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
PRAGATI is working with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) to help shape the next phase of rural development — building on MoRD's strong welfare and infrastructure delivery platform to increasingly enable sustained income growth and rural prosperity. The engagement focuses on three pathways: increasing agricultural incomes, creating non-farm local livelihood opportunities, and enabling skilling for remunerative migration.
The Senior Program Manager – Rural Economic Transformation (MoRD) will lead this engagement on a day-to-day basis. The role combines strategy, policy and execution — identifying and structuring complex problems, conducting rigorous analysis, designing practical interventions, building alignment with government and ecosystem stakeholders, and driving initiatives through implementation. The SPM will lead a small team and work closely with senior MoRD officials, PRAGATI leadership, financial institutions, experts and private-sector partners.
Key Responsibilities
- Work with MoRD and PRAGATI leadership to identify and prioritise high-impact opportunities for increasing rural incomes.
- Structure complex problems into clear hypotheses, analytical workstreams and actionable interventions.
- Lead research and analysis across agriculture, rural enterprise, finance, skilling and migration.
- Translate priority opportunities into practical program and policy designs, including implementation models, financing mechanisms and outcome frameworks.
- Build the economic and operational case for new initiatives and government partnerships, working with experts and ecosystem partners to refine solutions.
- Translate ministry priorities into clear workplans, owners, milestones and deliverables, and establish a strong operating rhythm across workstreams.
- Identify and resolve bottlenecks, ensuring initiatives move from concept and approval to implementation.
- Build trusted relationships with senior MoRD officials and coordinate across ministries, state governments, public institutions, financial institutions and implementation partners.
- Prepare senior-level engagements and translate discussions into clear decisions and follow-up actions.
- Manage and mentor the MoRD PMU team, maintaining a high bar for rigour, ownership and execution.
Qualifications and Skills
- 8–10 years of professional experience, ideally in management consulting, strategy, transformation, public policy, economic development or a similar problem-solving environment.
- Demonstrated ability to own complex programs end-to-end, from problem definition and solution design through stakeholder alignment and implementation.
- Strong stakeholder-management skills and the maturity to work with senior government officials, business leaders, financial institutions and experts.
- Strong quantitative skills and comfort working across policy, strategy and implementation.
- Entrepreneurial and comfortable working in an early-stage organisation, with a strong interest in rural economic development and government-led transformation.
- MBA or postgraduate degree from a leading institution is preferred, but not mandatory.