Dr Joshua Thomas
Position: Erudite Distinguished Fellow (International Relations)
Categories: Fellows
Dr. Joshua Thomas is the former Deputy Director of the ICSSR North Eastern Regional Centre, Shillong & was also Coordinator, ASEAN Studies Centre, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Shillong. He is known for his pioneering research in diverse fields of social sciences in North-East India. His areas of interest include issues related to ethnicity, insurgency, peace process, border trade, displacement and India’s relations with neighbouring countries particularly with Bangladesh, China and Myanmar. He is author, co-author, editor & joint-editor of more than 20 books and some of them include, Act East and India’s North-East (with K. Sarda, 2017: Pentagon Press, New Delhi); Look East to Act East Policy – Implications for India’s Northeast (with Gurudas Das, 2016: Rutledge, New Delhi), India-China: Trade and Strategy for Frontier Development(with Gurudas Das, 2010: Bookwell), Indo-Bangladesh Border Trade: Benefiting from Neighbourhood (with Gurudas Das, 2008: Akansha), Indo-Myanmar Border Trade: Status, Problems and Potentials (with Gurudas Das and B Singh, 2005:Akansha); Engagement and Development: India’s North East and Neighbouring Countries, (New Delhi: Akansha Publications, 2006). His latest co-edited book on Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Sub-regional Cooperation: Geo-economics & Geo-politics was published by Routledge, New Delhi, 2018. He was the Managing Editor of the journal Man and Society – A Journal of North-East Studies. He was a distinguished scholar at the RIIO, Yunnan University of Finance & Economics, Kunming during 2017, and is currently Adjunct Professor at the Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong; and Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, Assam.
Dr T V Paul
Position: Erudite Distinguished Fellow
Categories: Fellows
Dr T V PAUL is James McGill Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, Montreal, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Paul specialises in International Relations, especially international security, regional security and South Asia. He completed his Masters in Political Science from Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam; MPhil in International Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Paul is the author or editor of 20 books, nearly 75 journal articles and book chapters, and has lectured at various international universities and research institutions. In March 2019, Paul took the leadership role in forming the Global Research Network on Peaceful Change (GRENPEC). He was elected as the 56th President of International Studies Association and on March 17, 2016 he took charge as ISA President for 2016-17.
In December 2009, Paul’s Book, ‘The Tradition of Non-use of Nuclear Weapons’ was selected for inclusion in the Peace Prize Laureate Exhibition honouring President Barack Obama by the Nobel Peace Center, Oslo. During 2009-12, he served as the Director (Founding) of the McGill University/Université de Montreal Centre for International Peace and Security Studies (CIPSS). He has held visiting positions at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2014, 2017 & 2018); Diplomatic Academy, Vienna (2014 onwards); UC Berkeley (2013); East-West Center, Honolulu (2013); the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey (2002-03), Harvard University (1997-98), and as the KPS Menon Visiting Chair for Diplomacy (2011) and Erudite Fellow (2016) at the MG University, Kottayam, India.
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VAdm M P MURALIDHARAN, AVSM & Bar, NM (Retd)
Position: Hon. Distinguished Fellow (Maritime & Defence Studies)
Categories: Fellows
Vice Admiral M P Muralidharan, retired in Feb 2013 as the 19th Director General of the Indian Coast Guard. A specialist in Navigation and Direction and a Post Graduate in Defence Studies, the Admiral in a career of close to four decades in the Indian Navy, has held several key Operational and Staff appointments including command of three warships. As Flag Officer he commanded Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Area, was the first Commandant of the Indian Naval Academy and Chief of Personnel of the Navy. Post retirement, the Admiral was appointed as a Member of the Armed Forces Tribunal at its Regional Bench at Kochi, an appointment equivalent to a sitting Judge of a High Court. During his tenure of four years, the Admiral authored nearly 500 judgments. The Admiral, a keen student of Strategic and Defence related Issues with special focus on Maritime affairs, is a member of various strategic study societies and institutions. He is a regular contributor to professional journals and a speaker and panellist at various Seminars and Conferences.
