKA
REFLECTIONS
A S H O K A U N I V E R S I T Y ' S M O N T H L Y N E W S L E T T E R
M A R C H 2 0 2 3
Ashoka University launches Rakesh
Jhunjhunwala School of Economics
and Finance
BIG NEWS
Ashoka Reflections | Page 01
Ashoka Reflections | Page 02
In recognition of the support received over the years from the philanthropist and ‘Big Bull’ of the
modern investment era, Ashoka University today launched the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala School of
Economics and Finance. With a focus on finance and economy, the school will aim to advance research
on inclusive and equitable development. Late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was associated with the University
from 2016.
The current Department of Economics, its educational programs and the Centre for Economic Data
Analysis (CEDA) will become part of the School, which will further expand to build new Centres of
Excellence focussed on research in the fields of economics and finance. The areas of educational
programs and research will evolve in due course of time.
Sharing her thoughts on the launch, Rekha Jhunjhunwala, wife of Late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said, “My
husband’s dream was to build a world class university in India for which he supported Ashoka
University from its inception. It is a proud moment for me to see this dream being fulfilled and
realised through the naming of the top Economics School in India as the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala School
of Economics and Finance. There is no better way to celebrate his legacy,”
“Ashoka thrives on its ability to attract the best faculty from across the globe and offer them a
platform to pursue their research and enrich students by helping them realise their potential. The
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala School of Economics and Finance will offer significant opportunities for
interaction between its exemplary faculty and students, a platform for discussion and debate with
peers and the world at large, and access to a wide range of resources for research and analysis,”
added Professor Somak Raychaudhury, Vice Chancellor, Ashoka University.
Sharing his thoughts on the occasion, Dr Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder and Chairman of the Board of
Trustees Ashoka University said, “Rakesh Bhai was a true fan of Ashoka and was very proud of his
association with the University. Ashoka to him was about nation-building. He pushed us to build a
university that India would showcase to the world. The support of stalwarts like late Rakesh Bhai and
continued by his family further ensures that Ashoka is well on its path to create an institution of
excellence in both teaching and research out of India. The RJ School of Economics and Finance is in
line with our emphasis on building Schools and Centres for interdisciplinary research that will further
create unique solutions aimed at addressing the challenges of in our country and the Global South.”
The Department of Economics at Ashoka University has 29 permanent faculty members with research
and teaching interests that span a broad range of fields which include economic theory, game theory,
behavioural economics, experimental economics, theoretical and empirical macroeconomics,
monetary economics, economic growth, development economics, time-series econometrics and
different areas of applied microeconomics and financial economics. The Department offers a major in
Economics and interdisciplinary majors in Economics & Finance, Economics & History, and Politics,
Philosophy & Economics (PPE). The Department also offers an MA in Economics and a Ph.D. in
Economics at the graduate level. In 2020 it was rated the top Economics Department in the country by
RePEc. The Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (CEDA) primarily focuses on facilitating informed
debate about economic and social developments in India. CEDA has developed a unique public data
repository along with a visualization toolkit that is accessible, searchable and interactive. It is
extensively referred to by researchers, policymakers, students and others.
My husband’s dream was to build a world class
university in India for which he supported Ashoka
University from its inception: Rekha Jhunjhunwala
Centre for Social and
Behaviour Change
Ashoka Reflections | Page 03
In Focus
C O V E R S T O R Y
Since its inception, the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) has been dedicated to
expanding and sharing knowledge and underscoring the role of behavioural science in designing
effective public policies. We have endeavoured to pursue a coordinated and collaborative approach
that fosters innovation and agency to advance behavioural science in India, and 2022 was no
different.
Ashoka Reflections | Page 04
RESEARCH FOR IMPACT: THE ROLE OF
BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE IN PUBLIC POLICY DESIGN
Pavan Mamidi, the Director of the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change
(CSBC), gives a snapshot of CSBC's initiatives in 2022
C O V E R S T O R Y
So far, we have amplified and applied evidence to drive better outcomes related to health, water,
financial inclusion, sustainability, and rural livelihoods. We successfully competed for funding to study
vaccine hesitancy in rural India and grievance redressal among women who use digital financial services.
