When Nishant Lodha chose not to follow the conventional path expected of a computer science engineer. As companies visited his campus after graduation, he realised he did not want a career that kept him only behind a desk. Instead, he wanted to understand people, solve real-world problems, and use evidence to improve lives. Sixteen years later, that decision has shaped a career in monitoring and evaluation across some of India’s leading education and development organisations, where data is not just collected but used to strengthen programmes and influence policy. He strongly believes that measured action with high collaboration leads to change and best intentions are never enough.
Growing Up Between Two Worlds
Born in Kolkata and later raised in Ajmer, Rajasthan, Nishant believes both cities shaped different aspects of his personality. Kolkata introduced him to a culture that valued reading, academics, music and holistic learning. Moving to Ajmer in Class 6 brought an entirely different experience.
Childhood train journeys exposed him early to the harsh realities of poverty, leaving a lasting mark on his worldview. He recalled one particularly stark memory of a group of malnourished children waiting at a station platform, scavenging discarded kulhads (clay tea cups) tossed from train windows, licking the last traces of tea from them just to ease their hunger.
Living in a large close-knit joint family changed the way he understood relationships, decision-making and community. Reflecting on those years, he says, “Suddenly it shaped how things get done, not get done, how are decisions made over the most minute things while the family comes together with shared resources and common purpose”. Growing up surrounded by schools on three sides, he was immersed daily in the sight of students coming and going and classrooms visible from home that shaped his early awareness of education.
Alongside these experiences, another interest quietly took shape. Nishant enjoyed explaining concepts to classmates through stories and examples, often organising informal study sessions after school. Although he did not know it then, this instinct reflected what he would later recognise as instructional design and pedagogy as terms.
Engineering That Led Beyond Technology
Nishant pursued Computer Science Engineering at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Alwar and was active in social and research projects. While many classmates aspired to software careers, he found himself drawn towards solving practical problems rather than writing code alone.
During college, he built applications like a Java-based Engineering Calculator to simplify complex mathematical work. More importantly, engineering exposed him to students from diverse social and economic backgrounds, broadening his perspective beyond academics.
In conversation with The Logical Indian, Nishant recalled that he was never interested in becoming a traditional software professional. He enjoyed research, fieldwork and understanding human behaviour more than spending long hours alone at a desk.
Discovering Social Research Through Fieldwork
Graduating in 2010 during the aftermath of the global recession, Nishant explored opportunities outside mainstream technology. His first major role came as a Design Researcher on a project supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Center for Knowledge Societies.
The project focused on finding creative solutions for effective delivery of routine immunisation in Bihar, not merely by studying vaccination numbers but by understanding the everyday realities of ASHA and Anganwadi workers. Nishant spent days observing how vaccines were transported, how cold storage systems functioned and what challenges frontline workers encountered.
Looking back, he describes this as his first exposure to understanding social problems from a human perspective and design thinking rather than purely through technology.
Realising the Power of Evidence
His next role at the IIT Bombay-based startup InOpen brought him closer to education. Working on the Computer Masti curriculum and its effective delivery, Nishant travelled extensively across India and abroad, engaging with schools that ranged from slum schools to elite private institutions.
Rather than viewing underserved schools through the lens of charity, he focused on understanding their actual needs. His colleagues noticed this approach and often referred to him as someone who naturally conducted needs assessments before proposing solutions or has a ‘jholaawala’ mindset which he proudly accepts.
Although he had not yet encountered the term “monitoring and evaluation,” he was already analysing learning outcomes, studying classroom observations and helping leadership teams use evidence for decision-making. It was here that he realised gathering right data and turning it into actionable insights, itself could become a meaningful career.
Using Data to Influence Policy
That realisation led him to Pratham, where he joined the ASER and Measurement, Monitoring and Evaluation team. Working closely with government partnerships, Nishant developed dashboards, analysed learning outcomes, generated evidence to improve reading and numeracy programmes, and was a part of multiple data review meetings.
One of his most significant contributions came through Pratham’s partnership with the Government of Karnataka. By demonstrating that schools receiving regular visits from Cluster Resource Persons showed stronger learning outcomes, the team helped build evidence that supported programme expansion. What began as a pilot across three districts gradually scaled to become a statewide partnership.
