Ajaya Kumar Sahu

Ajaya Kumar Sahu

Fellow

Ajaya Kumar Sahu is a Fellow at NCAER. He is an Agricultural Economist by training. During his stay at the NCAER, he has worked on areas like poverty analysis, issues related to agriculture and rural development, labour and employment with special reference to quality of jobs and skills, public finance and analysis of price dynamics.  His expertise lies in handling large scale data like NSSO micro data on employment, consumption, enterprises, agriculture, ASI data, conducting primary survey that involves sampling and weight calculations. Presently he is working on Gig economy in India and the quarterly Business Expectations Survey. He completed his M. Phil in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and is presently pursuing his Ph. D in Economics from Jamia Milia Islamia. He cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) with the Junior Research Fellowship, conducted by the UGC.

ARTICLE I Sage Journals
Impact of Product and Process Adoption Strategies on Business Expectations: Evidence from India During the Pandemic
Bornali Bhandari, Samarth Gupta, Ajaya Kumar Sahu, and K S Urs
January 2024

Report | NCAER
Socio-economic Impact Assessment of Food Delivery Platform Workers
Bornali Bhandari, Gautam Kumar Das, Samarth Gupta, Ajaya Kumar Sahu, K Subbaraje Urs, Nishika Pal, Karan Raj, and Sharon Thomas
August 2023

Policy Brief | NCAER
Making India A Global Power House in the Farm Machinery Industry
Bornali Bhandari, Laxmi Joshi and Shish Pal Bansal
April 2023

REPORT | NCAER
Making India A Global Power House in the Farm Machinery Industry
Bornali Bhandari, Laxmi Joshi, Ajaya Kumar Sahu, Saurabh Bandyopadhyay, Vaishali Jain, Devender Pratap, Palash Baruah, Nishika Pal and Poonam Dhawan
February 2023

ARTICLE | Indian Economic Review
Business sentiments during India’s national lockdown: Lessons for second and potential third wave
Bornali Bhandari, Samarth Gupta, Ajaya K. Sahu & K. S. Urs
2021

REPORT | NCAER
Present and Potential Contribution of Microfinance to India’s Economy
Shashanka Bhide, D B Gupta, Bornali Bhandari, Sanjukta Das, Madhura Dasgupta, Samarth Gupta, Devender Pratap, Ajaya Kumar Sahu, Jaskirat Singh Kohli, Ruchi Avtar
2021

PAPER | NCAER
An Exploratory State-wise Education-Employability-Employment Index for India
Saurabh Bandyopadhyay, Bornali Bhandari, Ajaya Kumar Sahu, Praveen Rawat
2021

REPORT | NCAER
Business sentiments during India’s national lockdown: Lessons for second and potential third wave
Bornali Bhandari, Samarth Gupta, Ajaya K. Sahu & K. S. Urs
2021

ARTICLE | Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research
Are Secondary Schools Imparting Digital Skills? An Empirical Assessment
Bornali Bhandari, Charu Jain and Ajaya K. Sahu
2021

ARTICLE | Economic & Political Weekly
Fiscal Compression, Jeopardised Recovery, the Humanitarian Crisis and Reforms
Sudipto Mundle and Ajaya Sahu
2021 

BOOK CHAPTER | Universal Secondary Education in India
Missing Middle of Educated Unemployable: A Critical Perspective on Secondary Education in India
Bornali Bhandari, Charu Jain and Ajaya K. Sahu
2020

ARTICLE | Economic & Political Weekly
Fiscal Restraint Trumps Fiscal Stimulus
Sudipto Mundle and Ajaya Sahu
2020

BOOK CHAPTER | NCAER
The Kisan Credit Card Scheme: Impact, Weaknesses and Further Reforms
A Sharma, Pramod Singh, Tejinder Singh, and Ajaya K. Sahu
2020

REPORT | NCAER
Skilling India: No Time to Lose
Bornali Bhandari, Pallavi Choudhuri, Mousumi Bhattacharjee, Tulika Bhattacharya, Soumya Bhadury, Girish Bahal, Saurabh Bandyopadhyay, Ajaya Kumar Sahu, Praveen Rawat, Mridula Duggal, Rohini Sanyal, and Jahnavi Prabhakar
2018