Our research has been published in several academic journals, including Health Communication,
Vaccine: X, and Reproductive Health. We launched our working paper series in 2022. In the spirit of open
access, we also shared raw data from completed projects and extensive codebooks to explain each
variable in the data files. Finally, we initiated the changelog, our bi-monthly newsletter.
We presented our research at the Sabin Social and Behavioral Research Grant Partner Coalition Meeting,
the Learning Collaborative Strategy Summit, International Conference on Social Dilemmas and the
Behavioral Research in Economics Workshop. Our researchers spoke at several national and
international platforms, including the UN Young Changemakers Conclave, Financial Inclusion Week,
Moonshot, the Rural WaSH Partners Forum, and at leading academic institutions like LBSNAA, LSE, ICMR,
IEG, ISB, IIM Calcutta, IIT Jodhpur and the University of Copenhagen. We hosted in-person and virtual
discussions with experts like Dr Ravi Dhar, Amitabh Kant, Parameswaran Iyer, Nobel prize-winning
economist Michael Kremer, and others. We launched the CSBC Colloquium, our flagship in-person
speaker series, in December 2022 and have since hosted Manjari Jaruhar, IPS, and Dr Diego Gambetta.
Our behavioural scientists taught an online professional certificate programme, How to Change a Life,
which was co-created with AshokaX. The course introduced students to behavioural science concepts
and applications to change individual and community behaviour. We conducted a seminar series,
Constructing Stories for Behaviour Change, which took a closer look at narratives and how they become
instruments of behaviour change. Finally, in collaboration with CSIR-CSIO, CSBC co-hosted the Summer
Institute for Computational Social Science, a week-long programme for PhD candidates, junior faculty,
and young professionals. The summer school involved lectures and hands-on tutorials by global and
Indian faculty on digital data, ML, crowdsourcing, experiments and ethics, culminating in individual
research projects.
On the policy side, the Behavioural Insights Unit (BIU) of India at NITI Aayog, our team embedded in the
CEO’s office at NITI Aayog, began scaling up interventions we designed to increase IFA uptake among
pregnant women. The NITI-BIU led the global call for ideas and papers under ‘Lifestyle for Environment
(LiFE)’, a global movement by the Indian government that aims to drive climate action through behaviour
change. We also signed an MoU with Tata Trusts for work on the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Under this, we
identified behaviour change strategies within the programme. The insights were published in a
diagnostic report on ‘Behavioural Barriers and Levers in JJM’ with the Department of Drinking Water and
Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti. We extended our MoU with Dvara Health Finance, under which we will
design and test behaviour science-backed interventions to increase the take-up and usage of their
health finance services.
At the state level, our team in Bihar worked closely with the State Rural Livelihoods Mission to scale up a
kit to promote the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine, mask-wearing and other safety behaviours. The
JEEViKA team trained over 7 million women with the kit during SHG meetings. A survey of a sample of
these women found that many accurately recalled the kit’s contents, and the majority took the vaccine
citing the recommendation as one of their top reasons. Our Uttar Pradesh team launched the Pop-UP
lab, the first-of-its-kind mobile lab in the state. In the years to come, these initiatives will continue to
advance research and learning in behavioural science, design novel interventions, improve on-ground
indicators, and build local capabilities.
As we enter 2023, our main priority is to remain intentional in our work, in line with our ultimate goal of
research for impact. By being deliberate about the sectors and scope of our projects, we will continue to
create value for the communities we work for and the field of behaviour science.
Ashoka Reflections | Page 05
Ashoka Reflections | Page 06
Simple, short knowledge bytes: We shared knowledge bytes on product features and incentives through
messages, flyers, and videos with banking agents on the WhatsApp group.
Incentive calculator: We sent a link to the incentive calculator on the WhatsApp group. The incentive
calculator is a simple web page on which agents can enter their anticipated number of transactions and find
out the value of the incentives they will earn.
Live feedback using WhatsApp group: The WhatsApp group enabled banking agents to share their targets
and run rate of focus schemes (MIS at the branch level). The group also gave feedback and social recognition
to banking agents who did well.
Personal calling: Our subsequent intervention involved the branch manager calling 2-3 banking agents daily
to explain focus schemes, troubleshoot using standardised talking points, and maintain the relationship and
trust of agents.