Measuring What Truly Matters
Over the years, Nishant expanded his expertise across organisations including Technoserve, Magic Bus India Foundation and J-PAL.
At Technoserve, he worked on employability programmes while learning how to assess Social Return on Investment and understand attribution, asking an important question: if a student’s life improves, how much of that change can genuinely be credited to a programme?
At Magic Bus India Foundation, he co-led monitoring and evaluation efforts for programmes reaching nearly 15,000 households. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his team rapidly completed large-scale surveys and strengthened programme planning through logical frameworks.
His work at J-PAL’s Idea Labs further deepened his understanding of evaluation methodologies. Collaborating with the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office under NITI Aayog, he explored how existing administrative data could support stronger public policy evaluation.
Looking Beyond Numbers at Akanksha Foundation
Today, Nishant leads monitoring and evaluation work at the Akanksha Foundation, where he believes data becomes meaningful only when it reflects a child’s complete journey.
Working through public-private partnerships with municipal corporations in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, the Akanksha Foundation maximises the potential of children and young adults from underserved communities with high quality, holistic education through government partnerships in a PPP model.
Nishant’s team at Akanksha make sure everyone across the organization is working from the same set of facts and definitions about what success looks like, get useful data to people when they most need it, run or facilitate solid research to prove impact and drive learning, and build simple dashboards with benchmarking to track progress over time.
Nishant with his team track student learning, attendance, social-emotional development, arts, sports, family engagement and long-term student outcomes that enable them to lead empowered lives. Some of the realities behind the numbers remain deeply sobering. Nearly one in four students are underweight and come from households where securing two meals a day is quite normal. Most parents work as domestic workers, electricians, plumbers or in other contractual occupations.
For Nishant, the organisation’s commitment extends far beyond school education. Akanksha stays connected with every student from the age of four until twenty-five, tracking higher education, employment and overall progress to ensure children continue receiving support as they transition into empowered adulthood.
Role of Powerful Mentors Who Cared Deeply
While speaking to The Logical Indian, Nishant credits his mentors for shaping his journey, noting that he’s been fortunate to work under managers who combined a deep understanding of the sector’s realities with curiosity and humility, and who actively nurtured his critical thinking and continuous learning.
He recounted all of his mentors, Sneha Raman, Dr. Farida Khan, Karishma Sushilkumar, Varun Limaye, Rukmini Banerjee, Praveen Singh, Harini Kannan, Aparna Krishnan, Saurabh Taneja with gratitude and how each of them has helped him push his own boundaries and strengthen his approach towards evidence-based thinking.
Every recommendation had to be grounded in research, insight, and academic rigour, yet remain simple and thoughtful enough to prompt reflection and action from the audience.
A Career Built on Curiosity, Not Certainty
Looking back, Nishant says he never planned a career in monitoring and evaluation. Instead, every step emerged from a simple curiosity about understanding people better and solving problems through evidence.
He also believes common perceptions about the social sector often miss its reality. According to him, the work is demanding, requires long hours and constant learning, but offers something many professions cannot: the opportunity to directly see how evidence can improve lives.
Reflecting on the years ahead, Nishant says, “95% of it is not clear, but the 5% that is clear is that I want to stay in the education and M&E space for the long run. M&E is still in a nascent stage in India, and I am interested in how we collaborate to strengthen evidence-based decision-making across the sector.”
A poem, in his own words, dedicated to all professionals working in the social sector.
मैं पत्थर हूँ मील का …
“उड़ने वालों के लिए नहीं,
चलने वालों के लिए बना हूँ |
सपने देखने वालों के लिए,
हर छोर पर खड़ा हूँ |
नापने हो गर कदम अपने,
पढ़ना मुझे सीख लो,
शून्य जब हो जाऊं .. तभी;
..मकसद हो पूरा मेरा |
मैं पत्थर हूँ मील का …
- निशांत
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Nishant Lodha’s journey demonstrates that meaningful social change is not driven by passion alone, but also by the ability to measure what truly works. By choosing evidence over assumptions and using data to strengthen education programmes, he has helped organisations make more informed decisions that can improve developmental outcomes for thousands of children.
His story highlights the often unseen role of monitoring and evaluation in creating lasting impact across the social sector. Can better evidence and stronger data help create education systems that leave no child behind?
