Job Description:
About PRAGATI
Rural India is central to India's economic future, accounting for 63% of the population and 70% of the workforce. Yet a large share of rural livelihoods remains concentrated in relatively low-productivity agriculture, creating a significant opportunity to shift towards higher-income economic activity.
PRAGATI (Programme for Rural Advancement, Growth and Transformative Initiatives) is a TCF-incubated organisation focused on accelerating economic prosperity in rural India. Its work is centred on two priorities:
- Increasing agricultural incomes by addressing structural constraints across land, inputs, finance, markets, processing and trade.
- Creating scalable non-farm livelihoods by identifying, financing and supporting promising rural enterprises that can generate local jobs.
PRAGATI works with central ministries and state governments to combine policy and economic analysis with hands-on implementation. It identifies high-potential opportunities, partners with relevant government institutions, tests solutions on the ground, and develops models that governments can ultimately own and replicate.
PRAGATI is also leading Amrit Prayas, a 10-year economic development initiative in the Deoria Lok Sabha constituency. It serves as a live testbed for coordinated interventions across agriculture, agro-processing, labour-intensive manufacturing and other growth sectors, with the aim of developing a replicable district transformation playbook.
Role Summary
The Senior Associate – Policy & Strategy will be part of PRAGATI's central team responsible for identifying and solving high-impact problems that can accelerate rural economic growth.
The role will involve working on complex questions across agriculture, rural enterprise, finance, markets and other areas of rural development—moving from problem identification and hypothesis building to rigorous analysis, solution design and government engagement.
The Senior Associate will work closely with PRAGATI leadership and program teams, and engage with government officials, experts, financial institutions and private-sector partners. This is a hands-on problem-solving role for someone who combines strong analytical skills with the ability to translate research into practical interventions.
Key Responsibilities
- Structure complex economic and policy questions into clear hypotheses, analytical workstreams and actionable recommendations.
- Conduct rigorous primary and secondary research across agriculture, rural enterprise, finance, markets and related areas.
- Analyse economic, financial and operational data to identify structural constraints, quantify opportunities and assess potential interventions.
- Evaluate sectors, value chains and policy ideas based on economic impact, feasibility, government fit and potential for scale.
- Develop the economic and strategic case for new initiatives, including program models, financing mechanisms and government partnerships.
- Produce high-quality policy notes, decision memos, presentations and strategy documents for PRAGATI leadership and senior government stakeholders.
- Support government engagements through stakeholder mapping, meeting preparation, analysis and follow-through on key decisions.
- Work with domain experts, private-sector players, financial institutions and implementation partners to test assumptions and refine solutions.
- Track emerging policy, market and sector developments relevant to PRAGATI's rural prosperity agenda and identify new areas of opportunity.
Qualifications and Skills
- 2–4 years of professional experience, ideally in management consulting, strategy, public policy, economic research, development consulting or a similar problem-solving environment.
- Strong quantitative skills and comfort working with economic, financial and operational data.
- Ability to conduct rigorous research while maintaining a strong focus on the so what? and practical implications of the analysis.
- Intellectual curiosity and a strong interest in rural economic development, agriculture and government-led transformation; prior sector experience is useful but not essential.
- Entrepreneurial and comfortable operating in an early-stage organisation where priorities and responsibilities can evolve quickly.
- Strong proficiency in PowerPoint/Google Slides and Excel/Sheets; comfort using modern AI tools for research and productivity.