About Our Director

Dr Padmini Ram is the Founding Director of Urban Ethnographers, a leading academic research and consultancy firm based in Bangalore. Dr. Ram’s professional journey is defined by her commitment to bridging the gap between rigorous academic research and practical solutions that drive social impact. Under her leadership, Urban Ethnographers has become a trusted partner for social enterprises, NGOs, and governmental organisations, offering strategic insights that empower communities and drive sustainable development.

Dr. Ram has extensive experience working on public policy at grassroots and international levels. Her diverse experience includes roles with grassroots NGOs in India and international organizations such as DANIDA, CARE-India, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York, and the American Red Cross (Greater New York Chapter). She has undertaken advisory roles in sectoral research, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), impact assessments, teaching-learning practices, pedagogy, and grant writing. Padmini has worked on various aspects of public policy, including education, the informal economy, affordable housing, disaster response management, maternal and infant health, education through sports, ICT for development, watershed management, and healthcare (HIV-AIDS projects). Trained as an anthropologist, she is particularly interested in qualitative research methods.
She has also been a distinguished academic. With a PhD from the University of Cambridge, she has taught students and professionals at universities in India and the UK. Serving as a senior faculty member at Christ University, Bengaluru, she spearheaded the CLARE project, a unique industry-academia collaboration with LabourNet, focusing on the informal economy.

She is a TEDx speaker, having delivered an impactful talk titled “Informal or Illegal? Voices from the Fringe!” Her research is widely published in international SCOPUS-indexed journals, and she is the author of The Affordable Housing Market in India, published by Routledge. As a thought leader and journal reviewer for leading publications, her work explores the informal economy through the lenses of economic sociology, political economy, and public policy.

Driven by a passion for creating meaningful change, Dr. Ram continues to innovate at the intersection of research, policy, and entrepreneurship, making Urban Ethnographers a beacon of impact in the social sector.