Speaker Profiles
Christopher LINGLE earned
a doctorate in economics from the University of Georgia in
1977. Since then, he has been employed at universities in
Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and USA.
Dr. LINGLE is currently Visiting Professor
of Economics at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in
Guatemala. He is an Adjunct Scholar at the Centre for Independent
Studies (Sydney), Senior Fellow for the Centre for Civil Society
(New Delhi), and Member of the Academic Advisory Council of
the Globalization Institute (London). He operates an independent
consultancy that advises clients on economic and political
risk in emerging market economies .
Dr. LINGLE’s research interests are
in the areas of Political Economy and International Economics.
He focuses upon emerging market economies and public policy
reform in Europe, East Asia, Latin America and Southern Africa.
His work has appeared as chapters in books, the international
media, and scholarly journals that include the American Economic
Review, Foreign Affairs, Journal for Studies in Economics
and Econometrics, Kyklos, and Pacific Review.
His book on the political economy of Singapore’s
development was entitled, Singapore’s Authoritarian
Capitalism: Asian Values, Free Market Illusions, and Political
Dependency (1996). A Later book anticipated the 1997 turmoil
in the East Asian economies (The Rise and Decline of the ‘Asian
Century’: False Starts on the Road to the ‘Global
Millennium’, May 1997).
Arnab Mukherji is Ph.D.
in Policy Analysis from Pardee-RAND Graduate School on “
Evaluating Policy Options for Agrarian Households in SATs”.
He completed his Masters in Economics from Center for Economic
Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research
areas include
Health Infrastructure and Immunization Coverage in Rural India,
Indian Journal of Medical Research [RAND Working Paper WR-294]
[IJMR],Treatment Effects of Livelihood Intervention: A Case
study from Sheopur, India (submitted) [RAND L&P version],
Do Elections incite Violent Crime? [SSRN Working Paper] (submitted)
and Policy Choices for Accumulation of Wealth in a Dynamic
Stochastic Bullock Economy (work in progress).Besides this
he has earned many awards like:
Kip & Mary-Ann Hagopian Award, Pardee-RAND Graduate School
(2005),Ph.D. Scholarship Program, International Water Management
Institute (2004-05) Donald and Susan B. Rice Award, Pardee-RAND
Graduate School (2001-02),Sir Ratan Tata Memorial Travel Scholarship,
(2001)
Anuj Mehta Memorial Award, Ramjas College, University of Delhi
(1997)
Ashok Kamath graduated from
the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and started to
work in the semiconductor industry. He has worked for nearly
25 years , almost all of it for Analog Devices Inc., a Boston
based manufacturer of integrated circuits . In March 2004,
he retired as the Managing Director of Analog Devices India
and is now focusing full time on social initiatives. He is
currently the Managing Trustee of Akshara Foundation ( www.aksharafoundation.org
) which is a public-private partnership that aims to have
Every Child in School and Learning Well and has pioneered
the implementation of Performance Measurement systems in the
Government School System in Bangalore. He is also the Managing
Trustee of Pratham Books which is a public charitable trust
that publishes low-cost, high-quality books for children in
multiple Indian languages ( www.prathambooks.org
+91 98440 07560).
Naveen Mandava is a doctoral
fellow of “Rand Graduate School of public policy analysis”.
Naveen was a research associate at the Centre for Civil Society,
a think tank in New Delhi. He earned a BE from PES Institute
of Technology in Bangalore. He shifted from electronics to
applied microeconomic research when he saw the ability of
public policy solutions to influence the quality of life.
Naveen recently served as co-editor and research coordinator
of Law, Liberty and Livelihood: Making a Living on the Street.
He coordinates CCS's internship program, "Researching
Reality," and has guided more than 30 interns' research
projects. He likes to grapple with the "what ifs"
and "why nots" of public policies.
Gautam Bastian recently
joined the Andhra Pradesh Randomized Evaluation Study (AP
RESt) Team in Hyderabad as a Research Consultant. He will
be working on designing, piloting and implementing the School
Health component of that project. In addition to this core
responsibility he will provide support to the data management
and quality control of the project as a whole. Gautam completed
his undergraduate studies in Economics from St. Xavier's College,
Mumbai. He was a Koch Fellow at the Institute for Human Studies,
George Mason University, Washington DC in the summer of 2005.
Before joining the foundation he worked at
Center for Civil Society (CCS) in New Delhi as a Senior Research
Associate in Education and Editorial Associate. He also worked
for Shawn Cole, Asst. Professor, Harvard Business School for
three years.
Gautam's family lives in Navi Mumbai. He
grew up in Delhi, Patna and Mumbai, and claims that he has
travelled more in the last 2 months than he has in all the
rest of his life.
He attended the CCS' Liberty and Society
Seminar in Mumbai in 2001. It significantly altered the way
he approached life and the study of economics. He hopes that
more people can look beyond the obvious to the underlying
world of social relationships which facilitate human interaction
and progress. (gautamb@gmail.com)
Abhay Singh is a Senior
Reporter working with The Times Of India, Patna. He has twenty-one
years of reporting experience in Bihar, and has been avid
observer of changing dynamics of the state. He has a book
`Bihar In Messianic Time' published in 2005 to his credit.
He has applied lingustic and cultural studies to present the
profile of Bihar, and has also applied Edward Said's studies
on `Orientalism' to bring home the disorientation caused in
the Bihar society. (abhayaka@indiatimes.com)
Bibhu Mohapatra has been
engaged in bringing transparency and accountability to Indian
politics by a process of popular participation in elections
in order to expose and reduce the prevalence of criminality
and corruption in the electoral process. His work has affected
thousands of excluded and marginalized voters and brought
new vigor and integrity to the nation's political life. First
with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and then as
National Coordinator of the Association for Democratic Reforms,
he has been working for free, fair and fearless elections,
informed participation of voters, and dissemination of details
of candidates among voters. His ability to engage and coordinate
with national and local media, Election Commission of India
and Civil Society organizations have been a crucial element
in this ongoing transformation of the Indian polity. (mohapatrabibhuprasad@gmail.com
)
Mr. Vinay K. Kantha opted
for a teaching career in Patna University, after a brief stint
of nearly five years in the Indian Railway Traffic Service,
where he has been teaching for nearly three decades now. Along
side university teaching he has been working in many areas
under the aegis of East & West Educational Society which
was founded by him. The Society has worked both at the academic
level and field level. It runs an experimental rural school
which is affiliated to CBSE. Besides authoring and editing
many books, Mr. Kantha has been editing two educational magazines,
namely, Gyan Vigyan for school teachers and Jhilmil Jugnu
for children. He has been writing and speaking on diverse
topics like education, child, environment, human rights etc
for many years. Last year as a Member of the Expert Committee
on Education constituted by Govt of Bihar he was chiefly responsible
for the writing of Reports on School education as Convener
of the group. As Chairman of the Curriculum Committee constituted
by SCERT, Patna, he has been the chief architect of the draft
Bihar Curriculum Framework, 2006. Policy advocacy in education
has been one of his areas of work in recent years. He joined
hands with Dr M.M. Jha to prepare a critique of the bill drafted
by the Ministry of HRD, Govt of India and drafted an alternative
bill which was discussed widely all over the country. He is
also a member of Core Committee of the Public campaign On
Common School System, which has been spearheading the campaign
for the introduction of CSS in India. Mr. Kantar is a human
rights activist as well and he is currently State President
of People’s Union for Civil liberties in Bihar. (enw1@rediffmail.com
)
Dr. Prabhat P Ghosh, presently
the Director at the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI),
Patna is a reputed economist who have made substantial research
contribution in the field of regional development, employment
and poverty and issues of human development. After his post-graduation
from the India Statistical Institute, Kolkata, he had earlier
worked in the A N S Institute of Social Studies, Patna and
the National Labour Institute, New Delhi. Very recently, he
had worked as a Consultant to the Common Schooling System
Commission in Bihar to work out the entire financial dimensions
of the visualised system. At present, he is also a Member
of the Governing Body of the Indian Council of Social Science
Research (ICSSR), New Delhi. (ppghoshadri@yahoo.co.uk
)
DR. MOHAN VARUGHESE is a
senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science of
the Mar Thoma College in Thiruvalla, Kerala, Dr. Mohan Varughese
went on to secure a Commonwealth Scholarship in an extremely
brilliant academic career which saw him top the post-graduation
in Political Science from the Madras Christian College and
later earn an M.A. degree in Diplomatic Studies from the University
of Keele, UK. He later completed M.Phil in International Relations
from the Mahatma Gandhi University and secured a Ph. D. from
the University of Kerala. His teaching career began in 1989
with him joining the Mar Thoma College in Thiruvalla, as lecturer
in the Department of Political Science. Currently he is a
Selection Grade Lecturer, while serving as Research Guide
for M.Phil students at the Annamalai University of Tamil Nadu.
He is also a visiting faculty in the Political Science Department
of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Dr.
Varughese is also an Honorary Visiting Lecturer in International
Relations with the Manorama School of Communication (MASCOM)
in Kottayam, set up by the Malayalam Manorama, while also
serving on the faculty of the Ecumenical Christian Centre
(ECC) at Whitefield in Bangalore. Besides being an academic,
Dr. Varughese has also created a niche for himself as an excellent
Quiz Master at Inter Collegiate and Inter School competitions,
organized by the local media from time to time in Kerala.
Dr. Varughese also serves as Director of Career Guidance Cell
of the Mar Thoma College, Thiruvalla, and also as Trainer
for Model Parliament of the Mahatma Gandhi University. Dr.
Varughese has credited A Text Book of Political Science (Edited
Volumes 1 and 2), while his enlightened world-view has largely
been influenced by his travels abroad in pursuance of his
studies including the United Kingdom, Belgium, Holland and
Luxembourg. (mohanvarghese@sify.com)
Alex Thomas is a lecturer in Govt. Arts College,
Trivandram. He has talked in many colleges in south Kerala
for the last 13 years. He completed his graduation, post graduation,
and M. Phil. From Kerala University. Now, He is teaching Economatrics
and Micro Economics to Post Graduate students. He is a Member
of Syllabus formulation committee and question setting board
for PG students in universities in Kerala. He has been actively
involved in social activities. He is a member of Board of
Directors YMCA, Trivandram. ( alexthomas@sancharnet.in
)
Babu Joseph was a Fabian
Socialist in the Nehru era and left all his positions in the
Youth Congress way back in 1963 and joined the Swatantra Party
founded by Rajaji and Minoo Masani in 1964 being disillusioned
with the statist policies followed by Nehru. He became the
President of Kerala State Youth Swatantra the youth wing of
the party and became the youngest member of the National Executive
and continued in the same position till the eclipse of the
party in 1977. In 1974, he led the Indian team in the Young
Liberals Meet held in Berlin and visited the countries of
Europe including East Germany. In 2001, he with help of others
founded the Liberal Group- Kerala and since then he is acting
as its President. In 2004, they received the Institute excellence
award from Atlas Foundation and in 2006 the Templeton Freedom
Award Hon, Mention. He has put in 22yrs of service as College
professor and 10 yrs as Principal. During his stewardship,
his college was acknowledged as one of the best in Kerala.
( josephbabu1@yahoo.co.in
)
K M Roy has been in the
filed of journalism for over 40 years. He is an experienced
journalist and profound speaker. He was the Secretary General
of The Indian Federation of Working Journalists from 1984
– 1988. He is now a columnist in major dailies like
The Economic Times and The Hindu and also in the regional
dailies like Mangalam. ( advmanuroy@hotmail.com
)
Jacob Punnoose has served
as a senior police officer in Kerala for last 33 years now
and has held several important posts in the field and in administration.
Particularly interested in human rights, police reform, better
police-public interaction and transparency in administration.
He have been active in speaking and writing about these matters.
He has been awarded both the President's Police Medal for
Meritorious Service in 1995 and the President's Police Medal
for Distinguished Service in 2005. Presently, he is serving
as Additional Director General of Police, (Intelligence) in
Kerala. (jacobpunnoose@gmail.com)
Mr P. Mukherjee is a media
analyst, workshop facilitator and a creative mentor. He divides
his time between Imphal, Delhi and the Darjeeling hills.
Currently, a consultant with a publishing journal, he has
earlier worked for a sports fortnightly, English daily and
a Bengali daily. He is an acclaimed authority on Badal Sircar's
theatre.
He is considered as a leading light in alternative theatre
in the country having directed more than 50 productions of
performance texts including three international collaborations.
He has also performed 10 full length solos which includes
an acclaimed River series of plays on trafficking, HIV, segregation
of de-notified tribes and a series of plays with Darjeeling
as the living inspiration called Foothills to Hills project.
As one of the leading exponents of third theatre, Mr Mukherjee
has created a personal idiom of using spaces for theatre exploration.
He has extensively worked on a range of human rights issues
which include specific theatre projects on anti-uranium project
struggles in Jadugoda and Turamdihi, Save Tenzin campaign,
rehabilitation after Bhopal Gas tragedy, shelter issue of
the de-notified tribes, a widely acclaimed cycle of 10 plays
against Gujarat genocide, and a range of issues on north-east
in general with special emphasis on Nellie, Malom and Mokokchung
massacre and Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur.
