Host City India: New York

Ritu Sain

Ms. Ritu Sain is a seasoned administrator currently leading the National Anti-Doping Agency in Government of India. In her two-decade long career in the Indian Administrative Service, she has held many challenging assignments and has been credited with several innovative solutions to complex problems being faced by marginalized communities. She is known for her work in areas affected by left wing extremism, where she played a key role in mobilizing women into 10,000 + robust community institutions (self-help groups) for social change.

Her earlier assignments as a young head of administration in the districts of Surguja and Korea saw her introduce several initiatives to enable even the most vulnerable to avail program benefits with ease. Her contributions in the field rural sanitation, healthcare, education, and livelihood are considered to have made lasting impact in the state of Chhattisgarh.

Her path breaking and now much admired and replicated waste management model in Ambikapur has relevance to small cities in other parts of the developing world. The centrality of women collectives in this model has led to gains in women empowerment over and above what has been achieved through better sanitation.

She has served in policy making roles in Government of India. During her tenures in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports she was instrumental in bringing out large scale change through inclusive public policies and stake holder participation.

She has been awarded the President’s Medal for Outstanding Zeal and High-Quality Service and Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for outstanding contribution in public service delivery.

Ms. Sain is a Draper Hills Summer Fellow (Stanford University) and a Chevening Gurukul Fellow (University of Oxford). She holds an M. Phil degree in Southeast Asian Studies and MA degree in Politics with specialization in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

As a Fulbright-Nehra Masters fellow, Ms. Sain is pursuing public policy at Columbia University to sharpen her skills in policy analysis and implementation. She believes this experience will offer her global exposure, help her connect with a network of professionals and learn rigor required in her policy making roles in the government. Upon returning to India, she plans to contribute to inclusive governance by empowering the vulnerable population through quality education and access to livelihood opportunities and healthcare.

Nikita Agarwal

Ms. Nikita Agarwal is a lawyer, policy practitioner, and community educator. She started out as a policy practitioner in 2013, focusing on addressing the food security crisis and gender-based violence in India, and built her legal practice to bridge the gap between the theoretical and practical applications of law. She has primarily represented indigenous communities in the conflict zone of South Chhattisgarh, and women, children, and religious minorities in Delhi.

Ms. Agarwal was appointed member of the Committee Against Sexual Harassment of the Chhattisgarh Bar Council. She regularly drafts workplace sexual harassment policies and is a gender and sexuality trainer. Through her research and documentation work, she has engaged with issues around labor, conflict, gender and sexuality, forest rights, and the criminalization of the lives of indigenous people and de-notified tribes, among others.

Ms. Agarwal is a graduate of National Law University, Delhi. As a student, she founded the student volunteer group Aaghaaz to provide need-based education to women and children on campus and outside. She simultaneously became involved with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a people’s anti-displacement resistance movement in Madhya Pradesh, which helped her understand the need to work with law in a holistic manner—synergizing reform processes, litigation, and community mobilizing.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Ms. Agarwal aims to study the U.S. criminal justice and legal aid systems. After completing her fellowship, Ms. Agarwal intends to build a practice with community lawyers and paralegals, to addresses the crisis of legal aid in India.

Sreerupa Bhattacharya

Ms. Sreerupa Bhattacharya is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, where she examines the works of women photographers in twentieth-century India. By tracing a genealogy of women’s photographic practices, her Ph.D. seeks to explore hitherto obscured archives in order to engender the history of photography in India as well as provide fresh insights into the gendered lifeworlds of women in the twentieth century. Her research interests include visual culture, gender studies, technology studies and South Asian history.

Ms. Bhattacharya completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in English literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, where she was awarded the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff) for an independent research project on the Jewish community of Kolkata. She was a Young India Fellow at Ashoka University, where she received a postgraduate diploma in liberal studies. She also worked as Teaching Assistant at Ashoka University and IIT Bombay for a range of courses on gender and sexuality, film studies, literary culture and language training.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, she is undertaking archival research, gaining interdisciplinary methodological insights into the study of visual culture, and engaging with a global community of scholars and curators working on gender and photography.

Prabakar Krishna Murthy

Dr. Prabakar Krishna Murthy is a scientist at Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from Osmania University, Hyderabad in the year 2007 and joined IGCAR in the same year through the prestigious Dr. K. S. Krishnan Research Associate scheme.