WhatsApp is a democratic tool used by a significant section of India’s population (~500 million accounts). The
platform encourages a sense of community and provides an opportunity to learn from peers, thus enabling it to
create a significant impact. The CSBC team utilised WhatsApp extensively in two interventions focused on
Financial Inclusion and Complementary Feeding (CF). The interventions demonstrated WhatsApp to be a
powerful tool with the potential to communicate social impact messages for behaviour change effectively.
We worked with India Postal Payments Bank (IPPB) to increase the number of transactions facilitated by its
banking agents by improving agent motivation. During our initial research, banking agents’ motivation emerged
as a critical barrier to increasing the number of transactions. While banking agents’ motivation was linked to
multiple issues (including agents considering IPPB work as an additional burden and lack of detailed knowledge
about IPPB’s products), the need for simpler communication about their incentives was one of the most critical
issues. With this background, CSBC designed a pilot focussed on simplifying communication around incentives
and disseminating it to banking agents through branch-level WhatsApp groups. We supported the branch
managers by sending them content to share on WhatsApp.
CSBC designed the following intervention package for the pilot:
CSBC designed a pilot focussed on simplifying communication
around incentives and disseminating it to banking agents
through branch-level WhatsApp groups
Ashoka Reflections | Page 07
The Delhi circle had a mixed performance, with semi-rural branches showing significant increases (an increase of
268% was reported for Post Office Savings Account (POSA) transactions). Effective communication has improved
engagement and awareness among banking agents based in rural and semi-rural areas compared to urban
areas. Based on the pilot, CSBC provided behaviourally-informed recommendations for improving the overall
motivation levels of agents by modifying incentive communication.
CSBC also conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment that socialised Complementary Feeding (CF) and made it a
visible activity. The sample consisted of mothers with children between 6-23 months. In the intervention, we
facilitated discussions around CF among caregivers to make CF practice and discussion a visible and social
activity. We also leveraged peer effects to increase knowledge and adoption of CF. The delivery channel for this
intervention was WhatsApp groups with 4-5 mothers, facilitated by trained moderators. We found that socialising
complementary feeding and making it visible can improve compliance with CF practices. Mothers were sent
regular messages on CF components and practices via a WhatsApp group. The messages used behavioural
principles such as reducing cognitive load, simple mental models, commitment devices, and feedback loops.
This intervention significantly affects the minimum meal frequency and the minimum adequate diet fed to
children. This intervention could be easy to scale and cost-effective. ASHAs/AWWs could create WhatsApp groups
for mothers (who have smartphone access) and share regular messaging on complementary feeding. The cost of
implementation would be minimal, as there are no additional procurement or distribution requirements.
Through WhatsApp, people interact with communication received in their preferred language, tone and content.
The information delivered through WhatsApp is treated as personal, urgent and relevant. Additionally,
WhatsApp’s audio and video messages make reaching a low-literacy population possible. With the use of
WhatsApp, the potential to effectively communicate messages that can change the population’s behaviour is
immense.
Authors: Pooja Haldea, Vartika Shukla
Ashoka Reflections | Page 08
WHAT BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE
CAN TELL US ABOUT VACCINE
HESITANCY: INSIGHTS FROM CSBC
Centre for Social and Behavioural Change has been working to
understand vaccine hesitancy and protective behaviours around
COVID-19 to design interventions to alleviate them
Ashoka Reflections | Page 09
Vaccines are undoubtedly among the most significant medical advancements in human history.
Without them, historically fatal diseases like smallpox, polio, or whooping cough would continue to
decimate human populations around the world. It’s evident that vaccines are necessary, effective,
and safe — so why do so many people hesitate to get them?
The importance of this question can’t be underestimated, not in the least because of the devasting
impact that COVID-19 has had over the last three years. At the Centre for Social and Behavioural
Change, vaccine hesitancy and protective behaviours around COVID-19 have been a critical area of
interest since 2020. Our aim has been to understand these phenomena to design interventions to
alleviate them.
Our work began much before the vaccine: In September 2020 we launched our “Wear the Mask”
project, which comprised seven overlapping multimedia campaigns that targeted mask-wearing and
related behaviours. These were based on our “4R” model of enforcement-led behaviour change:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70