Host City India: Cambridge

Parul Mehra

Ms. Parul Mehra graduated from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore in 2017 with a bachelor’s in law and social sciences. She was awarded the Sh. Venkatramanna Gold Medal for excellence in labor law and headed two student bodies – the International Affairs Society and the Academic Support Program.

Ms. Mehra started her career with the United Nations (UN) in Nairobi, Kenya in 2018, where she joined the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support efforts to secure the release of thousands of irregular migrants in detention across East Africa. She then moved to Somalia where she supported the federal government in overhauling the immigration and passport law. Subsequently, she led the development of a training program on migrant worker protection for labor inspectors in Libya alongside managing a nation-wide market assessment to inform Libya’s labor migration policy. Parul has recently rejoined IOM in Kenya as an International Migration Law Expert where she is leading training initiatives on migrant rights for a variety of stakeholders including journalists and immigration officers.

Ms. Srivastava is also an adept swimmer, diver, and paddle board surfer. Combining her passion for water sports with environmental conservation, she is involved in several coastal community conservation initiatives in India, Kenya, and Tunisia.

A master’s in international legal studies from Harvard Law School will allow Ms. Srivastava to further hone her knowledge and skills in supporting better governance of human migration. She hopes to leverage this knowledge to improve access to basic rights for migrant workers in India and other developing country contexts.

Arushi Malik

Dr. Arushi Malik is an Indian Administrative Service officer with over 16 years of experience. She is a medical doctor turned civil servant and is the recipient of a prestigious fellowship at the Pembroke College, University of Oxford.

As District Collector and Magistrate, she has headed the district administration of six districts: Ajmer, Bharatpur, Jhunjhunu, Tonk, Chittorgarh and Dungarpur. She has vast experience in policymaking and program implementation at the grassroots level as Special Secretary, Health; Commissioner Panchayati Raj; and Secretary, Animal Husbandry. Her work as Director, Sanitation (Swachh Bharat Mission) to improve the sanitation coverage of Rajasthan, a predominantly arid state larger than Finland, was lauded at the national level and by international agencies. She created a strong enabling environment and formulated a community-led approach, successfully increasing the rural sanitation coverage and achieving ODF (Open Defecation Free) status, covering over 6.8 million households.

Dr. Malik is the Prime Minister’s Award Recipient for Excellence in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Deployment Gandhi Act (MGNREGA) implementation in Dungarpur district, with 530 districts competing in the country. She received the National Certificate of Excellence for her work with the Swachh Bharat Mission (National Sanitation Mission). For the same, she was selected for screening for the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration. In 2009, she became a Guinness Book of World Record holder for leading a team of 300 people to plant 611137 trees in 24 hours.

Her area of interest is maternal health and designing effective prevention and treatment strategies to address maternal morbidity, mortality, and low birth weight. During the Fulbright-Nehru program, a graduate degree in public health will offer her a new approach to address the public health issues in India. She is also keenly passionate about global health: emphasizing an equitable approach to health with a focus on socioeconomic health determinants, using past responses to health issues as an opportunity to learn.

Amitha Jayaram

Dr. Amitha Jayaram is a medical doctor and a career civil service officer in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, headed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, with eight years of experience in public sector audit and government accountability. She graduated with an MBBS from Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences Karnataka and was subsequently selected to the Indian Audit and Accounts Service in 2013. She is a recipient of the CAGs National Award for Innovation and Excellence in Public Audit.

She has led projects examining the efficacy of government schemes/programs and providing evidence-based recommendations for governance reforms. With a primary focus on local governance and environment and sustainable development, her impact areas include water conservation, waste management, welfare of socially disadvantaged, the right to education, rural and urban infrastructure, mineral resources, and energy security. She has delivered capacity building training on Environment Audit for international participants from more than 30 INTOSAI member nations.

Her research interest is in policy measures towards empowerment of local governments, market instruments for sustainable waste and water management, mitigating adverse impacts of large infrastructure and mining projects. She has trained for several years in Bharatanatyam dance and Carnatic music and is also an astronomy enthusiast.

Dr. Jayaram is currently a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow at Harvard University pursuing a master’s in public administration to enhance her exposure to challenges and international best practices in the public sector that equip her to step up efforts towards accountability, transparency, and good governance, in tune with latest developments in various sectors.

Praveen Gedam

A qualified doctor with an MBBS, Dr. Praveen Gedam joined the Indian Administrative Service in 2002. He has held various important positions in his career. Before coming to the center, he served the State Government of Maharashtra in various capacities. He served as the Transport Commissioner of Maharashtra, where he spearheaded a massive computerization exercise. Dr. Gedam has also served as the Chief Administrator of numerous cities and districts.

