Host City India: New York

Twisha Mehta

Ms. Twisha Mehta is a researcher, designer, and educator. Trained as a designer in visual communication design, her pedagogies and practice lie primarily in democratic rights and social and ecological justice and in centering feminist principles of resource sharing.

She currently works with the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, Asia & Pacific as a strategic communications facilitator, where she leads a political and anthropological inquiry into conceptualizing storytelling techniques to amplify feminist resistance in Asia and the Pacific. Twisha has studied communication design at MIT Institute of Design, Pune and has a post-graduate diploma in human rights law from the National Law School of India University. In earlier projects with the Society for Informal Education and Development Studies, Jatan Sansthan, and South Asian Women’s Foundation India, Twisha explored the role of design in shaping and shifting cultural narratives and recognizing its potential in driving social change.

Twisha’s experiences with feminist activist-led communities proved that as part of movements, communities thrive in spaces of care, convening, and critique. In late 2021, she ventured into teaching critical systems thinking to undergraduate students of design and her endeavor culminated in creating learning communities through co-organized initiatives such as ‘Visual Fossils’ and the ‘Learning Circle: Decolonial and Feminist Knowledge Production’ with the Swiss Anthropological Society’s Interface Commission for Engaged Anthropology.

Through her Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Twisha is working on tracing the complexities between designer and anthropological traditions and the ecological crisis through the lens of sociocultural and feminist struggles around rights, care, and vulnerability.

Tanaya Singh

Ms. Tanaya Singh has been a writer, editor, and content strategist for 12 years, and has extensively reported on individuals developing solutions to challenges in their communities. Most recently, she served as Chief Editor at The Better India, Asia’s largest solutions-based publication, where she led a team of journalists covering changemakers, unsung heroes, and development initiatives, with particular emphasis on human rights, social justice, and gender equity. Previously, Tanaya was the Executive Editor at Youth Ki Awaaz, a media platform empowering young citizens to voice their concerns.

Through her work, Tanaya has seen transformative stories reach millions around the world. These reports showcase the good in India shaped by civil society interventions. She has designed editorial strategies in collaboration with organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and EkStep Foundation on topics such as sustainability, girls’ education, and women empowerment. She played a key role in shaping content strategies that foster collaboration within India’s early childhood development ecosystem, other than hosting discussions on ‘Bringing Girls Back to Schools after COVID-19’, and ‘Women at Workplaces’.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Tanaya is expanding her understanding of the first principles of reporting and communication for social change. She is interested in exploring how solutions journalism can be shaped as an ethically grounded and socially responsible field in India, while reviving its nuances and potential for impact. She aspires to contribute to the training of young journalists in this field, especially in Indian media.

Sampada Mehta

Ms. Sampada Mehta is a career civil servant with the Indian Administrative Service. She has worked in challenging geographical areas including the insurgency-affected district of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. She has delivered upon diverse public service objectives which included managing centralized procurement of medicines and medical equipment for public health institutions and promoting integrated development of indigenous communities.

Sampada has led the World Bank-funded Maharashtra Agricultural Competitiveness Project and focused on promoting farmer producer companies. In her current assignment as Private Secretary to the President of India, she plays an important role in enhancing the interaction and engagement of the common man with the highest office of the Republic of India.

Sampada is a chartered accountant by training. Prior to joining the civil services, she rendered consultancy services in accounting, auditing, and taxation to various entities.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Sampada is pursuing a Master in Public Administration degree with the sub-specialty of public financial management. She hopes to gain advanced insights into efficient resource mobilization and optimum resource utilization. She looks forward to contributing to making fiscal policies that promote growth with equity and sustainability. As a cultural ambassador from India, Sampada is keen on sharing the Indic knowledge of yoga and meditation with her cohort and making friends with students from diverse backgrounds.

Midhun Vijayan

Hailing from Kerala, Mr. Midhun Vijayan has been working for the last four years as a video journalist and producer at Down To Earth magazine in New Delhi. Apart from producing reports on science, technology, agriculture, health and public policy, he has travelled across India to make documentaries on climate change adaptation and mitigation from the perspective of rural communities.

