Profile by Amanda Leverett
CGD’s Early Years
This month’s Aluminary is Sandip Sukhtankar, one of Nancy Birdsall’s first research assistants, who worked with Nancy and Carol Graham from 2003 to 2004.
Sandip has been quite successful in the ten years since his time at CGD. He cites Nancy, Michael Clemens, Todd Moss, and Steve Radelet (to name a few!) as inspirations in choosing his career path. Watching these experts doing policy research that had a real world impact was very motivating, he says. Like most CGDers, however, it was never “all work and no play” for Sandip. His favorite CGD memories involve being up to no good with partners-in-crime Molly and Rikhil!
Sandip says his experience at the Center solidified his desire to become a development economist. While working at CGD, he decided to apply for PhD programs and was accepted at Harvard. Sandip has many publications, but he is most excited currently about his recent paper about a large-scale experiment using biometric authentication and electronic benefit transfers for payments in two flagship welfare schemes in India. He is an assistant professor in the economics department at Dartmouth College and also a visiting scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Two of his hobbies are inspired by his childhood in Mumbai. His love of ceramics comes from memories of playing in the mud in the monsoons. He also has a passion for cricket, which he grew up playing, and does his best to export to his friends in the US. He still keeps in touch with his fellow CGD alums, most recently reconnecting with former colleagues at Molly Kinder’s wedding. He says he is incredibly impressed to see how close everyone still is after all these years.
Sandip has an innovative idea for future research at the Center: he suggests turning the Commitment to Development Index on its head–by ranking developing countries on their own governments’ commitment to development! With CGD’s considerable expertise and talents, he says, he is fully confident this would be possible, and believes that it would be interesting to see what this turns up. Maybe one of our experts will take him up on this experiment!
Sandip is married and he and his wife have a son. He shuttles back and forth between Boston and Hanover, NH for family and work.