At the cutting-edge field level, Dr. Gedam was responsible for critical government interventions concerning socio-economic development, including those in public health. He is known for the turnaround in maternal and child health indicators in Latur, one of the most backward districts in the state, due to targeted interventions, systematic medical check-ups, and massive community mobilization exercises. In 2015, he was entrusted with organizing and managing the mega-event of Kumbhmela in Nashik which is one of the largest human congregations on earth. This has the distinction of having zero missing persons, zero casualties, zero outbreaks.

In his role in the National Health Authority, Dr. Gedam is the Additional Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority, tasked with the policy formulation and implementation of two flagship health schemes of the central government: Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), the world’s largest government-sponsored health insurance scheme, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the mission to develop the digital health ecosystem within India. In the future, Dr Gedam intends to continue working in the field of social development with a particular focus on public health.

Dr. Gedam also pursues his passion for music, hiking, and painting. He has trekked and camped extensively across the Western Ghats and Himalayas and organized numerous cultural festivals.

J. Ganesan

Dr. J. Ganesan is a trained dental surgeon from the Tamil Nadu Government Dental College in Chennai. However, his passion in public service brought him into the government. He was a topper in the extremely competitive civil service examination 2005, acquiring an all-India rank of 4, and was allotted the Indian Administrative Service.

Since then, he has held multiple positions with distinction in the state government of Haryana. His conviction in “Antyodaya”, along with a pragmatic approach to governance, has led to him making substantial changes in service delivery across sectors. He has been a harbinger in introducing information technology and designing robust systems adept in delivery. The digital agricultural crop procurement introduced in 2018 modernized the archaic paper-book processes, jettisoned middlemen and ensured direct benefit transfer to one million farmers in Haryana. He received the award of excellence of the Computer Society of India from the Chief Minister of Odisha in 2020 for this project.

Dr. Ganesan is also widely acknowledged for his contribution in the field of school education. In addition, he is the proud recipient of the ‘Good Governance Award-2021’ from the Chief Minister of Haryana for the innovative “Super-100” program that empowers government school children to pursue higher education in premier institutions of the country. Dr. Ganesan is also credited with fronting a major ed-tech project aimed at providing computing tablets, digital content through personalized and adaptive learning algorithms and internet data to 800,000 government school children.

Dr Ganesan intends to move to the Government of India to take up assignments in the information technology and e-governance sectors which he believes have the potential to transform governance in India. A graduate degree in public administration from Harvard University through the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship would give him a fillip in appreciating public policy and positively impact governance through technology.

V.S. Alagu Varsini

Dr. V.S. Alagu Varsini is a board-certified dental surgeon and a civil servant. As an Indian Administrative Service Officer, she has worked in multiple capacities in the Government of Telangana. As Director, Indian Institute of Health and Family Welfare, she has been working at the forefront of mitigating COVID-19.

Born and brought up in the beautiful rural town of Pollachi, her passion has been inclusive growth. Since her school days, she has worked towards an inclusive society and participatory development. She has organized various camps to educate peers about civil rights and responsibilities enshrined in the Constitution of India. With the guidance of her parents, Dr. Varsini achieved her position in the civil services, eventually earning the distinction of being a gold medalist and TeX Award winner in Public Administration. Her contribution towards challenged children, the inclusion of impoverished women in social sector schemes, girl child education, and natural resource management has created perceived change in societal institutions, thereby encouraging inclusive growth.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, she wishes to acquire academic rigor and understand the utilization of data for a favorable policy outcome. She looks forward to imbibing a more significant global picture to poise herself at the crucial juncture of transformation from policy implementor to policy framer. On her return to India, she looks forward to working with the Government of India in policy formulation capacities for achieving the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Harssh A. Poddar

Mr. Harssh A Poddar is an officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) borne on the Maharashtra cadre. He is an Oxford-educated lawyer and a Chevening scholar who has worked in corporate law with a magic circle law firm in London, before returning to India to pursue a career in law enforcement. He is presently posted as the Commanding Officer of the Maharashtra armed police in Amravati.

A recipient of the Best Officer Award and the Home Minister’s Award for National Integration during the IPS training, Mr. Poddar has strived to change the perception of citizens towards the police. His work has focused on youth empowerment and deradicalization. The Maharashtra Police Youth Parliament Project, conceptualized by him, created an outreach of over 200,000 youth for the Maharashtra Police. He is also credited with the launch of an innovative project, Udaan, that provided free career guidance to thousands of students in communally sensitive regions of the state.