Midhun has been honored with a Special Jury Mention at the India International Science Film Festival for a report that explored the solid waste management practices of India’s megacities. He was part of the team that received the Ramnath Goenka Award for Broadcast Journalism in the Environment and Science category, one of the highest journalism honors in the country.

Midhun has more than five years of experience producing documentaries, explainers and ground reports for India’s traditional media, new media as well as not-for-profit organizations. Based on his extensive experience, he was chosen to be a part of PSBT’s prestigious Doc_Commune cohort in 2024-25. He started his video production career with The Better India, Bangalore after graduating from the Mass Communication Research Department of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, with a university rank and gold medal.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Midhun is working to expand his craft to explore complex concepts of empathy, duty, morality and social justice in the backdrop of contemporary news topics. In the long run, he aims to contribute to the new wave of documentary culture in India through mentorship programs for India’s youth.

Deboshree Mukherjee

Dr. Deboshree Mukherjee is Dr. D. S. Kothari Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Chemistry, University of Burdwan, West Bengal. Earlier, she worked as Research Associate atthe Center of Excellence in Advance Materials, NIT Durgapur, West Bengal. She completed her Ph.D. from CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad in 2019. Her doctoral research was in the area of heterogeneous catalysis.

Dr. Mukherjee’s research interest lies in the design and development of novel nanomaterials for catalytic oxidation-reduction processes for environmental remediation, biodiesel and other fine chemicals production, photocatalytic advanced oxidation processes, and nanozyme applications. She has published several research articles in high impact international journals, review articles, popular journal articles, and book chapters during her Ph.D. and post-doctoral work. She was awarded the junior research fellowship (JRF) by the Government of India after she qualified the CSIR-UGC NET examination and the prestigious Dr. D. S. Kothari Post-Doctoral research fellowship by the UGC, Government of India.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellowship, Dr. Mukherjee is focusing on the design and development of metal organic framework supported single atom catalyst (SAC) for preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide in hydrogen rich stream for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell application. In SAC, all catalytically active metal centers are atomically dispersed on a stable support. The SACs are superior to metal or metal oxide nanocatalysts in terms of high metal atom utilization efficiency, unique electronic properties and special size quantum effects, resulting in improved catalytic performance.

Disha Wadekar

Ms. Disha Wadekar is an independent advocate practicing before the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts in India. Her practice focuses on representing marginalized communities on matters pertaining to constitutional law and anti-discrimination law. She has worked on many constitution bench matters, including the famous Sabarimala temple entry case and the economically weaker section (EWS) reservation case. In 2022, she was appointed the Assistant Special Public Prosecutor by the Government of Rajasthan.

An engineer-turned-lawyer, Ms. Wadekar completed her undergraduate law degree from Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), Pune. She has taught courses on law and marginalization at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, and National Law University, Delhi, and has delivered lectures at various institutions. She is also a member of the academic committee on Denotified Tribes at SPPU, Pune, and of the research ethics committee at the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS), Delhi.

In 2021, Ms. Wadekar co-founded Community for the Eradication of Discrimination in Education and Employment (CEDE)—an organization working towards a diverse and inclusive Indian legal profession and the judiciary. She has also provided consultancy to organizations, such as the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, Delhi. Her work has been published by reputed journals and online portals.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Ms. Wadekar is pursuing LLM from Columbia University. She hopes to learn about the feminist, indigenous, and critical race critiques of the justice system. She believes her fellowship will enable her to contribute to litigation, research, and advocacy interventions that foreground rights-based anti-caste and intersectional perspectives in the Indian justice system.

Vidita Vaidya

Prof. Vidita Vaidya is Professor and Chairperson, the Department of Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. Prof. Vaidya’s research group at TIFR works on understanding the neurocircuitry of emotion, its modulation by life experience, and the alterations in emotional neurocircuitry that underlie complex psychiatric disorders, like anxiety and depression. Her work delves into how the experience of early adversity can recruit pathways regulated by the neurotransmitter, serotonin, to shape the long-term programming of mood-related behavior. Her research team also investigates the mechanistic details of the influence of pharmacological antidepressants and serotonergic psychedelics on mood-related behavior, in particular the consequences on bioenergetics in neuronal cells.