His current research interests include microfabrication, microcantilever-based sensors, and semiconductor neutron detectors. He has extensively worked on the design, fabrication, and characterization of surface-enhanced SiO2 microcantilevers for ultrafast and ultrasensitive relative humidity (RH) sensing applications. Using this sensor, his group could demonstrate real-time monitoring of RH variation during human breath cycles. Dr. Krishna Murthy has also studied the photo-induced deflection in Au/Si microcantilevers for ultrasensitive temperature sensing applications and capacitive micro-machined ultrasonic transducers for NDE applications. He has published 38 research articles in national and international journals. He is also Assistant Professor in physics at Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai and has guided two Ph.D. students and several graduate/postgraduate students.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship, Dr. Krishna Murthy is developing a standoff (remote), ultrasensitive and extremely selective detection method for lung cancer by sensing the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released in the human exhaled breath using photothermal cantilever deflection spectroscopy.

Malvika Maheshwari

Dr. Malvika Maheshwari is Associate Professor of Political Science at Ashoka University. She holds degrees in the discipline from Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and she completed her doctorate from Sciences Po, Paris, in 2011. Prior to joining Ashoka, she taught South Asian politics at Sciences Po, Paris and Le Havre, and was a research associate at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.

Dr. Maheshwari’s research lies at the intersection of political thought and art practice, especially as it relates to phenomena like violence, power, democracy, and state capacity. Her first book, Art Attacks: Violence and Offence-taking India, was published in 2019 (Oxford University Press) and her research articles have been published in reputed journals, such as India Review, Raisons Politiques, Studies in Indian Politics, Economic and Political Weekly and The Arts Politic. She is a recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust (University of Cambridge) and the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund fellowships, among others.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence schloar, Dr. Maheshwari would be working on her second book project on the ‘National Akademies of Art and the Politics of Administering Aesthetics in Postcolonial India.’ In this project, she seeks to understand the political and intellectual origins, and the trajectory of the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) for dance, music and theatre, Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) for fine arts, and Sahitya Akademi (SA) for literature, established in mid-1950s. The research focuses on the institution’s history, its core principles, and internal contestations, and how its language, functioning and the ideological discourse supported interests of various state and central government policies, as much as shaping the complexities of the art world, and through it, ideas of citizenship and the public. Following a basic question–what did the Indian statesmen, particularly during the early years of India’s independence, want to do with the arts? –this work explores a critical sphere of state activity where art and politics coexist, compete but also in the process constitute one another, that is, in its role as an allocator: of resources, awards, buildings, legitimacy, among other things.

Gopikrishnan Gopalakrishna Pillai Sreerekha

Gopikrishnan is a Ph.D. candidate in atmospheric chemistry-climate interactions. As a child he enjoyed stargazing, which sparked his fascination with the skies. The allure of the unseen intricacies of the atmosphere led him to pursue a path in science.

Gopikrishnan, a graduate in physical oceanography, with a university level first rank from the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, investigates the relationships between climate, meteorology and ozone in the atmosphere. As a Prime Minister’s Research Fellow (PMRF) at ATMOS lab, CORAL, IIT Kharagpur, he studies complex chemistry feedback systems that regulate and are governed by ozone at both the surface and the troposphere. He employs cutting-edge techniques, such as remote sensing methods and 3D numerical models, to better understand the convoluted connections that influence atmospheric processes.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate fellow at Columbia University, New York, NY, Gopikrishnan is working on chemistry transport models and investigating the chemical and dynamic aspects of atmospheric ozone. His primary goal is to identify the impact of aerosols on ozone variability using an extensive strategy supported by observations from a number of remotely sensed and ground-based data sources. His research findings are expected to elucidate the role of aerosol in ozone photochemistry using a global chemical transport model, with the goal of better parameterization of this process. He also plans on exploring the bustling streets of New York City, absorbing its warmth, vitality and vigour.

Siddharth Bhardwaj

Dr. Siddharth Bhardwaj is currently serving as a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. His research interests include ergonomics, human factors, human motor adaptation, and rehabilitation robotics. He obtained his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Aligarh Muslim University (2020), where his research focused on developing EMG-based control strategies for lower limb rehabilitation devices.

