India's social sector does not lack intent, money or effort. What it lacks, too often, is the right evidence at the moment of decision, so choices affecting millions of lives get made on whatever data happens to be at hand. Delta Insights was founded in Bhopal in 2023 to close that gap, especially for the organisations that need it most: those priced out of big-firm evaluations but unwilling to settle for research that won't survive scrutiny.
We chose our name deliberately. Δ, the delta, is the symbol of change: the measurable difference a programme makes in people's lives. Our work is to find that delta with rigour, explain it honestly, and carry it into the room where the next decision gets made.
Every study we deliver makes one more decision evidence-based. That is how the default changes: one decision at a time.
Method chosen for the indicator, not for convenience, and documented so anyone can check it.
Surveys, FGDs, KIIs, ethnography, chosen for the indicator, not the convenience.
Informed consent, data protection and do-no-harm principles on every study.
Relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability.
Enumerators who know the terrain, working in 7+ Indian languages.
Our own enumerators, never outsourced, mobilised from Bhopal into the districts where the questions are.
Trained at IIM Ahmedabad, TISS Mumbai and Delhi University, and on the field.
Retired Dean, Indore School of Social Work.