Dr Vijay Sakhuja
Position: Hon. Distinguished Fellow
Categories: Fellows
Dr Vijay Sakhuja is former Director, National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi. A former Indian Navy officer, Vijay Sakhuja received MPhil and PhD degrees from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He has published over 40 books, edited volumes and monographs, and specializes in issues of national security and public policy, particularly in the context of ocean affairs, geopolitics, Climate Change, Arctic, Blue Economy and 4th Industrial Revolution Technologies. He has been on the research faculty of institutions like RSIS, ICWA, ORF and IDSA and is currently associated with Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace, The Peninsula Foundation, India Strategic and Kalinga Foundation.
Dr Vijay Sakhuja is a member of the international editorial board of Journal of Indian Ocean Region (Taylor & Francis) and Journal of Greater Mekong Studies. He regularly teaches and lectures at defence and civil universities and colleges in India and overseas.
Publications by Dr Vijay Sakhuja
Dr RP Pradhan
Position: Distinguished Fellow (Political Economy)
Categories: Fellows
Dr RP Pradhan is a Professor at the Dept. of Humanities & Social Sciences, BITS Pilani, KK Birla Goa Campus. He is a PhD in International Relations and largely works on Political Economy. His current teaching and research focus involves International Relations; Migration & Labour Market; International Trade & Development; Development Economics; Maritime Studies & Blue Economy. Prof. Pradhan received the Roghelio Sinan Appreciation Award from the Embassy of Panama in 1997 and had served as an Expert Member for the Commonwealth Fellowship for Economics during 2006-10. He was Trustee (Governing Board Member) at the International Centre, Goa (ICG) for four years (2006-10), and has completed two ICSSR Major Projects. Apart from his publications and editorial responsibilities, Prof. Pradhan has delivered several invited lectures abroad in several European Universities and South East Asian Universities.
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K V Thomas
Position: Senior Fellow (Internal Security & Extremism)
Categories: Fellows
K V Thomas has over 36 years of distinguished service in the Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. He has worked in various capacities in different parts of India including insurgency-affected areas of the North East, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and is well-versed in the socio-economic, political and developmental issues in those states. He has vast experience in the fields of intelligence, national security, policing, human/civil rights, ethnic conflicts and left-wing extremism. As a Fellow of National Police Academy, Hyderabad, he had undertaken a research project on Policing and Human Rights in Andhra Pradesh during 1998.
Muraleedharan Nair
Position: Senior Fellow
Categories: Fellows
After completing studies at the University of Kerala, Muraleedharan Nair did a Post-graduate programme in Marketing and Advertising from Bhavan’s Rajendra Prasad Institute of Communication and Management, Mumbai. He has held various positions in the Government, in India and abroad. Besides publishing research papers in various books and journals, Mr. Nair writes commentaries in newspapers and magazines regularly. He also participates in conferences, seminars and panel discussions on strategic affairs at different universities, think-tanks, TV channels, All India Radio, etc. A Distinguished Senior Fellow with Defence Research and Studies, he speaks Urdu and Chinese.
Dr Ravikant Joshi
Position: Senior Fellow (Urban Finance & Governance)
Categories: Fellows
Dr. Ravikant Joshi is an Urban Finance and Management specialist and has worked in India and abroad. He is former chief accounts officer of Vadodara Municipal Corporation with more than 35 years of experience. He has been responsible for the conceptualisation, designing and implementation of Municipal Financial, Budgetary and Accounting System Reforms and their computerization in Vadodara Municipal Corporation. Dr Joshi conceived, designed and spearheaded implementation of Accrual Base Double Entry Accounting System in 159 municipal bodies of Gujarat. He has worked with the World Bank, CRISIL Risk and Infrastructure Solutions, National Urban Livelihood Mission – Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the Government of India, ADB, USAID, DFID, UN Habitat, CLGF and for various national/state level organisations on urban issues. Dr. Joshi has written several articles regarding various urban issues / problems deliberately in regional language to create public awareness. Also has worked with various civil society organisations like YUVA, PRIYA, JANAAGRAHA, Centre of Environmental Education (CEE), Janawani, Avantha Foundation, etc.
Dr Martin Patrick
Position: Senior Fellow (Economy)
Categories: Fellows
Dr Martin Patrick secured his PhD in Applied Economics from the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi. He has worked as faculty of Economics in various government colleges. He received post-doctoral training at Tilburg University, Netherlands. He has won the award of Excellence in Education instituted by the Global Society for Health and Educational Growth, New Delhi in 2006. He has completed various projects for ICSSR, CDS, Planning Board (Kerala for UNDP), KILA and GIFT (for World Bank). He has served as the member of graduate and postgraduate board of studies of Calicut University, CUSAT, Kalady University and Kerala University. Presently, he is a Visiting Fellow at Indian Maritime Institute, Ernakulam and Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Ernakulam.
