Education

MPA in International Development, Harvard Kennedy School
BA (Hons) Economics, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University

Profile

Ronald is the co-founder of Veeraa, a crowdfunding and mentorship platform supporting India’s community leaders. Previously, he served as CEO of Jan Suraaj Foundation (JSF), which identifies and empowers youth leaders aspiring to drive grassroots change. Under his leadership, JSF built an active network of over 25,000 youth across Bihar. Before JSF, Ronald co-founded IDinsight and led its growth in India over a decade. Today, IDinsight’s 250+ staff across Asia and Africa help governments and nonprofits use data and evidence to make better decisions.

Earlier in his career, Ronald worked with Pratham, India’s largest education nonprofit, coordinating the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and co-leading a statewide learning program with the Government of Punjab.

At the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a recipient of the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship.

Research

Data for Progress; Community Leadership; State Capacity; Social Entrepreneurship

Publications

Abraham, Ronald, Elizabeth S. Bennett, Rajesh Bhusal, Shreya Dubey, Qian (Sindy) Li, Akash Pattanayak, and Neil Buddy Shah. State of Aadhaar Report 2017-18. Report. IDinsight, 2018.

Rains, Emily and Ronald Abraham. “Rethinking Barriers to Electrification: Does Government Collection Failure Stunt Public Service Provision?”, Energy Policy, vol. 114, March 2018, pp 288-300.

Abraham, Ronald, Elizabeth S. Bennett, Noopur Sen, and Neil Buddy Shah. State of Aadhaar Report 2016-17. Report. IDinsight, 2017.

Fraker, Andrew, Neil Buddy Shah, and Ronald Abraham. “Quantitative Assessment: Beneficiary Nutritional Status and Performance of ICDS Supplementary Nutrition Programme in Bihar”, Int’l Growth Centre Working Paper, February 2013.

Guruswamy, Mohan, and Ronald Abraham. “Redefining Poverty: A New Poverty Line for a New India”, Economic and Political Weekly, 2006, vol. 41 (25).