As a masters student in the Department of Economics, Prerna Mukharya (GRS’09) discovered her love for data — how it can help you understand people and their behavior and enable policy makers to track impact and create change.
She honed this passion after graduation, working as a research assistant in Cambridge, Mass., and then headed back to India to work at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, where she analyzed data to better understand the quality of health and education across rural India.
But through this work, Mukharya realized that India needed better data. To make informed decisions, she believed, policymakers needed to hear the perspectives of millions of people around the country. So, with her savings and a few interns, she founded Outline India, a data firm that collects information through on-the-ground research and surveys and analyzes it for partner organizations to create social impact.
“When I started working at a think tank in New Delhi, I realized that the quality of on-ground data in India was questionable,” she said. “We had several Indian firms running analytics, but no one really focused on the data that we were analyzing, and this was problematic. For a superset of India that still lives in villages and does not use the internet like you and I do, it was important to reach out and talk to them. To then take that information and data to those in positions of authority — be it philanthropists, policymakers, academics, think tanks, sustainability teams and innovators — became our goal.”
Since 2012, Mukharya’s firm has collected information on over five million people through conversations and surveys in more than 60,000 villages across 29 states in India, as well as in Nepal and Bangladesh, radically transforming data collection in India and other developing countries. In recognition of Mukharya’s work, she will receive a 2023 Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award during BU Alumni Weekend on September 23.
“It’s hard for me to imagine that I would be doing what I’m doing today if not for BU,” she said. “Through my masters in economics, I realized I loved the subject for how practical it was, plus I loved the research itself, so I decided to make a business out of Development Economics. BU was the stepping stone. It opened up so many doors for me. It opened up my mind.”
Mukharya came to BU in 2008 after graduating from the University of Delhi with a degree in Economics. She was eager to come to the United States and started researching top economics programs around the world. She was thrilled when she was accepted to the Graduate School of Economics and ecstatic to come to Boston, which she called “a hub for all things wonderful.”
Mukharya loved rushing through breakfast in the dining halls, grabbing late-night coffees with classmates, and taking the T to classes. She remembers sitting in the College of Fine Arts, listening to students play music, while studying. She loved that the program, but found it “ difficult ” — especially her econometrics course — and while she loved research, she didn’t feel ready to pursue a Ph.D. So after graduation, she headed across the river to work as a research assistant.
“Once I graduated from BU, I wasn’t quite ready for a Ph.D or keen on a corporate job. That said, I wondered if it might be fun to work as a researcher for a few years and put my learning into action,” she said. “But I realized the quality of data in India was bad and that it could use somebody who has some professional training in the field of data, in the field of policy. That’s where the idea of setting up my company came from.”
Three years later, Mukharya founded Outline India, which now has a solid army of researchers from diverse backgrounds including statistics, sociology, engineering, and literature, and a wide network of field teams across India that focus on collecting primary data — through conversations and surveys. The firm partners with funds, think tanks, institutes, and universities in the United States and around the world to draft policies and make social changes.
And her company has been a success. Mukharya was featured in Fortune magazine’s 40 under 40 in 2017 and 2018, was among the top 40 women changemakers in the 2018 annual list released by India. She was invited in 2017 to be a Raisina Fellow, awarded by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India; in 2018 to be a Chevening Fellow at Oxford University; and in 2022 as an advisor at the Aspen Institute. This past January, she was honored at the United Kingdom House of Commons as one of 75 individuals who have made significant contributions in their field to celebrate India’s 75th Republic Day.
And since graduating, Mukharya has stayed in touch with friends and faculty members from BU, going on an annual trip with some of her classmates, and corresponding with one of her professors, Dilip Mookherjee, professor of economics and director of the Institute for Economics Development.
Recently, she started working on a project with another BU professor — Mahesh Karra, assistant professor of global development policy at the Pardee School of Global Studies and associate director of the Human Capital Initiative at the Global Development Policy Center. The project, also funded by the World Bank, focuses on sexual and reproductive health of women and their well-being.
While she didn’t work with Karra as a student, Mukharya says it is meaningful to be connected with campus again through Outlines’ work with him. And she is grateful that her company is collaborating with her alma mater at this important moment in the school’s history.
“It’s taken me 10 years but I finally have my alma mater as my client, and it means so much,” she said. “The BU tag also opened up a lot of doors when I was setting up my business. People were willing to meet me because they trusted the education that I had. The fact that my school has decided to appreciate some of the work that we’ve been able to do, especially during its 150th birthday celebration, is so special.”