In 2018, Mr. Poddar undertook an extensive campaign against mob violence prompted by misinformation in Malegaon. He also led an operation in which a family was successfully rescued from a violent mob in the city. As part of the SMART police initiative, he has been recreating rural police stations with a view towards providing urban standards of police service-delivery in interior Maharashtra. He has successfully headed the investigation of several organized crimes and has also authored a book on the law relating to investment frauds.

In recent years his work on pandemic law enforcement has become a case study in COVID policing. As the Superintendent of Police of Beed district, the effective implementation by his team of the national lockdown ensured that not a single case of infection was reported in the district during the lockdown. During the devastating second wave, the scientific measures he undertook in the armed police have become a template for protecting frontline workers in the face of a pandemic.

Pursuing a master’s in public administration as a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School will help Mr. Poddar to complement the fundamentals of law enforcement policy and global security with his experience in field policing and handling law and order. After completing the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s program, he intends to work at the federal and state level in areas relating to security and law enforcement.

Sayed Zeeshan Ali

Mr. Sayed Zeeshan Ali holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from West Bengal University of Technology, a PG diploma in Management from All India Management Association, Delhi and a Master of Leadership in Sustainable Finance from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Germany. He is a certified expert in climate and renewable energy finance; ESG and impact investing; risk, governance and compliance from FS-UNEP Centre for Climate and Sustainable Energy Finance.

Mr. Ali has worked in the areas of clean energy, climate change, sustainable finance, and international relations for more than 16 years in the South Asia region. In his professional career, he has worked as Energy Analyst with the Asian Development Bank, as Assistant Director with SAARC Development Fund, and as Chief of Sustainable Finance and International Affairs with International Financial Services Centres Authority, Gujarat.

Mr. Ali administered a cumulative clean energy portfolio of more than USD two billion. He implemented sustainable energy projects in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He has experience of advising the Government of SAARC member countries in macroeconomic policies, public finance, climate change, and sustainable development.

During the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Mr. Ali is studying public administration at Harvard Kennedy School. He believes this prestigious program will prepare him to take up leadership roles in the public sector with a focus on energy transition, climate change, climate risk and resilience, greening of the financial systems, and strategies to mobilize capital for climate actions in India.

Anupama Thekkinkat Vadukoot

Ms. Anupama Thekkinkat Vadukoot is Commissioner, Land Revenue and Disaster Management, Government of Kerala. She joined Indian Administrative Service in 2010 after completing B.E. in electrical and electronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani-Goa.

She was a co-founder of a social service society in her college and the first president of the Goa chapter of the NGO Nirmaan, leading to a strong foundation for her work in the social sector later in her career.

Ms. Vadukoot secured fourth rank in the country in the all-India Civil Services Examination (CSE) and joined Kerala cadre. There, she served in various positions: Sub Collector, District Collector, and Head of the Department in Government of Kerala. The sectors she worked in includes food safety, social justice, women and child, Scheduled Tribes development, tourism, disaster management, and land revenue. She is passionate about working on issues in the social sector, particularly child protection and gender.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Ms. Vadukoot is studying public administration at Harvard Kennedy School. She believes that this program will enable her to smoothly transition from her current implementation roles to policy-making roles in the government. Furthermore, she aims to learn skills necessary for developing an interdisciplinary approach in designing people-friendly policies for the state.

Anugraha P

Ms. Anugraha P completed her bachelor’s degree in engineering from PSG College of Technology and worked as Business Analyst. She joined the Indian Administrative Service in 2011 to pursue her passion for developing an equitable and inclusive society.

Ms. Anugraha P has held various leadership positions in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Her initiatives were aimed at improving the socioeconomic parameters of weaker sections of the society and at women empowerment through education and skill development programs. As District Collector in Shivpuri and Khargone, she has improved education standards in remote rural areas by upgrading school infrastructure and manpower training, by introducing innovative pedagogy, and by addressing issues of child labor, malnutrition, and migration. She is keen on implementing STEAM based learning models and advancing digital literacy in schools.

Ms. Anugraha P has promoted financial independence in women by providing entrepreneurial opportunities through convergence of government schemes and positive engagement with NGOs. She has collaborated on various projects with international agencies like ILO and UNICEF. She is also a proud recipient of Platinum Award for Excellence in Digital Governance, conferred by the President of India for her excellent initiatives in providing digital services in rural India.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Ms. Anugraha P is pursuing a master’s in public administration at Harvard Kennedy School. She aspires to use data analytics in designing effective public policy and to leverage technology to make education more accessible and equitable. Along with the enriching academic curriculum, she looks forward to being a part of the global peer network.