Contributor : Profile

Sharmistha Baig is a Research Fellow in the Ashoka Centre for a People-centric Energy Transition. She has previously worked with NielsenIQ for 27 years.

Sharmistha has undertaken primary research in the areas of water and sanitation, rural development including livelihoods, women and child health, enterprise surveys, etc. She has coordinated many large sample pan-India surveys, including the Third Handloom Census; Rapid Survey on Children; and pan-India survey on functionality of household tap connections. She has led more than 50 studies on different aspects of water and sanitation. She has undertaken research for the Indian government; donor agencies including the World Bank, UNICEF, WSP-SA; for academic institutions like NCAER, CEPT University; and for INGOs/NGOs.

Prior to her work in NielsenIQ, Sharmistha worked as a Social Scientist with Programme Support Unit, Lucknow (an Indo-Dutch collaboration) implementing rural sanitation programme in Uttar Pradesh. She also had a brief stint with ML Infomap and worked as a GIS Project Officer. While pursuing her Bachelor’s degree, she worked with the Institute of Wetland Development, Kolkata.

Sharmistha has done her MA in Geography (Gold Medallist), with specialisation in Regional Development, from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Master’s in Urban Planning (with Distinction), from School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi.