Faculty
P. K. Singh
Assistant Professor
Center for Rural Development and Innovative Sustainable Technologies (CRDIST), IIT Kharagpur
Prof. Singh is an agricultural engineer from IIT Kharagpur and has done his Ph.D. in Finance from IIM Indore. His working areas are in intersection of Advanced Econometric Analysis, Experiment/Quasi Experiment Design, Big data, AI & ML and its use in Rural and Agricultural Finance, Development Policies and Sustainable Agribusiness and Rural Development.
Research Focus
- Fintech in Agribusiness and Rural Development; FinTech, Blockchain, Financial Inclusion, Digital Finance and Rural Economy, Rural Household Finance, Advanced Econometrics
- Big Data, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence; Farm/Non Farm Resource Optimization, Application of Big data Modeling, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence in Agribusiness and Sustainable Rural Development
- Rural and Agricultural Development Policies; Data Driven analysis and Policy Advocacy, Experiment/Randomized Control Trial (RCT) and Quasi-Experiment Research Design for Impact Assessments of Development Policies
- Performance Management of Financial Institutions; Advanced Benchmarking Techniques and Performance Management of Banking and NBFCs, Role of Social-Network Modeling in Micro Credit Institutions, Quantitative Research Design for Risk Management in Banking and NBFCs
Education
- FPM (PhD); Finance and Accounting, IIM Indore, India, 2014
- M.Tech; Agricultural and Food Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, India, 2009
- B. Tech; Agricultural Engineering; CSAU Kanpur, India, 2006
Teaching
- [RD61003] Financial Technology (Fintech) for Rural and Agribusiness Development- Elective at CRDIST [Autumn Semester, 2022-23]
- [RD30011] Rural Infrastructure Development and Management- Elective at CRDIST [Spring Semester, 2021-22]
- [AG60062] Management and Productivity- Core Course at AgFE [Spring Semester, 2016-2021]
- [AG60121] Agro-project Cash Flow Analysis and Finance- Elective at AgFE [Autumn Semester, 2016-2020]
- [AG60080] Marketing of Food And Agricultural Products- Elective at AgFE [Spring Semester, 2018-2021]
- [AG60064] Systems Approach in Agriculture- Elective at AgFE [Spring Semester, 2019]
- [RD30002]Transfer and Management of Rural Technology- Elective at CRDIST [Autumn and Spring Semesters, 2016 onwards]
- [RD30005] Fundamental of Rural Innovation and Management- Elective at CRDIST [Autumn and Spring Semesters, 2016 onwards]
Research Fellows
Shiladitya Dey (Ph.D. Research Fellow, CRDIST, IIT Kharagpur)
Area of Research: Impact assessment of institutional credit access, socioeconomic and socio-psychological determinants of formal credit, and social network analysis of different borrowing groups.
Skills & Expertise: Matching Algorithm, Structural Equation Modelling, Social Network Analysis, Marketing research
Anirban Pal (Ph.D. Research Fellow, CRDIST, IIT Kharagpur)
Area of Research: Performance Management of Micro-credit Institutions
Skills & Expertise: Efficiency Estimation, Institutional Economics, Social Networks Analysis
Kripamay Baishnab (Ph.D. Research Fellow, CRDIST, IIT Kharagpur)
Area of Research: Agricultural Productivity and Management
Skills & Expertise: Agri-commodity Derivatives
Saugat Das (Ph.D. Research Fellow, CRDIST, IIT Kharagpur)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Humanities, Social, and Economic Sciences.
Area of Research: Sustainable Finance for Agriculture and Rural Development
Expertise: Sustainable Finance; Central Banking; Commodity Derivatives
Sathya Uma Lakshmi K (Ph.D. Research Fellow, AGFE, IIT Kharagpur; Jointly)
Area of Research: Design of Dryland Farming system
Sanjeev Ranjan (Ph.D. Research Fellow, CRDIST, IIT Kharagpur)
Area of Research: Study of various Innovative and Cost-effective Renewable Energy Business
Models aiming for sustainable rural development, Carbon Financing as a mean
towards Green Livelihood adoption in rural areas, Financial Risk Assessment for
various RE business models for attaining Carbon Neutrality.
Skills & Expertise: Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy & Environmental Management, Project Risk
Assessment, Corporate Strategy, Product Planning, Program Management,
Automotive Segment, Electric Mobility, Energy Storage Systems, Financial
Modeling, New Product Launches and Development.
M.Tech Students
Aishwarya Bharathi R (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur; Jointly)
Area of Research: Price volatility and forecasting in the agricultural commodity market
Prateek Agrawal (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur; Jointly)
Area of Research: Regional rural bank performance analysis
Skills: Data Envelopment Analysis, Performance Estimation, Python, R Programming, Data Science
Our Alumni
PhD
Anirban Nandy (Ph.D., CRDIST, IIT Kharagpur)
Current Position - 1) Assistant Professor, Management at SIT
2) Founder & Secretary of Live Life Happily (Mobile Library Shiksha Swaraj)
Area of Research: Resource Efficiency; Sustainable Rural Development; Agricultural Economics; Artificial Intelligence; Rural Financing; Energy Management; Environmental Performance Management
Skills & Expertise: Machine Learning; Econometric Modelling; Efficiency Analysis; Bio-Economic Modelling; Frontier Modelling; R programming environment, MATLAB, Python
Visit bio-sketch anirbannandy
MTech
Megha Mhaskar (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur)
Current Position - Research Fellow IIT Bombay
Area of Research: Measurement of farmers' satisfaction with institutional financing- A structural equation modeling approach
Tushar Jagdale (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur)
Current Position - Specialist Officer at Punjab & Sind Bank
Area of Research: Economics and Determinants of Adoption of Solar-Powered Micro Irrigation System in Western India
Shifa Shahin (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur)
Current Position - Research Scholar, IIT Kharagpur
Area of Research: Rural women empowerment through community-based financial institution
Supriya Soni (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur)
Area of Research: Farmer's Water Conservation Behavior
Sourabh Surgonda Patil (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur)
Area of Research: Agricultural Marketing and Finance
Aluri Harikrishna (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur)
Area of Research: Role of digital platform in SHG women empowerment
Naresh S (MTech, AgFE, IIT Kharagpur; Jointly)
Area of Research: Identification of factors affecting the financing of agritech startups in India