Public Policy Archives - Page 2 of 2

Dr. Purendra Prasad is a professor of sociology at the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana. He has previously held positions at the Centre for Social Studies (CSS), Surat, and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Dr. Prasad was a British Council grantee for medical anthropology research at Brunel University, West London, UK (1999-2000), and he also collaborated with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), California Recovery and Reconnaissance team on the Bhuj Gujarat Earthquake in 2005. His research interests encompass critical agrarian studies, environmental studies, the political economy of health and development, and urban studies. His recent work investigates wealth accumulation and business elites in India as part of a broader research project on wealth inequalities in South Africa, Brazil, and India. Dr. Prasad has co-edited the book Equity and Access: Health Care Studies in India (Oxford University Press, 2018), and serves on the editorial advisory committee of the Sociological Bulletin. Additionally, he contributes to the academic and ethical advisory boards of various universities and institutions in India.

As Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, Dr. Prasad is teaching and conducting research on how the intersection of caste/race, gender, and growing economic disparities shaped wealthy elites in India and the U.S.

Dr. Swayam Sampurna Panigrahi is an assistant professor in IFMR-GSB, Sri City. Before this, she worked with IPE Hyderabad, IMI Bhubaneswar, and Woxsen University. She holds a doctorate degree from XIMB, XIM University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha in supply chain sustainability. She was a TEQIP scholarship awardee from the Government of India during her MTech from VSSUT Burla, where she was also adjudged as the University Best Postgraduate in production engineering. She has a BTech in mechanical engineering.

Dr. Panigrahi’s research interests are business and human rights, e-waste management, and Industry 4.0 application in operations. She received the “MSME Fellowship” from NIMSME, Hyderabad, under the Ministry of MSME, Government of India in 2017. She has won two Best Paper awards at WIPRO Sustainability Summit in 2016 and at the 105th Indian Economic Association Annual International Conference in 2022. She received two consecutive Emerald Literati awards by the Emerald Publishing House, Bingley, UK in 2019 and 2020. She was also recognized as “LinkedIn Top Voice” in business management, business operations and lean manufacturing in 2023. She is an associate member of the Business and Human Rights Forum at Columbia University.

Human rights issues in global textile and apparel supply chains require joint attention from policy makers, civil society members, and supply chain researchers. As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, Dr. Panigrahi’s research is uncovering gross human rights violations. Her objective is to develop a generic framework to address these challenges through exchange of best practices across the U.S. and India.