Ajit Mani
Position: Senior Fellow (Policy Research and Training)
Categories: Fellows
Ajit Mani (b.1947) has an unusual breadth of professional experience, most of it in rural India and the unorganised urban sector. His experience includes survey research, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and Development Communications, developed over several assignments. Ajit Mani worked for Malayalam Plantations (UK) Ltd from 1967 to 1979. He developed perspectives on poverty, survival, exploitation and governance during an unemployed “Walkabout” period (1980‐82), when he lived with tribals in the Silent Valley, Palakkad district, Kerala, and fisherfolk in Pamban Island, Ramnad district, Tamilnadu. He competed for the CAT exam in 1982 and joined the PGDM Programme at IIM Bangalore with a specialisation in Agriculture and Rural Development. Ajit Mani was a Field Director of ACTIONAID (UK) from 1986‐1989. A full‐time assignment as head of Social Marketing with an advertising agency, SISTA’S PRIVATE LIMITED, has provided familiarity with the presentation and communication of Development and Public Systems issues, in various situations and media. Ajit Mani has assisted in the development of formal Strategic Plans of several NGOs, INGOs, Multilaterals, Bilaterals, and Government agencies. Ajit Mani was a guest faculty at the Kalinga School of Rural Management (KSRM), Bhubaneswar from 2008 to 2018. He was invited by NLSUI, Bangalore to teach a 20‐hour course, “DATA ANALYTICS FOR PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS” for II Year Master of Public Policy (MPP) students (Dec 2019‐Jan 2020). Ajit Mani cleared the Certified Management Consultant (Process 8) of the Institute of Management Consultants of India (IMCI) on 10 May 2006.
Dr Jose Sebastian
Position: Senior Fellow (Finance)
Categories: Fellows
Dr Jose Sebastian is Chairman and Director of Institute for Enterprise Culture & Entrepreneurship Development, Thiruvananthapuram. He retired as Senior Faculty in Public Finance from Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation. An expert in Public Finance and Taxation, Dr Jose Sebastian writes for Economic and Political Weekly, IUP Journal of Public Finance, Asian Economic Review, among other well-known journals and magazines. He has also been contributing articles on Kerala’s finance and development issues to leading Malayalam newspapers.
Dr Sebastian earned his PhD and Masters in Economics from the University of Kerala and started his academic career with Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad. Some of his notable books are Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (second author) and Commodity Tax Performance: A Study in the Context of Fiscal Federalism. Dr Sebastian has been a member of important Committees constituted by the Government of Kerala, like the Sales Tax Advisory Committee, Expert Committee on Improving Statistical System in Kerala, among others.
Publications by Dr Jose Sebastian
Commander (Dr) Jayakrishnan N Nair (Indian Navy, Rtd)
Position: Senior Fellow (Defence and Military Analysis)
Categories: Fellows
Commander Jayakrishnan N Nair (Retd), Indian Navy, is an electronics engineer by profession, specialised in Aerospace and Avionics. He has served the Indian Navy for 25 years as an Aviator and was responsible for the successful planning, execution and delivery of several projects and assignments across diverse segments.
Cdr Nair was associated with many DRDO projects while in service and has been selected as a technical expert by DRDO-TDF programme under the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Presently, he is a pro-bono Defence and Aerospace consultant. He has a wide experience in aircraft quality assurance as well as aircraft airworthiness certification, and has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in defence electronics and associated systems during his illustrious career.
Cdr Nair is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers, Kolkata and a life member of Aeronautical Society of India; All India Management Association, New Delhi; Computer Society of India, Mumbai and the Indian Society of Training and Development, New Delhi. Apart from an MTech in Aeronautical Engineering and MBA in HRM, he has been honoured with a Doctorate in Advanced Studies (Science) by the University of Azteca, Mexico. He is also an associate member of the prestigious Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi.
Dr Shelly Johny
Position: Senior Fellow (West Asian & Security Studies)
Categories: Fellows
Dr Shelly Johny is Assistant Professor of Political Science at St. Aloysius College, Elthuruth, Thrissur. He completed his Masters in International Relations at Middlesex University, London. He did his MPhil and PhD in West Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has held research positions at the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi which is a think tank of the Indian Air Force and the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), New Delhi which is under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. His research interests include contemporary West Asia with special emphasis on the Arab Gulf states, Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah and the Af-Pak region. Within these regions, the focus is on the nature and development of the on-going conflicts in these regions and the overall security and terrorism-related aspects. His other research interests include the nature of material and cultural exchanges between West Asia and South Asia in the early historical period through both overland and maritime routes.
Publications by Dr Shelly Johny
Dr M Saravanan
Position: Senior Fellow (Higher Education and Skills)
Categories: Fellows
M.Saravanan has worked in public policy for over 12 years, focusing predominantly on higher education. Currently, he works as Deputy Registrar & Chief Finance Officer, Anurag University, Hyderabad
He has offered consultancy services to the Union and State governments, private organisations and educational institutions. He has a Ph.D. in development economics from the University of Madras. His areas of interest cover higher education, school education, skill development and economics. He had been a part of the editorial team of a journal and has published opinion pieces for Deccan Herald and Business Line.
Leslie Xavier
Position: Senior Fellow (Sports Policies)
Categories: Fellows
A life spent in and around sports and the written words, Leslie Xavier has successfully merged two of his passions into a 15-year career in journalism. He has been associated with three of the leading newspapers in the country—The New Indian Express, The Times of India and Hindustan Times—besides serving a long stint at Sports Illustrated. A globally renowned sports writer—having been listed as one of the top 10 columnists in Asia and the world on multiple occasions by the International Sports Press Association—he is currently based in New Delhi and heads the sports desk at Newsclick.in. Before his career in journalism and a deep and lasting affair with poetry, Leslie, who holds a Master’s degree in physics, had a three-year spell as a higher secondary science teacher. Prior to that, he had a successful but injury-curtailed career as a national wrestler, judoka and an international karate fighter.
Dr Monika Krishan
Position: Senior Fellow (Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence)
Categories: Fellows
Dr Monika Krishan’s academic background includes a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. Her research interests include image processing, psychovisual perception of textures, perception of animacy, goal based inference, perception of uncertainty and invariance detection in visual and non-visual domains. Areas of study also include the impact of artificial intelligence devices on human cognition from the developmental stages of the human brain, through adulthood, all the way through the aging process, and the resulting impact on the socio-cognitive health of society. She has worked on several projects on the cognitive aspects of the use and misuse of technology in social and antisocial contexts at SERC, IISc as well as the development of interactive graphics for Magnetic Resonance Imaging systems at Siemens. She is a member of Ohio University’s Consortium for the Advancement of Cognitive Science. She has offered services at economically challenged schools and hospitals for a number of years and continues to be an active community volunteer in the field of education and mental health
Publications by Dr Monika Krishan
Dr. Jojin V. John
Position: Senior Fellow, Geopolitics and East Asia
Categories: Fellows
Dr. Jojin V. John is an Assistant Professor and Hon. Director, Korea Centre, School of International relations and Politics at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. Previously Dr. Jojin was affiliated with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) as Research Fellow for East Asia. During his stint at ICWA, Dr. Jojin coordinated several track 1.5/2 bilateral and trilateral dialogues between India and East Asian countries. Prior to joining ICWA, Dr. Jojin taught political science in Christ University, Bangalore. He also held visiting research positions at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul (July-September 2022); National Chengchi University, Taipei (2015); Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi (2013-14); Seoul National University (2012) and Academy of Korean Studies, Korea (2010-11). He received PhD from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has several publications to his credit, including monographs, book chapters and articles that appeared in academic journals, including Asian Affairs, Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, China Report, The Journal of International Relations, Strategic Analysis, India Quarterly and Area Studies.
Dr. Reetika Syal
Position: Senior Fellow (Governance & Education)
Categories: Fellows
Dr Reetika Syal is a Senior Fellow (Governance and Education) at CPPR. She is an Assistant Professor at CHRIST (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore, at the Department of International Studies, Political Science, and History. Previously she was Assistant Professor at JAIN (Deemed-to-be) University, Bangalore, for more than 8 years. She has also been an independent consultant for projects at Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Bangalore, and held the position of Senior Officer, Research at CPPR from October 2021 to June 2022. As a Postdoctoral Fellow at Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands and IIT- Delhi in 2018-19, on a project on Civil Society Advocacy, her research focused on State-Civil Society Relations in Disaster Management in India. Her Ph.D in Political Science was from Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. She is a part of the Lokniti Network, at CSDS, Delhi, and her research has been a part of various elections and democracy-related studies, along with being a resource person for Lokniti’s Annual Summer School on Quantitative Data Analysis for more than a decade. Dr. Syal has extensive experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative studies including large sample opinion surveys in India on Elections and Democracy, Governance, Elementary and Higher Education, and has presented papers at many international and national conferences, along with publishing in journals and edited books.
Dr Neha Mishra
Position: Affiliate Fellow (International Trade and Data Governance)
Categories: Fellows
Neha is a legal academic researching and publishing on international legal issues in the digital economy, especially related to international economic law and digital technologies. She is a dual-qualified lawyer and has practiced law in top-tier law firms in the UK and India, as well as worked in two top technology companies in Singapore. She has completed her PhD in law from the University of Melbourne and won a prize for the best thesis in Melbourne Law School in 2019. Neha holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law and public policy from top universities in India, Singapore and the UK
Prof (Dr) Andrew D Mitchell
Position: Affiliate Fellow (International Trade and Investment Law)
Categories: Fellows
Andrew is Professor at the Faculty of Law, Monash University, and a member of the Indicative List of Panellists to hear WTO disputes. He has previously practised law with Allens Arthur Robinson (now Allens Linklaters) and consults for States, international organisations and the private sector. He has taught law in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore and the US and is the recipient of five major grants from the Australian Research Council (including a Future Fellowship) and the Australian National Preventive Health Agency. He has published over 140 academic books and journal articles and is a Series Editor of the Oxford University Press International Economic Law Series and an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of International Economic Law and the Journal of International Dispute Settlement. He has law degrees from Melbourne, Harvard and Cambridge and is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Meenuka Mathew
Position: Fellow (Programme Design & Evaluation)
Categories: Fellows
Meenuka Mathew is a Senior Research Fellow at the Jindal School of Government & Public Policy (JSGP). She has a Bachelor’s degree in Humanities from Aquinas University, Colombo, Sri Lanka and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), India. Her research focuses on refugee economies, transnational migrants, Public Health, and Policy Design Evaluation and Communication.
She has extensively travelled and worked for International Non-Governmental organizations based in the Philippines, France, and Uganda. In Sri Lanka, she has worked in areas of programme design & evaluation. Her professional experience is mainly in programme design, teaching & research.
At JSGP, she works on research on Gulf migrants of India, Refugee economies in South Asia and COVID-19 & the Indian middle class. She is currently the Asst. Editor of Jindal Journal of Public Policy. She also coordinates the NIHR Health Financing Fragmentation study in India in collaboration with Imperial College, London and JGU.
She co-founded Policy Talks in 2019, which focuses on Public Policy Education for school students.
Swapna Nair
Position: Research Fellow (International Trade and Disruptive Technology)
Categories: Fellows
Swapna Nair is an economist with extensive experience in public policy, international trade, restructuring of conflict economies, macroeconomic impact assessment across sectors and the impact of disruptive technologies on international trade and domestic policy. She has been an in-house economist/external consultant with international organisations such as the United Nations, World Bank and Asian Development Bank; policy institutes like ICRIER, New Delhi, Overseas Development Institute (ODI-London); national governments and corporate houses. Swapna has lived and worked on projects across Europe, MENA, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iraq, India, the UK and North America. She has also taught Economics at St Stephens, Delhi University, Middlesex University, Dubai and Amity University, Dubai. She holds an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MA in Economics from the University of Hyderabad, India.
Dr Sumeetha M
Position: Research Fellow (Migration Studies)
Categories: Fellows
Sumeetha M is a trained economist with a PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She is Senior Research Fellow at International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD), and Honorary Research Fellow, Migration Studies at CPPR. Her doctoral work completed at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum focused on migrant workers and the changing labour process in the Gold Jewellery Making Industry in Kerala. She has over 10 years of research experience in migration studies and has 11 publications, including a co-edited book Handbook of Internal Migration in India published by Sage in November 2019. Sumeetha has also been part of the Kerala State Planning Board committee to study Internal Migrants in Kerala (2016). Her research interests include migration, labour process, traditional industries, sustainability, future of work and globalisation studies. She has presented her work at various national and international conferences.