Dr. Somnath Bandyopadhyay joined the Gujarat
Ecology Commission five years ago as an ecologist. He has
spearheaded several studies for the ecological restoration
and planning of degraded ecosystems of the State. These include
mining sites in Kachchh, grasslands of Banni, Alang ship-breaking
yard, the Gulf of Kachchh and other coastal areas.
Presently he is the Senior Ecologist and Nodal Officer for
the preparation of a State Environmental Action Programme
(SEAP), being implemented in the State with assistance from
the World Bank. This programme, launched by the Hon'ble chief
minister of Gujarat on April 15th of 1999, is expected to
provide a set of blue-prints for environmental actions to
be taken up during this decade. With nine consultants groups
working on it, the SEAP is expected to cover all critical
issues covering development, natural resource management and
conservation. Since NGOs and local communities will play an
important role in implementation of these action plans, they
are involved in all the stages of its preparation as well.
He is also co-ordinating the data collection exercise for
the preparation of an Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management
(ICMAM) plan for the Gulf of Kachchh with support from the
Department of Ocean Development. He is also involved in various
capacities with several environmental projects in the state
of Gujarat.
Dr. Bandyopadhyay was born in Jallandhar
(Punjab) in 1963 and received his school education in Dhanbad
(Bihar). He was a gold medallist from the University of Calcutta
in both B.Sc (Hons.) and M.Sc. He further went on to do his
M.Phil and Ph.D in Environmental Sciences from the Jawaharlal
Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi. He has recently been
to the Harvard University (USA) to do a summer course in Environmental
Economics. He is also keenly interested in developing the
subject of industrial ecology, which has special relevance
for the state of Gujarat.
Premila Nazareth Satyanand is a free lance economic consultant
and writer, with an especialinterest in foreign direct investment.
Most recently, she worked with the Water and Sanitation Program,
New Delhi, where she spearheaded a program intended to make
India's water and sanitation utilities more accountable to
the public.
She has also worked with the Economist Intelligence
Unit, New Delhi; the United Nations Centre on Transnational
Corporations, New York; and in grassroots development in rural
Kumaon. Additionally, she has served in the United Nations
election observation missions in South Africa and the Western
Sahara.
Sujatha Muthayya majored
in Political Science at the Madras Christian College. While
a post graduate there, she attended the Liberty and Society
Seminar in August 2000 at Hyderabad. On completion of her
masters in MCC she was a Research Associate between 2001 and
2002 at CCS New Delhi. Between 2002 and 2004, she worked as
a Lecturer Department of Political Science at Madras Christian
College. After this, she went to The London School of Economics
and Political Science for her Masters in International Relations.
After working in London for a while, she returned to India
torn between working with multi laterals working on conflict
prevention and working on the ground with poverty reduction
mechanisms. Needless to say the Libertarian in her influenced
her career path. Since December 2006, she has been working
with Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala at the Rural Technology
and Business Incubator at IIT Madras, an initiative of InfoDev
arm of the World Bank and the Department of Science and Technology.
As a Venture Associate, She helps business Incubation and
help set up scalable technology enabled rural ventures. (sujatha.muthayya@gmail.com)
Mr. Vikram Kapur, is an
officer of the Indian Administrative Service, borne on the
Tamil Nadu State cadre. He is a graduate in Physics from St.
Stephens College, Delhi, and has been in public service since
the year 1988. He has worked in the State of Tamil Nadu in
various capacities, including that of District Collector,
Dindigul. Prior to the present assignment as MD&CEO, TNUIFSL,
Mr. Kapur was on deputation with the Government of India,
where he worked as Executive Director in the Tea Board, after
which he spent a year at the Indian Institute of Management,
Bangalore undergoing a post graduate course on Public Policy
and Management. He is interested in the field of infrastructure
development and committed to public sector reforms. (mdceo@tnudf.com)
M. Manavalan, the President
of 'Society for the Development of the Depressed (SDD)', studied
at Aringnar Anna Government Arts College, Cheyyar. He worked
with the Community Development Programme (CODEP). In 1987
he initiated an informal group of young people. He utilized
non-formal education programmes as an entry point to work
with the Dalits in 10 villages of Peranamallur Panchayat Union
of Tiruvannamalai District. He was one of the founding members
of SDD in 1989. In the year 1992 he became a member of the
Social Action Groups in South Arcot District. He was the executive
Committee member of SAG representing North Arcot District
region from 1989 - 93. During this period he had wider exposure
to rural development initiatives and acquired enriching experience.
