Explanation:

ASER- Annual Survey of Education Reports
What
Established in 2008, ASER Centre is Pratham's autonomous research and assessment unit. ASER Centre promotes a culture of evidence-based decision making, and seeks to develop and use simple yet rigorous methods to generate evidence on scale on the outcomes of social sector programs, especially education. It also aims to strengthen the link between evidence and action by building the capacity of individuals and institutions to design, conduct, understand, and communicate the results of assessments that focus on key outcome indicators.

Why
The word "aser" (pronounced uh-sir) means "impact" in Hindustani. If development programs are to lead to desired outcomes, their impact on the ground should be regularly assessed. Large sums of public money are channeled into social sector programs. Lack of information on how these investments translate into outcomes on the ground is a major barrier to evaluating their effectiveness and determining whether taxpayers' money is being well spent. Currently, independent, timely data on outcomes are not available, especially at the district level. In addition, outside of urban India there is an enormous shortage of people able to design, implement, and understand the nuts and bolts of assessment. ASER Centre was established to fill these critical gaps.