Prof. Vaidya received her undergraduate training at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai and her Ph.D. in neuroscience at Yale University. Following postdoctoral fellowships at Karolinska Institute and Oxford University, she returned to a faculty position at TIFR in 2000. She was the recipient of the Infosys Prize in Life Sciences in 2022. She is committed to mentorship, equity and diversity in STEM.

Prof. Vaidya’s Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence project is focussed on understanding the impact of serotonergic psychedelics on mitochondrial biogenesis and function in distinct limbic brain regions. Her work explores whether serotonergic psychedelics, through modulation of mitochondrial biogenesis and function, impact neuronal and synaptic plasticity, influence neuronal architecture and regulate mood-related behaviors.

Payoshi Roy

Ms. Payoshi Roy has practiced as a criminal defense lawyer since graduating from National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata in 2015. Her practice focuses on representing prisoners on death row and indigent persons sentenced to life imprisonment before the Supreme Court of India and the Bombay High Court. In defending activists and terror accused, she has contested state excesses and abuse of anti-terror legislations in India. She also represents victims in custodial death cases challenging police impunity to ensure prosecution of police officers. Outside of courts, she has taught courses on capital punishment and criminal law in law schools across India.

Through her master’s in law as a Fulbright-Nehru fellow, Ms. Roy is undertaking comparative interdisciplinary research on sentencing, abuse of anti-terror laws, and institutional reform.

Shivam Rawal

Mr. Shivam Rawal is a domain expert in education measurement, assessments and evaluation and has extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing several large-scale education projects in India. He exhibits a deep passion and commitment to serve the public sector using grassroots insights. Mr. Rawal’s first-hand experience of educational inequality inspired him to join the Teach For India Fellowship, where he taught over eighty students in a low-resource government school in India. Leveraging this experience and creating an impact at scale, he has worked with multiple state governments, nonprofits, and schools to improve student learning outcomes through assessments and the capacity-building of stakeholders at Central Square Foundation and Educational Initiatives. Shivam was nominated as a Global Girls Education Fellow in 2020 by Teach For All, where he learned about best practices in girls’ education as a part of the global cohort of fellows committed to improving educational outcomes for girls and women.

Through the graduate program in economics and education at Columbia University, Mr. Rawal aims to create more inclusive and equitable education systems by strengthening the evidence-based policy practice and processes in India. Learning about quantitative methods, experiments, and data analysis will provide him with a solid methodological grounding for rigorous policy evaluations to improve education programs and interventions. Ultimately, the direct beneficiaries of his work will be education practitioners and policymakers, but the fruit of this investment through the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship will trickle down to millions of students and teachers in India.

Aesha Datta

Ms. Aesha Datta graduated in English literature from Hindu College, University of Delhi in 2008 and went on to study journalism at the Asian College of Journalism. She has been a journalist for over 12 years and has worked with publications such as ET Prime, The Hindu Business Line and the India Today Group. Her writing has focused on the intersection of the climate crisis and its impact on society. In her last stint as an Assistant Editor – Environment with ET Prime, she single-handedly steered the environmental and climate coverage for the publication.

In 2017, she was awarded the WWF-India Young Media Climate Fellowship, during which she reported from the Sundarbans and Ladakh on climate-linked migration and community-led climate adaptation.

Her experiences with climate impacts as an environmental journalist, and prior to that as a volunteer for organizations such as Greenpeace India, drives her to keep a people-first approach to her writing and to connect the dots between climate science, policy, economics, and community impact.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow at Columbia University, she is studying the convergence of climate science, equity, policy, law, and business. Upon returning to India, she intends to continue to communicate the ever-intensifying climate crisis and expects that her master’s degree will both improve her understanding of the subject and her ability to articulate the same. She wants to combine her years of practical, on-ground experience with the academic training she receives to work in the public policy and advocacy space.