People Page

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.

Dr. Mythili Ramchand has over three decades of experience in education. Prior to joining NIAS, she served as the Co-chairperson at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai from 2018 to 2024. She was the Director of RV Educational Consortium, Bangalore from 2005 to 2018 and has worked as science teacher educator and a high school physics teacher before 2005. 

Mythili has led many collaborative projects and research studies, including a Government of India-supported research on a comparative study of initial teacher education in the BRICS countries and supported an inclusive STEM teacher education programme in Nigeria, Tanzania and Bhutan. She worked on a project to develop human resources for inclusive education in India with multiple partners and launched the South Asia Research Hub on Inclusive Education.

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.

Dr. Andreas Raspotnik is a Senior Researcher at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, Norway, and a Senior Researcher at the High North Center for Business and Governance, Nord University in Bodø, Norway. Andreas is also a Senior Fellow and Leadership Group Member at The Arctic Institute - Center for Circumpolar Security Studies and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center's Global Europe Program, both in Washington, DC. Much of his research analyses the work of the European Union and its various institutions to develop a comprehensive and integrated EU Arctic policy, as well as the broader impact/footprint the EU has on the Arctic region. This research focus is further embedded into matters of Arctic geopolitics and EU foreign and security policy, particularly regarding the regional relationship between the EU and the Russian Federation. Additional research tackles the development of the Arctic’s blue economy, both from a conceptual as well as practical angle (fisheries and aquaculture), as well as regional questions on the applicability of international law of the sea.

Dr. Tim Stuchtey holds a Master's degree in economics from the University of Münster, Germany and a doctorate in the same field from the Technical University of Berlin. He commenced his career as a personal assistant to the President of the TU Berlin before assuming a role at the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations specialising in economic policy. In 2001, he relocated to the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he subsequently assumed the role of Head of the Presidential Department. At Humboldt, Tim established the Humboldt Institution on Transatlantic Issues (HITI) and in 2007 relocated to the American-German Institute (formerly the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS)) at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, where he assumed the roles of Senior Fellow and Program Director of Business and Economics. In 2010, Tim assumed the role of Executive Director of the Brandenburg Institute for Society and Security (BIGS) in Potsdam, Germany. He oversees national and international research consortia on civil security and conducts his own research in the field of (cyber-)security economics and security policy. He is a regular columnist and contributor in the German media and a sought-after speaker on security and economic policy.

Kamrul Hossain, an international law expert by training, is a Research Professor and the Director of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law (NIEM) at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland. He is the Chair of the University of the Arctic’s Legal Research and Education and leads the Thematic Network on Arctic Law. Hossain holds the Adjunct Professorship of International Law at the University of Lapland. His research broadly covers international environmental law, ocean governance, and human rights laws, particularly as they apply to the Arctic. He specifically focuses on climate change, climate justice, and human rights applicable to Arctic Indigenous peoples. Over the years, he has extensively published in almost all areas of Arctic governance, including climate change, environmental governance, biodiversity, geopolitics, the law of the sea, human rights and human security, etc., highlighting legal, institutional, and policy perspectives. In his research, he increasingly bridges a link between the Arctic and other Polar regions, particularly the Third Pole Himalayan region, as part of the global environmental systems concerning the impacts of climate change. He collaborates nationally and globally with scholars and institutions on issues related to the circumpolar Arctic and other polar regions. He has been the Principal Investigator of several international and national competitive research grants from renowned funding instruments.