Evidence Before Advocacy: Transforming Margin to Enterprise
Dr. Banerjee's empowerment scholarship is grounded in unyielding primary empiricism: longitudinal self-help group datasets across rural Bengal, microfinance borrower histories in Bangladesh, and multi-state enterprise diagnostics spanning West Bengal, Odisha, and Bihar. Multilateral institutions commission her investigations precisely because they illuminate unfiltered grassroots economic realities.
“Her landmark Elsevier treatise investigates whether microfinance impedes sustainable enterprise — revealing that credit access absent market linkages frequently induces debt entrapment rather than genuine autonomy.”
Journal of Rural Studies (Elsevier) · 138 Citations
Architectures of Grounded Economic Empowerment
The Microfinance Paradox
Demonstrating that financial liquidity alone is insufficient: without social capital, managerial acumen, and direct supply-chain linkages, credit interventions fail to sustain grassroots enterprise.
Grassroots Immersion as Pedagogy
Transcending lecture halls to embed postgraduate management scholars directly within rural haats, artisan clusters, and informal markets for empirical surveying and enterprise advisory.
GLIIF: Seed Capital & Incubation
Conceived the Global Links Impact Investment Forum at Calcutta University in partnership with Rollins College & the US Consulate, directly incubating early-stage female founders.
National Policy & Scaling Frameworks
Directing multi-state empirical inquiries for the National Commission for Women and World Bank RAMP on enterprise scalability and structural impediments for women founders.
Field Immersion: Postgraduate Research at Grassroots Hubs
Commissioned Policy Inquiries & Multilateral Mandates
World Bank & Multilateral Initiatives
| 2025 | Survey of Women-Led MSMEs in West Bengal: Large-scale diagnostic supported under World Bank RAMP for the Government of West Bengal. |
| 2020 | Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA): West Bengal Women's Empowerment and Inclusive Social Protection Program. |
National Commission for Women (NCW)
| 2021 | Challenges to Scalability: A comparative empirical study of selected women-led MSMEs across West Bengal, Odisha, and Bihar (Project Coordinator). |
| 2023 | Sports as a Career for Women: Impetus and Impediments — Policy recommendations for institutional athletics. |
| 2021 | A Red Dot and the Cycle of Birth: Menstrual hygiene, livelihood dignity, and workplace sanitation. |
Research Councils & Academic Bodies
| 2018 | Self-Help Groups in North-East India: Impact of economic environment and culture on women empowerment — The Asiatic Society, Kolkata. |
| 2017 | Microfinance Interventions in Diverse Cultures: Social, economic, and political empowerment of women — ICSSR. |
| 2016 | Microfinance & Empowerment of Women: A comparative study of India and Bangladesh — UGC Major Research Project. |