Abhiram Giri Sankar

Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowships
Project Title:	NA
Field of Study:	Urban and Regional Planning
Home Institution:	Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, Uttarakhand
Host Institution:	Cornell University , Ithaca, NY
Grant Start Month:	August 2024
Duration of Grant:	Two years

Brief Bio:

Abhiram Giri Sankar is an IAS officer by profession. He completed his B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Kerala. He secured fourth rank in the all-India Civil Services Examination, 2010 and joined the Karnataka cadre. He is a passionate birdwatcher and volunteers actively towards eBird, a global citizen science initiative of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Abhiram currently serves as Deputy Director at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Government of India, Mussoorie, where he trains and mentors civil servants. In his public service career spanning over a decade, he has served in various capacities in the state of Karnataka, including Deputy Commissioner, CEO Zilla Panchayat, among others. This experience deepened his understanding of ground-level realities of development administration and exposed him to a wide range of issues.

Under his leadership, Mysuru district won national awards for the Cleanest Medium City, fifth overall cleanest city in India, and a 5-Star Rating for Garbage Free Cities. Mr. Abhiram also earned appreciation of the Government of Karnataka for his contributions towards the COVID-19 pandemic response as well as for flood relief efforts.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Abhiram is studying regional planning at Cornell University, where he aspires to gain deep insights into effective urban planning and policy-making necessary to transform Indian cities into livable, equitable, and resilient entities. After completing his fellowship, he aims to find sustainable solutions through a multi-stakeholder approach and be a change-maker public servant.