In 1995 organized a street theatre troupe of SDD, which toured
in target villages. In 1998 he became a member of Northeastern
Tamil Nadu Cluster - Chinglepet and also member of ADECOM
Network - Pondicherry. He was also instrumental in initiating
a United Front of the Dalit Movements in Tamilnadu, which
is jointly taking up the Human Rights issues of Dalits. From
March 2007 he has been involving to carry on the 'School Choice
Campaign – Tamilnadu' and he also one of the Member
of 'National Alliance for School Choice' which has been recently
formed in the National Level which would like to promote Citizen's
Group in all over India. He is also the State Partner for
implementing School choice Campaign in Tamilnadu.
Raj Cherubal is Vice President
of Centre for Civil Society. He has been associated with CCS
from the start. He grew up in Chennai and lived and worked
in the US for 14 years. His background is in Physics and Software.
He loves socio- economic issues and public policy. He formally
joined CCS in 2003 (rajcherubal@gmail.com)
Dr Parth J Shah is President
of the Centre for Civil Society, a think tank for public policy
solutions within the framework of rule of law, subsidiarity,
and competitive markets.
Parth's research and advocacy work centres on the themes of
economic freedom (law, liberty and livelihood campaign), choice
and competition in education (fund students, not schools),
property right approach for the environment (terracotta vision
of stewardship), and good governance (new public management
and the duty to publish).
He has conceptualised and organised liberal
educational programs for the Indian youth including Liberty
& Society Seminars, Jeevika Livelihood Documentary Competition,
and Researching Reality Internship Program. Some of the work
he has edited or coedited: Morality of Markets, Friedman on
India, Profiles in Courage: Dissent on Indian Socialism, Law,
Liberty & Livelihood: Making a Living on the Street; Terracotta
Reader; BR Shenoy: Theoretical Vision and BR Shenoy: Economic
Prophecies and Agenda for Change .
Parth is on the editorial board of EducationWorld,
Vishleshan, and Khoj, and is informal advisor to many non-profits.
He has taken liberal ideas to numerous national and international
workshops and conferences and writes regularly in the popular
media. He is the youngest Indian member of the Mont Pelerin
Society. (parth@ccs.in)
Program Team
Nidhi Chadha is working
with CCS as Senior Coordinator-Programs and leading programs
team. She has been coordinating various youth outreach seminars,
dialogues, Policy Meets with policy makers, Jeevika: South
Asia Documentary Festival. She brings with her six years of
programs, campaigns, resource mobilization, coordination &
research experience at South Asia Coalition on Child Servitude
where she worked actively in organising Global Campaign on
Education. (nidhi@ccs.in)
S. Nalini is working as Programs Associate: Graduate Activities
at CCS. Academically she is a product of political Science
from Delhi University. She is pursuing her Masters in Political
Science. She proved a helping hand in coordinating Jeevika:
South Asia Documentary Festival and other CCS Seminar. Her
interest and passion to work towards a better society was
the driving force behind joining CCS. Apart from this working
with youth and creating diverse opportunities for them interests
her very much than anything else.
Amit Chandra is currently working as a Program
Associate with Centre for Civil Society. He graduated in "Commerce"
and post graduated in "Social Work" From "Mahatma
Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith University", Varanasi. He has
been participant in "International Youth Exchange Program
- 2007". He worked for campus and community radio of
Guelph University, Canada, and hosted a show spreading the
awareness about the availability of various social services
in the city. He also wor0ked at grass root level with "Society
for Promotion of Youth and Masses", Hathin, Haryana for
assessment of micro financial status of self help groups of
women.
Swati Chawla is working
as Associate, Youth Programs at CCS. She is a graduate of
the Liberty Art & Culture Seminar, Delhi 2004; and has
since then been taking sessions at CCS seminars and following
up with graduates. She is also a mentor for British Council's
'Beyond Borders' project and a Research Associate for Dhriiti's
'Ek Naya Aasman' project. She has recently been appointed
the Regional Coordinator for Asia for Glocal Youth Parliament
(Glocal Forum). She is currently doing her masters in Literature
from Delhi University and is also a short story writer. (swati@ccs.in
)
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