Medium-length reflective pieces from Varna Sri Raman on measurement, field practice, parenting, and the questions that stay after the project report is filed.https://idealog.works/en-inhttps://idealog.works/blog/how-off-the-roll-is-built/https://idealog.works/blog/how-off-the-roll-is-built/A methods note on Off the Roll, the analysis of the Special Intensive Revision of India's electoral rolls. Where each figure comes from, how the tables are checked, and what the lists cannot tell us.Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTelectionsdatamethodscivic-techinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-two-hour-archive/https://idealog.works/blog/the-two-hour-archive/How Democracy by Design got built. A note on what a protest archive needs to refuse, why it had to ship in an afternoon, and what happens to protest art after the crowds go home.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTcivic-techarchiveprotestmethodsinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-observer-files-a-report/https://idealog.works/blog/the-observer-files-a-report/A national organisation sends observers to grade its own district units. We turned the paperwork into a monthly score across 23 states. This is what the data caught, and what it made the party look at.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementmelgovernancedatainfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/what-the-smartphone-actually-replaced/https://idealog.works/blog/what-the-smartphone-actually-replaced/Twenty years ago, cable television arriving in a village tracked shifts in son preference and attitudes to wife-beating. A three-generation household pilot suggests the signal has moved.Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementmelgendermediainfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/before-you-evaluate-a-curriculum/https://idealog.works/blog/before-you-evaluate-a-curriculum/A state government commissioned an RCT of a critical thinking curriculum. Designing the trial is straightforward. Deciding what it measures is harder.Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementmeleducationmethodsinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/what-the-hand-drawn-map-carries/https://idealog.works/blog/what-the-hand-drawn-map-carries/A field researcher's sketch map is useful for analysis and unpublishable as drawn. On the pipeline that removes the village without removing the geography.Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementmelfield-privacymethodsinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-number-the-testimony-and-the-aqi-you-can-act-on/https://idealog.works/blog/the-number-the-testimony-and-the-aqi-you-can-act-on/JanVayu now has an AI assistant. It answers a kind of question the sensor cannot answer alone, and it makes an argument about what measurement is for.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTcivic-techair-qualityaimeasurementjanvayuinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-canvas-suite-as-a-practice/https://idealog.works/blog/the-canvas-suite-as-a-practice/On why eight free, printable, one-page frameworks add up to a way of working.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementmelinnovation-advisoryframeworkspracticeinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-pre-mortem-and-the-bottom-row/https://idealog.works/blog/the-pre-mortem-and-the-bottom-row/On the two quadrants of the Rumsfeld matrix that most programmes pretend do not exist, and the meeting that gets them onto the page.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementmelframeworkspre-mortemriskinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-five-letter-frameworks/https://idealog.works/blog/the-five-letter-frameworks/On CLEAR (for the pathway) and VALID (for the indicator), two reviewer's checklists to apply before the logframe gets signed.Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementmeltheory-of-changeframeworksinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/school-vouchers-in-old-delhi/https://idealog.works/blog/school-vouchers-in-old-delhi/In 2010, we gave families in Old Delhi vouchers for private school fees to test whether cost was the barrier to girls' enrolment. The answer went beyond the voucher.Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTeducationrctgendervouchersinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/what-lifeline-odisha-taught-me-about-climate/https://idealog.works/blog/what-lifeline-odisha-taught-me-about-climate/In 2014, we built media programming to prepare coastal communities for cyclones. We called it disaster response. Now we would call it climate adaptation. The communities already knew.Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTclimateresilienceodishamediainfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/kilkari-at-scale/https://idealog.works/blog/kilkari-at-scale/An automated phone call service delivered health information to millions of pregnant women across Indian states, timed to the week of pregnancy and recorded in their own language.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTmobile-healthpublic-healthscalematernal-healthinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-district-as-a-unit-of-change/https://idealog.works/blog/the-district-as-a-unit-of-change/States are too large for programme managers to act on, and villages are too small for funders to fund. Governance happens at the district, and health programmes should be designed to land there.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThealth-systemsgovernanceindiaclimateinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/measuring-joy-in-a-classroom/https://idealog.works/blog/measuring-joy-in-a-classroom/When you put art in a government school, how do you evaluate what it does to the children? The standard instruments fail. We tried anyway.Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementeducationartsevaluationinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/no-lean-season/https://idealog.works/blog/no-lean-season/In rural Bangladesh and India, seasonal poverty persists because families cannot afford the bus fare to a city where work exists. An RCT showed that a small travel subsidy makes a large difference.Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTmigrationrctpovertyeconomicsinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/mobile-kunji-and-the-card-in-her-hand/https://idealog.works/blog/mobile-kunji-and-the-card-in-her-hand/A deck of illustrated cards and a phone number changed what frontline health workers in Bihar said to new mothers, in millions of households. It worked because people trusted the card and the voice on the phone.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThealth-workersbehaviour-changefield-workinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-edtech-tulna-question/https://idealog.works/blog/the-edtech-tulna-question/When every edtech product defines impact differently, funders and schools have no way to compare them. A note on building a common framework for a sector that resists one.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTedtechmeasurementeducationframeworksinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/notes-on-measurement/https://idealog.works/blog/notes-on-measurement/A short explanation of why we are spending the next few years writing The Measurement Trap.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementthe-measurement-trapmelinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/the-pearl-problem/https://idealog.works/blog/the-pearl-problem/In a country where the census has not been updated since 2011, how do you estimate what is happening at the block level? A note on small-area estimation and the politics of granularity.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTmeasurementpearldatapublic-healthinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)https://idealog.works/blog/what-meena-manch-taught-me/https://idealog.works/blog/what-meena-manch-taught-me/In 2009, a school-based girls' collective in rural India started delaying child marriages. The mechanism was simpler and more radical than anyone expected.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTgenderchild-marriageagencyfield-workinfo@idealog.works (Varna Sri Raman)