Adjunct Faculty

I am a comparative psychologist working at the intersection of primatology and cognitive science. I completed my PhD in Comparative-Developmental Psychology at the University of Portsmouth in 2021 and subsequently held postdoctoral positions at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and the Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod in France.

My research centres on naturally occurring behaviour in humans and other primates, examining how communication, tool use, and social interaction develop and vary across ecological and cultural contexts. Drawing on long-term field research, I combine fine-grained behavioural analysis with computational modelling of sequential structure to investigate hierarchical organisation, vocal flexibility, imitation, and the relationship between action and meaning.

At the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, in collaboration with Professor Anindya Sinha, I develop conceptual critiques of comparative cognition, examining how assumptions about objectivity, anthropocentrism, and species boundaries shape interpretation in animal cognition research. This is combined with empirical work in North-East India examining macaque behaviour across a gradient from anthropogenic temple–river systems to primary forest. Simultaneously, we are initiating passive acoustic monitoring of western hoolock gibbons in the Eastern Himalayas. I also founded the Perspectives Collective Journal, an open-access platform advancing more inclusive approaches to knowledge production.

Vishnu Chandra is a senior ICT and Geo-Spatial Technology leader with over three decades of experience in the Government of India. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (formerly University of Roorkee), he holds MSc (Physics), M.Phil. (Instrumentation), and M.Tech (Electronics & Communication) degrees.

He served as Deputy Director General at the National Informatics Centre (NIC), leading Geo-Spatial Technology & Services and key National ICT divisions. He guided major initiatives for ministries including Housing & Urban Affairs, Power, Coal, MNRE, and Environment, Forest & Climate Change. He also held financial leadership roles as Additional Financial Advisor, NIC, and served on the Board of NIC Services Inc (NICSI) and Geospatial Delhi Limited.

For over 25 years, he led NIC’s GIS initiatives, developing the cloud-based multi-layer GIS platform “Bharatmaps,” now embedded in flagship e-governance projects such as SVAMITVA, e-Dharti, PARIVESH, National Power Portal, and GIS-based financial inclusion systems.

He later served as Advisor (Geo-ICT & Spatial Planning) to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, contributing to SVAMITVA and National Geospatial Policy-2022 initiatives. He currently serves as Independent Director at SatSure Analytics India Private Limited, Bengaluru and DRIISHYA, A Haryana Government Undertaking.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishnu-chandra-6362a98?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app 

Shabari Rao is an artist and educator from Bangalore, India. Her work engages with interdisciplinary research on embodiment. As an artist, she performs, directs, curates, teaches, and writes. Over the past 20 years, her work has been supported and presented at conferences, festivals, residencies, and in publications in cities as diverse as Shanghai, London, New York, Vienna, Oslo, Cape Town, and Melbourne, among others. Shabari has held several academic positions where she designs and delivers interdisciplinary courses in higher education settings. Most recently, she was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at BITS School of Law and a Visiting Faculty at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Previously, she was a founding faculty member at RV University, where she headed the Performing Arts programme in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She has completed her PhD at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, where her research focuses on Embodied Pedagogy in Mathematics Teaching. She has presented her doctoral research at international STEM and Mathematics Education conferences, where her contributions have been very well received. She also holds an MA (with distinction) in Arts and Education from the Royal Academy of Dance (UK), a professional diploma in Contemporary Dance Studies from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire (UK), and a BA in Kathak and Choreography from Bangalore University.

Dr. Ravi Bhandari is a distinguished economist whose extensive career has been marked by a relentless pursuit of knowledge and an impact on the world of economics. For over three decades, he has been at the forefront of teaching economic development, international financial markets, and world economic history.

Professor Ravi has taught these subjects at the leading universities around the world where he has earned accolades as an exceptional educator, consistently winning the best teacher award for his outstanding contributions to learning across the social sciences. 