Dr Dhanasree Jayaram
Position: Research Fellow (Geopolitics & Environmental Security)
Categories: Fellows
Riby Rachel Mathew
Position: Research Fellow (Sustainable Urban Development and Local Governance)
Categories: Fellows
Riby Mathew is an Urban Planner with more than one and half decades professional, research and academic experience in development sector. She developed competence in Sustainable Urban Development and Decentralized governance by working on various projects at urban, rural and regional level, sponsored by Multilateral, Bilateral and Government agencies. Her experience profile includes Infrastructure Planning, Resilient City Planning, Slum Improvement & Urban Poverty Reduction, , Institutional Building and Capacity Building etc
Currently Riby is a consultant to CRDF , CEPT University for a study on Efficacy of Integrated Urban Planning in Kochi city and recently completed a study on Institutional Assessment and Capacity Building for Risk Informed and Effective Urban Planning in Kerala for a study for KfW-World Bank , under Rebuild Kerala Initiatives.
On behalf of CSML (2018-20), coordinated various Smart Cities labs and initiatives of Fraunhofer Institute, IDS Sussex and NIUA in Kochi. In 2019, represented Kochi for a study visit on Non-Motorized Transport system to UK organized by the University of Leeds.
During 2014-17, as Team leader of State Mission Management Unit (SMMU) Riby coordinated the preparation of Smart City Proposal in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) for infrastructure project funding under AMRUT and Kerala State Capacity Building Plan for Urban Development under CCBP, JnNURM. She was also a member in State Level Technical Cell, Kudumbashree Mission for preparation of Slum Free City Plan of Action (SFCPoA) under RAY.
Riby has recently completed a certificate programme in General Management from IIM Calcutta.
Varsha Radhakrishnan
Position: Research Fellow (Technology Policy and Artificial Intelligence)
Categories: Fellows
B Chandrasekaran
Position: Research Fellow (Urban Eco-system and Skill Development)
Categories: Fellows
B Chandrasekaran has been working in the area of public policy for the last 14 years. He has diverse experience working with the Central and State Governments, corporate sector, NGOs and academia on various issues related to public policy. While working with the Central Government, he was involved in framing of policies and programmes in the area of school, technical and higher education as well as vocational education, training and skills development. He has also played a key role in setting up of the National Skill Development Agency and National Skills Qualifications Framework.
Chandrasekaran has published research articles on development economics—economics of education, vocational education and skills development, economic reforms, liberal vision for India, water management, regional development, city development, etc. and on history of Indian economic thoughts. He has also published research articles in Tamil language on education, history of economic thoughts, thoughts of Tamil Scholars and political economy. He has authored a chapter in Routledge Handbook of the History of Global Economic Thought, 2014. He has a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Madras and an MPhil in Social Sciences from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya University, Indore.
Publications by Chandrasekaran Balakrishnan
Dr Solvin Mathew
Position: Research Fellow (China-Southern Asia and Indian Ocean)
Categories: Fellows
Dr Solvin Mathew is Assistant Professor of Political Science at St. Peter’s College Kolenchery. His key areas of interest include: Politics and Governance in Southern Asia, Traditional and Non-traditional Threats in the Region, Fragile States and Institution-Building, Missile Defence and Extended Deterrence, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disarmament. He holds a PhD (Political Science) from University of Madras, India; MA (War and Peace Studies) from University of Vilnius (Lithuania); MA (Political Science) from Madras Christian College, University of Madras (India). Additionally, he has a BA (International Studies) from University of South Carolina (USA); BA (Mass Communication) from Christ University, India. Solvin was an ICSSR Post-Doctoral Fellow, and a recipient of several awards and fellowships including Fulbright-PLUS Fellowship (2005), Erasmus Mundus Fellowship, Caroliniana Award (2007), National Scholars Award (2006), among others. He was previously a research assistant at the Australian Institute of International Affairs (Australia), and worked with University of South Carolina’s Global Community (USA), Education for Peace in Iraq Centre (Washington DC, USA), and Genocide Intervention Network (Washington DC, USA). He has written numerous news reports and articles in leading newspapers and has published nearly 25 research papers in reputed peer-refereed national as well as international journals. He is the author of the books The Dragon and the Markhor Across Himalayas: Asia’s Evolving Geopolitics and Strategic Convergences (2017), New Maritime Balance of Power in Southern Asia-Indian Ocean: Converging Interests and Crosscurrents (2018), Selected Essays in International Relations (2019) and Emerging Contours of Space Race in Asia: Enduring Rivalries and Changing Dynamics (Forthcoming).
