Praharsh M. Patel

IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program | 2018 - Present

Working as a pre-doctoral fellow under supervision of Dr Tushaar Shah, Senior Fellow (International Water Management Institute). Research focuses on data based Water, Energy and Agriculture Policy Analysis and Economic Sustainability in the era of climate change with intention of providing actionable outcome to respective authorities.

· Evaluating Composite Water Management Index Developed by NITI Aayog: Analyzed efficacy of the index and identified limitations and drawback of the proposed index. Developed an AQSE framework to have more pragmatic and efficient index indicating status of water sector in Indian states.

· Designed and Conducted Rainfall Trend Analysis: 

Analyzed rainfall patterns in India for 1901-2017 at district and subdivision level to identify significant trend and predict agriculture adversities expected due to observed trends using Mann-Kendall Test and linear trend analysis. Continuing the analyis at the further granular level using the pixelate rainfall data.

· Designed and Implemented Impact analysis of Decentralized Groundwater Recharge Activities: 

Compared the groundwater recharge conditions in the 3 arid regions, Marathawada, Vidarbha and Saurashtra. Developed difference in difference model to analyze the improvement in monsoonal groundwater recharge between two separate good rainfall time spells of 1975-1984 and 2004-2009.

· Designed and Developed Research Theme on Groundwater and Agriculture Development in Arid Region of Kutch: 

Research focuses on finding key aspects of development and growth of the region as well as identifying threats poised due to over exploitation of resources. Conducted extensive field work and developed thematic papers on horticulture development, importance of groundwater in the development of the region.

· Co-designed Evaluation to Conduct Research on Solar Irrigation Scheme’s Impact on Irrigation Practices: 

Designed a study to conduct field study and guided interns in conducting survey for irrigation efficiency for 3 villages. The further regression analysis is conducted for baseline survey. The further analysis will be continued to find evidence of irrigation efficiency after implementation of the scheme, Surya-shakti Kisaan Yojna (SKY).

Designing Drought Vulnerability Index for Indian Districts: 

The research involves developing comparative vulnerability of Indian Districts towards droughts and identify major resilience features of agriculture and allied-activities towards drought.  

Optum Global Solutions: UnitedHealth Group | 2017 - 2018

Worked for provider operations team under Commercialization and Integration analytics tower in OGS. The Basic objective of this team was to enable the ‘Digital Medium Adoption Team’ devise strategies and actions to increase digital medium usage by providers (Hospitals, Clinics etc.) and reduce the overall call volume for UnitedHealth Care leading to savings. 

Community Welfare Cell: IIT Kanpur| 2016

Led a team of 6 members of the IIT Kanpur for a Project with Dr. Abhas Singh (IIT Kanpur, Dept. of Civil Engineering) on “Waste Disposal on Campus” to study concurrent solid waste management system on IIT campus and improvise it. The Pioneer work eventually further developed by the Institute Authorities to manage 3000 kg of daily waste generated on 1200 Acre Campus