Postdoctoral research (Department of Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark),
PhD (IIPS, Mumbai),
M.A. in Economics (University of North Bengal, WB),
B.A. [Economics(H), Statistics, Mathematics] (Siliguri College)
Email: soumitra@tiss.edu, soumitraiips@gmail.com
Ph: 022-25525534 (O), 9137543811 (M)
His research is mainly within the broad area of health, poverty, and labour covering topics such as under-nutrition, living conditions of tea garden workers, social determinants of diseases, health and nutritional status of tribal populations, inequality in health and health care, burden of out-of-pocket payments for health care, medical impoverishment, impact evaluation of health insurance programmes, economic costs of NCDs, universal health care, social exclusion, and new health financing arrangements and access to medicine.
His research has been published in leading national and international journals such as BMC Health Services Research, PLOS One, PLoS Medicine, British Medical Journal, Global Public Health, Margin-the Journal of Applied Economic Research, SAGE Open and Economic and Political Weekly, .
He also served as the article editor for SAGE Open and is a regular reviewer for EPW. Besides, he reviewed manuscripts for World Development, Journal of South Asian Development, Journal of Social and Economic Development, PLOS ONE, Review of Health Economics, BMC Health Services Research, BMC International Health and Human Rights, Sarvekshana-the journal of NSSO, and Indian Journal of Medical Research.
Websites:
Google Scholar Citations:
My page on google scholar citations
Research Gate:
Improving access to medicines by popularising generics: a study of ‘India’s People’s Medicine’ scheme in two districts of Maharashtra, BMC Health Services Research, 22 (1), 2022 Read
Prevalence and associated risk factors of hypertension among persons aged 15–49 in India: a cross-sectional study, BMJ Open, vol. 9 (2), 2019 Read
Undernutrition among tribal children in Palghar district, Maharashtra, India, PLOS One, vol 14(2), 2019 Read..
Targeting and effects of India’s RSBY on access to care and financial protection" Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 52, Issue No.4, 2017 Read..
Understanding the “cash-less” nature of Government-sponsored health insurance schemes: evidence from Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Aarogya Yojana in Mumbai, Sage Open, Read...
Socioeconomic Patterns in Inpatient Care Utilisation: Is the Income Effect Withering? Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, vol.9(1), 2015 Read...
Publicly Financed Health Insurance for the Poor: Understanding RSBY in Maharashtra. Economic and Political Weekly, November 1, 2014. Read..
Monitoring and Evaluating Progress towards Universal Health Coverage in India. PLOS Medicine Read...
Trends and Differentials in Health Care Utilization Pattern in India. Journal of Health Management (SAGE), 16(3), 2014 Read..
Health Sector Reforms and Changes in Prevalence of Untreated Morbidity, Choice of Health Care Providers among the Poor and Rural Population in India, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, vol (2), No. 3, 2014 Read...
Equity in the Utilization of Healthcare Services in India: Evidence from National Sample Survey, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, vol (2), No. 1 (January 2014). Read...
Catastrophic payments and impoverishment due to out‐of‐pocket health spending, Economic and Political Weekly, Read...
Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance Amongst Urban Poor: Evidence from Mumbai Slums, Artha Vijnana, Read...
Nutritional status of adolescents in agrarian crises affected areas of Maharashtra’, Indian Journal of Community Medicine, vol. 38, no. 3 (July-October, 2013). Read..
Morbidity, Health Expenditure and Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance amongst the Urban Poor: A Case Study’ Journal of Health Management (SAGE), Issue 13, No 4, 2011. Read...
Emerging Pattern of Morbidity Prevalence and Hospitalization in West Bengal’, Global Public Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice, vol. 5(3), 2010. Read...
User‐fees in India’s Health Sector: Can the Poor Hope for any Respite?’, Artha Vijnana, vol.51(2), June 2009. Read...
Morbidity in India: Trends, Patterns and Determinants’, Journal of Health Studies, vol. 2(3), June 2009. JHS-ISSN-0974-6765. Read..
'Children as Agents of Change: A Study on School Sanitation and Hygiene Education in Gaya District', UNICEF, November 2006. Read...