His commitment to excellence transcends borders as he shares a wealth of knowledge with colleagues and students across the globe, teaching and conducting research in a number of countries including India, Nepal, Greece, Costa Rica, and the United States.

Beyond the classroom, Ravi’s  global foresight and analytical insights have earned him widespread international recognition. His timely warnings on economic crises – from the Asian currency crisis of 1997 to the global crisis of 2001 to the Great Recession 2007/2008 —  solidified his reputation in the field. 

Professor Ravi current research focuses on the unholy alliance of the unraveling global debt crisis, retaliatory tariffs/sanctions, and the epic AI bubble. Professionally, he advises clients on how best to avoid and hedge against the upcoming Global Depression, what he calls the mother of all crashes.

AVM Pawan Kumar graduated from National Defence Academy in 1988 and was commissioned as a Fighter Pilot in Indian Air Force in June 1989. The Air Officer has more than 3000 hours of accident-free flying and has flown Hunters, Jaguars and MIG-27s. He has had an illustrious career with various important assignments in service and been part of all the important courses and exercises in India and abroad. He was also Defence Attache to Czech Republic with concurrent accreditation to Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. He played a major role in various bilateral / Multilateral engagements including various exercises with friendly foreign countries.
Air Vice Marshal Pawan Kumar served as Director General, Defence Space Agency before superannuating on 31 Aug 25. As DG Defence Space Agency, he was instrumental in formulation of Military Space Doctrine and handled all aspects related to space surveillance, communication, PNT, SSA and space weather amongst others.

I am a field-based ecologist and cognitive biologist working at the intersection of animal behaviour, cognition, and conservation. My research seeks to answer a central question: “How are animals adapting to anthropogenic stressors?” By integrating behavioural and cognitive insights with ecological perspectives, I aim to develop context-specific strategies for conserving biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem services in landscapes undergoing rapid urbanization, climate change, and agricultural intensification.

My work spans multiple taxa, including amphibians, reptiles, crows, owls, mammals, and non-human primates, and explores how animals do what they do in environments increasingly shaped by human activity.

Some of my ongoing projects include:

1. Primate novel use of tools and strategies in response to human food provisioning

2. House crow adaptation to urban habitats

3. Amphibian personality in urban environment

4. Herpetofauna ecology and roadkill prevention

5. Ecosystem services and adaptive pest management

6. Mammal ecology and conservation

7. Recovering traditional strategies for human-wildlife coexistence

I am an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Urban Ecology, Biodiversity, Evolution, and Climate Change at Jain University, Bengaluru, India, where I lead the Animal Behaviour and Cognition in Conservation (ABCC) research group. Through my research and mentorship, I strive to bridge fundamental science with applied conservation.

Dr. Meghna Verma, with over 24 years of rich experience spanning industry, teaching, and research is currently Associate Professor and Head-Centre for Sustainability, also former Head of Department of Marketing and International Business at Ramaiah Institute of Management (RIM), Bangalore. She holds Ph.D. in Airport Retail, focusing on retail product purchase behaviour of domestic passengers, from Department of Management Studies, IISc. Bangalore. Since 2009, she has been associated with RIM, where she actively undertakes research projects, including those commissioned by GoK, serves as a reviewer for several reputed international journals and has authored over 60 research papers, including publication in ABDC and SJR-ranked journals. She has presented her research globally at leading institutions such as National University of Singapore (NUS), Copenhagen Business School (CBS), University of Bremen, TU Darmstadt, IIT Roorkee, IIM Indore, CEPT Ahmedabad and others.

Dr. Meghna’s research mainly focuses on consumer behaviour in religious and sustainable tourism, marketing of sustainable transport services, social media marketing, responsible consumption, women safety, crowd behaviour in mass religious events, airport retail, application of AI & AR in retail and service sector. She continues her research exploration aimed at enhancing quality of life, promoting gender equality, social inclusion, climate change and sustainability through a marketing lens.

Her research profile can be view at: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bP8VSJgAAAAJ&hl=en