Dr Harisankar K Sathyapalan
Position: Research Fellow (International Law and Dispute Settlement)
Categories: Fellows
Harisankar is currently Assistant Professor at the School of Legal Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), India. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS), and holds an LLM from the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. Prior to joining the doctoral programme at NUS, he served as an Assistant Professor at the National Law University, Jodhpur, India. Hari has been a visiting research scholar at the International Institute for the Unification of International Private Law (UNIDROIT) Rome, and a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Hague Academy of International Law scholarship.
Hari’s research interests include transnational commercial law, conflict of laws and international dispute resolution, and has presented his works at various places including the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Osgoode Hall Law School (York University) in Toronto, iCourts (University of Copenhagen) and the South Asian University, New Delhi. His works have been published by internationally reputed publishers like Cambridge University Press (CUP), Oxford University Press (OUP), Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters), SAGE and Wolters Kluwer. He has also contributed opinion articles to The Hindu Business Line and The Wire as well as to international law blogs such as the EJIL-Talk (official blog of the European Journal of International Law) and Kluwer Arbitration Blog. He is presently writing a chapter for the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law, on invitation from the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg, to be published by OUP later this year.
Publications by Dr Harisankar K Sathyapalan
Dr Abin Thomas
Position: Research Fellow (Global Health)
Categories: Fellows
Abin Thomas is a medical anthropologist whose research focuses on global health, biomedicine, and ethics. Abin studied at the Hyderabad Central University, the Delhi University, and obtained his PhD at the King’s College London. He was a research fellow at the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security at the University of Edinburgh.
Publications by Abin Thomas
Publications by Abin Thomas
R Edsley Neoson Daniel
Position: Research Fellow (Urban Mobility & Climate Change)
Categories: Fellows
R Edsley Neoson Daniel is a postgraduate from the College of Engineering, Anna University. He has over a decade of experience in Government Relationship Management, Mobility Management, Transit Industry, Pre Sales and Program Management in the Private and Government Sector. During his work in C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, he was instrumental in making the State of Tamil Nadu sign the Clean Bus Declaration, which made the State commit to transitioning to a completely clean energy fleet. He assisted Chennai in preparing the first Mega-City Green House Gas Inventory, which has since helped the city pegging many of its projects to the emission reduction quotients. He is actively involved in many public transport initiatives.
Rahul V Kumar
Position: Research Fellow (Market Economics)
Categories: Fellows
Rahul V Kumar is a Research Fellow (Market Economics) at CPPR. He is a postgraduate in Economics and has an MPhil in Applied Economics and International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi). He has been associated with CPPR for the last six years in different capacities. Before being a full-time consultant, Rahul was the Director (Research) at the Centre and has guided several projects for the centre. His focus areas of research during this period were liberalisation of liquor industry and promoting private participation in higher education. Some of these works have received widespread media coverage at the national level. Before joining CPPR, Rahul was part of the Knowledge Management team at Ernst & Young (Technopark, Trivandrum, India). He has also worked as a researcher with International SOS (New Delhi). Currently, he teaches graduate students.
Publications by Rahul V Kumar
Madhu Sivaraman
Position: Research Scholar
Categories: Fellows
Madhu Sivaraman is a Research Scholar at CPPR and had earlier worked as the Centre Director (Research and Projects). He has been associated with CPPR for more than 10 years in a multi-disciplinary role engaging in projects spanning areas of transport, education, livelihood, dispute resolution, regulations and governance. With a background in law, Madhu was instrumental in developing policy strategies for local and state governments and supporting key initiatives of CPPR. He was instrumental in setting up ADR Centre, the dispute resolution centre of CPPR. He pursued a fully-funded master’s degree programme in Comparative Public Policy from the University of Edinburgh, UK under the Chevening FCO UK scholarship. He received Edinburgh Award for Public Engagement for his work on digital education policies in Malawi, Africa while working for Turing Trust, UK. He is a sports enthusiast and yoga practitioner, who also likes to explore new places.
Publications by Madhu Sivaraman