Social Health Protection in LMIC: Maharashtra Case Study Summary, Towards equitable coverage and more inclusive social protection in health. Studies in Health Services Organisation and Policy (SHSOP), 32. ITG Press, Antwerp, Belgium. ISBN 9789076070438, 2014. Read...
Social exclusion and its effect on enrolment in Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in Maharashtra, India with P Maldovsky, Towards equitable coverage and more inclusive social protection in health. Studies in Health Services Organisation and Policy (SHSOP), 32. ITG Press, Antwerp, Belgium. ISBN 9789076070438, Oct 2014. Read...
Catastrophic Payments and Impoverishment Due to Out‐of‐Pocket Health Spending: The Effects of Recent Health Sector Reforms in India', Asia Health Policy Program Working Paper No. 15., (July 01, 2010), Stanford University, Read...
Pandemic lessons from India: inappropriate prioritization for vaccination, The British Medical Journal, June 9, 2021
Publicly Financed Health Insurance Schemes, Economic and Political Weekly, June 9, 2018, Read
Role of Government in Funded Health Insurance Schemes, Economic and Political Weekly, June 22, 2018, Read..
Though tax revenues have risen the Modi government's budget has neglected healthcare, scroll.in, 3rd February 2022 Read
India's vaccine policy has left those most at risk exposed to the third-wave, Scroll, 6th January 2022 Read
The holes in the vaccine policy, The Telegraph, 6th June 2021 Read...
Reforming medical education, The Hindu, 14th May 2021 Read...
কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের ভুল নীতিই Covid টিকা পাওয়ায় বড় বাধা, Uttarbanga Sambad, 10th May 2021 Read...
West Bengal Outperforms Gujarat in Social Development, The Citizen, 22nd April 2021 Read...
India's Medical Education Crisis: What we need vs what we have, the quint, 27th March 2021 Read
Prolonged Hunger Will Destroy Lives and Minds of Millions, The Citizen, 25th May 2020 Read..
In a Health Crisis, the Most Vulnerable Cannot Be Left to Fend for Themselves, The Wire, 5th May 2020 Read...
As the pandemic accelerates, how equipped Is India's healthcare system? The Wire, 31st March 2020 Read...
The price of a good cuppa, The Hindu, 18th July 2019 Read..
Muzaffarpur Child Deaths: Bihar Needs to Make Health A Political Priority, The Wire, 26th June 2019 Read
A Doctor's Strike Was Inevitable in West Bengal's Broken Health System, The Wire, 17th June 2019 Read
It's time to have universal Healthcare as a public service and a right, The Wire, 2nd May 2019 Read
Moving away from 1%, The Hindu, January 24, 2019 Read..
West Bengal's striking tea plantation workers are only demanding their basic rights, The Wire, August 12, 2018 Read...
An unequal platter, The Hindu, June 26, 2018 Read...
Not a prescription for the poor, The Hindu, February 17, 2018 Read..
Indicators that matter on the quality of public healthcare", The Hindu, September 9, 2017 Read...
National Health Policy must not push privatization of healthcare in India, Hindustan Times, September 14, 2017 Read..
Current research project:
Principal Investigator for the WHO sponsored project titled "Assessment of Economic Costs of Diet related NCDs" from Feb 2017 onwards
Completed research projects:
Co-Principal Investigator for the USAID funded project titled "Strengthening Eco-systems for Sustainable and Inclusive Health Financing", 2015-2017
Co-Principal Investigator for the European Commission funded FP7 project titled 'Socially Inclusive Health Care Financing in West Africa and India', 2011-2014 (for details, see http://www.healthinc.eu/)
Co-Principal Investigator for the institute funded project titled “User-fee in health sector in Maharashtra” from 2009-11.
Summer Intern for the UNICEF Global Summer Internship Program 2005. Worked in a team comprising of students from India, USA and Japan for two and half months, doing impact assessment for UNICEF SSHE project in Bihar. Published a Case Study for UNICEF 'Knowledge Community on Children in India' Initiative.