Dr. Bhardwaj has three years of postdoctoral experience at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar, Gujarat. During his time at IIT Gandhinagar, he contributed to the development of a passive back exosuit for manual lifting tasks and investigated sensory augmentation and virtual reality (VR) technology for improving postural balance and control. Dr. Bhardwaj has published several research articles in reputed journals and has been granted one patent in the field of mechanical engineering. His other scientific and academic recognitions include multiple Best Paper awards at international conferences, DST Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-2023), CSIR Senior Research Fellowship (2017-2020), and university medal in MTech (mechanical engineering) from Aligarh Muslim University (2014).

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow, Dr. Bhardwaj is studying the effect of personal and environmental factors on the gait and balance of individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The study of these interacting factors is particularly important as freezing of gait and fall in PD patients is associated with response inhibition, divided attention, and visuospatial function. In particular, the project will explore VR-based visual perturbations incorporating personal and environmental factors for developing unique gait and balance training paradigms for PD patients.

Devanshu Sajlan

Devanshu Sajlan, a judge by profession, is passionate about analyzing the interplay between law and the rights of marginalized groups in India. Officiating as a judge at Tis Hazari Courts since 2019, he has passed more than 200 judgments pertaining to diverse areas of law. His judgments dealing with contract law (non-compete clauses), defamation law, sexual crimes, and crimes against society have been reported by SCC Online, a leading law journal of India. He was also one of the first judges in New Delhi to record evidence through videoconferencing mode during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hailing from New Delhi, Devanshu studied law at National Law University, Delhi. He was awarded the Pandit Shri Girdhari Lal Salwan gold medal in 2014. After graduating, he started working at one of India’s leading corporate law firms, AZB & Partners, where he worked on multiple transactions with international institutions like the International Finance Corporation, American Tower Corporation, and Asian Development Bank. Thereafter, to pursue his passion for criminal litigation and human rights, he joined the chamber of Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Senior Advocate, and former Additional Solicitor General of India. Devanshu also joined the panel of Delhi Legal Services Authority in 2018 as an independent practitioner to help indigent litigants and undertrial prisoners.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Devanshu is studying the criminal justice courses dealing with issues of bail jurisprudence specifically faced by indigent prisoners. He feels this will enable him to find improved solutions to the plight of thousands of disenfranchised under-trial prisoners in India.

Amrutha Sai Anju Kosuru

Amrutha Kosuru is an independent journalist from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, presently stationed in Hyderabad, Telangana. In 2022, she worked as a fellow at the People’s Archive of Rural India, where she delved into multifaceted subjects such as agriculture, art and crafts, climate change, food, public policy, and gender through her insightful reporting in the rural regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Recognized for her exceptional work, Amrutha was honored with a Jury Appreciation Citation at the Laadli Media and Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity in 2023. She received this recognition for her compelling article on the lives of widows of manual scavenging workers and the challenges they face. Specializing in rural and literary reportage, Amrutha is a firm believer in the transformative power of compelling storytelling.

Amrutha has more than three years of experience in ground reporting and editing for both print and digital media. She has previously worked with and written for The Hindu, The New Indian Express, and NewsMeter. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in journalism from the Asian College of Journalism.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Amrutha is working on her journalistic skills which will allow her to expand the scope of her reportage in India, and help her delve deeper into narrative journalism, serving as a powerful tool to address integral issues plaguing India.

Praavita Kashyap

Praavita Kashyap is a practicing advocate in New Delhi, specializing in criminal law. She represents the defense and complainants across various subject areas including criminal defamation, homicidal crimes, and sexual violence, as well as individuals charged under India’s anti-terrorism laws. She has worked on several trials of public significance.

For the last decade, Praavita has been associated with social movements and campaigns. Her experience working with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan on the Right to Information and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act fostered her understanding of transformative, participatory approaches to drafting law. Around 2015, she documented constitutional cases regarding the impact of technological interventions in welfare. In 2017, she was instrumental in establishing a campaign critiquing India’s unique biometric identification project. She then founded the ‘Article 21 Trust’ to work on issues at the intersection of welfare and technology.

Praavita holds an LLB from Delhi University, a BA (Hons.) in philosophy from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and an MA in human rights from Sciences Po, Paris. Her studies are motivated by her commitment to social justice.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Praavita is studying data governance law, criminal procedure, and constitutional rights, and learn strategies from the rich history of movement lawyering in the US. This will strengthen her work with social movements to bridge the disjunct between technology policy, the law and lived experiences of the marginalized. Praavita plans to return to India to continue her independent litigation practice and shape creative, participatory policy in India.