Alumni

Ms. Sukanya G,  who was a Research Associate under the Tata Trust supported project conducted by the Consciousness Studies Programme at NIAS, has successfully defended her PhD thesis titled :  "Indigenous Healing Practices Among the Adiyan and Mavilan Tribal Communities of Kerala: Anthropological Study", during the Viva Voce examination held on 19 November 2025. The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences & Technology (TDU) has declared her eligible for the Award of Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D). She worked under the guidance of Prof. Sangeetha Menon, who was the Principal Investigator of the project in the School of Humanities, Consciousness Studies Programme. 

Ms. Amrutha M K,  who was a Research Associate under the Tata Trust supported project conducted by the Consciousness Studies Programme at NIAS, has successfully defended her PhD thesis titled :  "A Theoretical Study of Tiṟayāṭṭaṁ and Sarppaṁtuḷḷal; Interpretations Using Dhvani Theory", during the Viva Voce examination held on 29 July 2024. The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences & Technology (TDU) has declared her eligible for the Award of Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D).  

 She worked under the guidance of Prof. Sangeetha Menon, who was the Principal Investigator of the project.

Ms. Meera Kumar's thesis titled The Secret of the Word and the Theatrics of Faith-Healing: Tracing the Language Consciousness Nexus Through Mantravada Narratives from Kerala has been evaluated and she is declared eligible for the Award of Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D) by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).  She worked under the guidance of Prof. Sangeetha Menon. 

Shalini Dixit, is an M.Phil- PhD from Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Masters in Psychology. 

She received NCERT Doctoral Fellowship for her PhD research. Her doctoral work on the understanding of history was awarded D Sinha Best Doctoral Dissertation Award by the National Academy of Psychology in the year 2013. She has had years of experience in teaching and research in a number of colleges in University of Delhi including Jesus & Mary College and Mata Sundri College (Department of Elementary Education) and Kamla Nehru College (Department of Psychology) as Assistant Professor. She also worked with Department of Educational Psychology and Foundations of Education, NCERT; Save the Children, Finland; and James Cook University Australia, Singapore Campus. Her familiarity and interest lies in Cultural and Cognitive Processes in appreciation of History, Critical aspects Educational Psychology , Cultural Processes, Social Psychology, Gender Issues with Social Psychological perspective, and Rojerian approach to Personality and Communications etc. 

Her research area has been understanding and notions of history amongst people in Santali tribal cultural community

Shivali Tukdeo was an Associate Professor in the education programme at NIAS. Her scholarly engagements are rooted in diverse disciplinary interactions including education policy, critical social theory and sociology of education among others. Her research interests include sociology of education, global studies in education and gender studies. 

Mr. Aariz Ahmed’s thesis titled “Interlinking of Rivers for Integrated Water Resources Management” has been awarded the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D) by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).  He worked under the guidance of Prof. R Srikanth. 

His broad research interest lies in water resources management, geospatial application for sustainable development and natural resources management. His Ph.D. thesis, titled “Interlinking of Rivers for Integrated Water Resources Management”, Prior to joining Ph. D at NIAS, he worked as a Project Associate at CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur. He has also been a part of HERE Technologies, a mapping and cloud company in Mumbai. Aariz has completed M.Tech (Environmental science and Technology), PG diploma in Remote sensing and GIS from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

Brief Description of PhD Thesis 
India's water resources planning, management, and development has been strongly affected by the intense spatial and temporal variations in precipitation patterns. These trends have prompted the Government of India and several State Governments to take up major water transfer projects towards overcoming the water scarcity issue. In view of this, National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has taken up a massive river-interlinking project, and nearly 30 links have been proposed encompassing the major rivers. The focus of my doctoral research lies in the Krishna (Almatti)-Pennar ILR project, in the peninsular India. The study aims to investigate the Social, Environmental, and Hydrological dimensions of the ILR project. Further, advanced geospatial techniques will be used to explore feasible alternative routes for the Almatti-Pennar ILR Project to maximise the socio-economic benefits, while minimizing costs and social/environmental impacts. This Research will also provide a conceptual template to look at other ILR projects.