Adjunct Faculty

Prof. B.K. Bansal, a geophysicist by profession, has served the Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) for over two decades. He was also the Director of the National Centre for Seismology for two years. After retiring from MoES in March 2021, he was a visiting professor at IIT Delhi for two years. Prof. Bansal specializes in seismology and seismic risk assessment. Under his dynamic leadership, the science of seismology has witnessed a major growth in the country. He has made significant contributions to several programs/missions of national importance, such as real-time monitoring, earthquake forecasting, earthquake early warning, seismic microzonation, scientific ocean drilling in the Indian Ocean, scientific deep drilling in the Koyna intra-plate seismic zone, establishing a national facility for geochronology, creating the National Centre for Seismology, etc. The Indian Institute of Technology honoured Prof. Bansal for his outstanding contributions to seismology and earthquake engineering. He is a recipient of the Hari Narain Award 2019 for lifetime contributions to geophysics and several other such recognitions. In addition to several government publications (monographs, books, manuals, etc.), Prof. Bansal has more than 80 SCI publications to his credit.

Bindu Thirumalai is an educator and has earned her PhD (Education) from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India.  She has over twenty-five years of experience working across academic, development, government, and corporate sectors.

She is passionate about building teacher capacity at the grassroots level by focusing on technology integration and action research and cultivating meaningful partnerships across academia and government. She applies her diverse and deep experience in academic, development, government, NGO and Corporate technology environments to bring lasting, transformative changes in teacher education. She was Assistant Professor at the premier Tata Institute of Social Science from 2015 to 2024.

 She has led and engaged in research initiatives to drive large-scale interventions focused on teacher education, teaching-learning, curriculum and pedagogy within government education systems. She has deep expertise in course design and development, creating MOOCs for practicing teachers and delivering blended post-graduate certificate programs.  She has implemented state-wide in-service teacher capacity building programs, designed pre-service teacher education curriculum and syllabi and created material to integrate technology with curricula for STEM classroom teaching-learning processes. 

Dr. Anup K Pujari has been Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of MSME (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) and in the Ministry of Mines, also briefly as Secretary, Ministry of Steel. In his long Civil Service career both with at Delhi with Government of India and at Bengaluru with the State Government of Karnataka; he has worked in the fields of Finance, Commerce & Industry, Education, and in Agriculture. He had led the Indian team in the negotiations of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT) with various countries including with the US. He was also India’s Deputy with the World Bank (IBRD), the IMF, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank. As the DGFT (Director General of Foreign Trade) between 2010 & 2014, he was responsible for advising the Government on Trade Policy and implementing trade promotion measures.

He had taught Economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi; and subsequently at the Boston University, at UMASS and at Northeastern University between 1990 and 1992. Almost every summer since 1991 (except 2008-2015) he has been teaching Economics to the Mid-Career MPAs at the Summer Programme of JFK School of Government, Harvard University (now known as HKS: Harvard Kennedy School). He has also taught at Harvard Institute of International Development (HIID) in their Budget programs held at Cambridge, MA, USA; Nairobi, Kenya; and Amman, Jordan. He has been a visiting faculty at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru; Indian School of Development Management Delhi; and LBSNAA Mussoorie.

He has master's degrees from Delhi School of Economics (in Economics) and from Boston University (in Political Economy) and a PhD in Economics (Doctoral thesis was on Intellectual Property Rights) from Boston University. Later he completed his LLB from Delhi University and a 1-year programme in Security & Strategic Studies from National Defence College (NDC), New Delhi.

Prof. S Anbazhagan received his Ph.D., in Earth Science from Bharathidasan University and awarded the Humboldt Research fellowship for his Post-Doctoral Research in Germany. He joined IIT Madras as Senior Project officer in 1998 and then moved to IIT Bombay as faculty member in the Department of Earth Sciences. Their he established the computational facilities for image processing, GIS, and spectral studies. He joined Periyar University as Professor and Head in the Department of Geology (2005), established various labs, infrastructure facilities through DST-FIST grant and introduced several programs. He severed various positions in the University as Director CGIPS, Dean Faculty of Science, Director CDOE, Syndicate Member, and Coordinator Research & Development. He was a Vice Chancellor for Dr J Jayalalitha University for a short period. He retired as a Senior Professor in 2024.

He has published 150 research articles, made significant contributions in Remote sensing applications, Groundwater exploration and management, disaster mapping, hyperspectral and planetary analogue studies. Fourteen scholars were completed their Ph.D., program under his guideship. He received various awards include Humboldt Research fellowship, Tamil Nadu Scientist Award, Best Researcher & Best teacher awards and ISRO Certificate of Appreciation. He received patent for production of Lunar Soil Simulant for Chandrayaan mission program.

Vikas Maniar is a faculty with the School of Education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (TISS).  His research interests include education policy and finance, education administration, and political economy of education (with a focus on educational experiences of children from marginalised communities). He teaches courses on education policy and administration for MA (Education) students at TISS. He is currently associated with two international research projects: Connected Learning for STEM that is piloting a technology enabled teacher professional development programme for middle school science and math teachers in Bhutan, Nigeria, and Tanzania; and Innovative Financing in Education to Leave No One Behind (IFE LNOB) that researches innovative financing models such as impact bonds for education programmes in India and Africa. In a previous role, he has managed an FLN programme covering 1000+ government school teachers in Karnataka, India (https://akshara.org.in/what-we-do/ganitha-kalika-andolana/). This programme was later scaled across all the primary schools in the state. He volunteers with a rural high school in Gujarat serving children from Adivasi communities (www.chondhaschool.in) . He has a PhD in Education from TISS, Mumbai and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Archana Mehendale is a social worker by training and has earned her PhD (Social Sciences) from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, India.  She has over twenty-five years of experience working in academia as well as non-governmental organisations, primarily in India and briefly in the US. Her research interests are education law and policy, inclusive education, and child rights. She was a Member of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) Committee set up by the Government of India to frame the Right to Education bill in 2005. Archana has earlier worked with the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru and Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She divides her time between US and India.

Dr. C. P Ramanarayanan  has completed five and half  years  as Vice Chancellor in Defence Institute of Advanced Technology,  Pune.  Prior to that he had served for nearly 36 years in Defence Research and Development organization where he joined through UPSC . He had served in various laboratories like Naval Science Technological Laboratory, (NSTL) Vizag, Vehicle Research Development Establishment(VRDE) Ahmednagar, Gas Turbine Research Establishment(GTRE) Bangalore.   He completed undergraduate in   Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College Calicut,  and graduation from IISc, Bangalore and obtained PhD from School of Energy Systems of JNTU Hyderabad.

He had served as Director at VRDE and GTRE. He also served as Director- General of Aeronautical Systems and also as Director General Human Resource Development at DRDO Headquarters.

During his tenure has has actively contributed to development of propulsion systems for under water weapons,  surface vehicles and Fighter aircraft systems.

He is Fellow of National Academy of Engineering, Aeronautical Society of India and Institution of India in addition to various other Academy and societies. He had received DRDO Scientist of the Year 2005 from then Prime Minister of India and DRDO Technology  Leadership award 2015 from Defence Minister of India in addition to many more prestigious awards .

He had guided three Students in their doctoral programs as guide. He has several publications in International and national journals. He had served as India representative in International Society of Air Breathing Engines, President of  Society of Aerospace Quality and Reliability,  Chairman Aeronautical society of India Bangalore chapter to mention a few.

His interest includes understanding human behaviour  and transnational analysis.