Baladevan Rangaraju

Bala founded India Institute in 2010 convinced that people at the margins of India’s education and legal systems deserve better information, better choices, and better institutions. His path to research ran through practice – as a teacher, school leader, and campaign director at the Centre for Civil Society, working on school choice and access to justice.

He has led field studies using randomized controlled trials, list and conjoint experiments, longitudinal surveys, and mixed-methods designs, reaching over 34,000 respondents across nine languages in India and internationally. His most-cited work, The Private School Revolution in Bihar – co-authored with James Tooley and Pauline Dixon of Newcastle University – received the Templeton Freedom Award from the Atlas Network in 2012.

He was a Visiting Researcher at Newcastle University (2022–2024) and has held a research affiliation at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania. He holds an MA from Teachers College Columbia, an LLB from Delhi University, and a BA from Madras Christian College.