BOOK CHAPTER | NCAER
Mid-term Progress Review of Centrally Sponsored Scheme ‘Upgradation of Existing Government ITIs into Model ITIs’
Bornali Bhandari, Ajaya K. Sahu, S. Swarup, V. Tella, and P. Chaturvedi
2018

REPORT | NCAER
Gross State Domestic Product of Daman and Diu
Bornali Bhandari, R P Katyal, Ajaya Kumar Sahu, Sudha Chaurasia, Sanchit Singhal, and Manan Bhatia
2016

OPINION | The Hindu Business Line
Universal social security works best for platform workers
Bornali Bhandari and Ajaya K Sahu
April 5, 2024

OPINION | The Hindu Business Line
Designing social welfare systems for gig workers
Bornali Bhandari and Ajaya K Sahu
December 28, 2023

OPINION | The Hindu Business Line
Quality data on farmers’ use of machinery lacking
Bornali Bhandari, Laxmi Joshi, Ajaya K Sahu and Shish Pal Bansal
March 29, 2023

OPINION | QRIUS
Measuring urban employment/unemployment across city tiers 
Ajaya K Sahu and Bornali Bhandari
March 27, 2023

OPINION | The Hindu Business Line
Formal work, informal workers
Bornali Bhandari, Gautam Kumar Das, Samarth Gupta, Ajaya K Sahu &    KS Urs
August 30, 2022

OPINION | The Hindu Business Line
Does the Budget give a leg-up to agriculture?
Bornali Bhandari & Ajaya K Sahu
February 25, 2022

OPINION | Qrius
The Challenges that firms faced during the Pandemic
Bornali Bhandari, Samarth Gupta, Ajaya K Sahu & KS Urs
December 9, 2021

OPINION | Qrius
What do firms want?
Bornali Bhandari, KS Urs, Ajaya K Sahu & Samarth Gupta
December 1, 2021

OPINION | The Hindu Business Line
To insure or to assure the farmer?
Bornali Bhandari & Ajaya K Sahu
November 23, 2021 

OPINION | Qrius
Improving the credit scenario in India
Bornali Bhandari, Samarth Gupta, Ajaya K Sahu & KS Urs
November 15, 2021

OPINION | Financial Express
HEALTH INFLATION: SHOULD INDIA ALSO SUBSIDISE PHARMACY COSTS?
Bornali Bhandari & Ajaya K Sahu
January 15, 2020

OPINION | Business Line
SKILL SCHEMES SHOULD FOCUS ON WOMEN
Bornali Bhandari & Ajaya K Sahu
January 7, 2020

OPINION | Financial Express
IS INDIA GETTING BETTER FOR BUSINESS?
Bornali Bhandari, Ajaya K Sahu, & Samarth Gupta
December 21, 2019

OPINION | Business Standard
WHY MONETARY EASING ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH
Bornali Bhandari, Ajaya K Sahu, & Samarth Gupta
October 5, 2019

OPINION | Business Standard
“Did note ban induce firms to adopt digital payment?”
Bornali Bhandari, Ajaya K Sahu and Mridula Duggal
November 8, 2017

OPINION | Ideas for India
DO FIRMS IN INDIA PERCEIVE THEMSELVES TO BE E-READY?
Bornali Bhandari & Ajaya K Sahu
January 24, 2017

OPINION | Business Standard
ASSESSING E-READINESS OF FIRMS IN INDIA
Bornali Bhandari & Ajaya K Sahu
January 24, 2017

OPINION | Financial Chronicle
DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION UNLIKELY TO REVIVE INVESTMENT CYCLE
Bornali Bhandari & Ajaya K Sahu
February 25, 2016

OPINION I Financial Chronicle
ONLY DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION UNLIKELY TO REVIVE INVESTMENT CYCLE
Bornali Bhandari & Ajaya K Sahu
February 2016

  • Consultation Workshop Report organised by Ministry of Skill Development and National Council of Applied Economic Research, July 9, 2024

Education

  • PhDEconomics, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi (pursuing)
  • MPhilEconomics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2000
  • MAEconomics, Sambalpur University, Odisha, 1997
  • BAEconomics, Sambalpur University, 1995

Work Experience

  • June 2022-Present: Associate Fellow, NCAER
  • April 2018- May 2022: Senior Research Analyst, NCAER
  • August 2007-March 2018: Research Analyst, NCAER
  • January 2003-August 2007: Consultant, NCAER