A native of New Delhi, India, Mani, brings an international perspective to IFTF. She has a lot of experience conducting surveys in the US and India. She has designed large-scale surveys looking at technology usage, health and food habits, work and career among US adults. She is conducting a comparative survey looking at technology usage and work and career aspirations among youth in India, China and USA. She has also conducted focus groups with high school and college students, and young workers in the US and India.
She is the quantitative expert at IFTF--her primary responsibilities include design, implementation, and analysis of surveys. She is proficient in statistical techniques such as regression, ANOVA, MANOVA, discriminant analysis, cluster analysis, categorical data analysis, and structural equation modeling. She has taught courses on research methods and gender.
She has conducted ethnographic research in India visiting people's homes asking them how technology is reshaping their lives. She is studying social, economic and technological change in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
For her PhD dissertation, she conducted ethnographic work in India studying women working in the software industry. Her research interests include the future of quantitative analysis in social sciences, global competition in science and technology, mobility, gender, and demography.
She worked with The Times of India and The Pioneer in New Delhi as a journalist for five years where she wrote on crime, education, political, and media issues. Her work also featured in the international business magazine, The Far Eastern Economic Review. She also worked with the UNICEF as a copy writer in New Delhi.