India Fellows Years: Indian Fellows 2024-2025

Sonaleeca Das

Ms. Sonaleeca Das is a science teacher at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Tenughat of Bokaro district in the state of Jharkhand. She has been teaching science to middle-school learners for eighteen years. She has an integrated bachelor’s degree in science and education from Regional Institute of Education, Bhubaneswar.

She is actively involved in planning and organizing science exhibitions, exposure visits to science centres, mentor talks, and workshops on nurturing design thinking among the middle-grade learners for their successful participation in national-level science competitions. In 2016 she received the Navodaya National Incentive Award for her contributions in the field of teaching learning in one of the remote north-eastern regions of India.

During her participation in the Fulbright DAI program, Sonaleeca plans to explore methods to nurture, develop, and scaffold reflection as a skill among the middle-school learners in science. She believes that the skill of reflection should help the current generation of learners to listen to their internal voice, to make meaning of their experiences and develop the ability to receive comments, suggestions, evaluations, and feedback. The learning and findings from her project will guide her to redesign the experiential learning process in her school. She plans to disseminate learnings from this project through research publications and workshops with fellow teachers.

Nilam Thakkar

Ms. Nilam Thakkar is an educator with over 15 years of experience at NGO Manav Sadhna. Through its Prathma remedial education program, she has been teaching 4th and 5th graders while serving as Principal, and training 12 teachers on holistic values-based education. She also developed the Prathma curriculum, which includes workbooks, assessments, and teacher training modules.

She holds a Primary Teacher’s Training diploma (PTC), a B.Ed., and an MA from Gujarat University. She has pursued professional development through programs such as Social Emotional Learning (SEL) facilitation, done pedagogy training with Teach for India, and Waldorf Education training. Her dedication to education has been recognized with the Women of Excellence Award (2023) and the Wonder Woman Award (2019).

Since 2016, she has been a member of the selection committee of the Gujarat State Child Care and Protection Department, selecting members for the Child Welfare Committee and Juvenile Justice Board across 33 districts.

As a Fulbright DAI fellow, Nilam aims to explore innovative educational approaches to address the psychological, social, and emotional challenges faced by children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Her project focuses on creating sustainable interventions to enhance students’ cognitive skills, motivation, and self-confidence. She plans to design a teacher’s guide and training modules to empower teachers and foster supportive learning environments. Her vision is to integrate these strategies into her school system and share her learnings with NGOs and schools, ensuring holistic child development and academic progress for underserved communities.

Joyeeta Banerjee

Ms. Joyeeta Banerjee is an assistant teacher at Nikunjapur High School teaching English as Second Language (ESL) to the rural learners of secondary and higher secondary grades for the past 23 years. She holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Burdwan and a master’s in education from Rabindra Bharati University.

She is the cultural coordinator of her school and after school hours, actively engages in teaching English to disadvantaged learners. She appeared in the critically acclaimed movie Kalamkathi, screened in the environment category of the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival. She has published many articles. Her book review was featured in the prestigious Bengali quarterly Anustup. She was a recipient of the National Child Rights Research Fellowship in 2012.

As a Fulbright fellow, Joyeeta is exploring theoretical and practical issues related to ESL pedagogy. It will be useful in delineating a plan of action to foster meaningful learning for the first-generation learners in her ESL classrooms. She intends to publish her findings and her experiences both in academic journals and popular magazines and newspapers. She is interested in conducting workshops and seminars at the grassroots for the benefit of her school and community.

Anna Lynn Tom

Anna Lynn Tom is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Comparative Literature and India Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. She received the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR) doctoral research fellowship in 2022 for her study on interventional feminist practices in contemporary visual art in India. Previously, she was as an assistant professor in English at St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru. She completed her master’s from EFL University, Hyderabad, focusing in Indian and world literatures.

Anna has published critical writing on gender, art and culture on Indian online platforms such as The Chakkar, Live Wire, Catharsis, Articulate, and ASAP Art Connect. She has also published book chapters and academic papers in research journals. She has presented her ongoing work on the presence of women and queer artists in the contemporary Indian art scene at national and international conferences. Through her doctoral research, Anna aims to understand different methods of reading feminist art of the Indian contemporary through bodily mediated encounters within the decolonial avant-garde.

As a Fulbright Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Anna is conducting a comparative analysis of understanding feminist interventions during the period of the women’s movements (roughly 1960 – 1990) in the U.S. and India through an exploration of the Miriam Schapiro Archives on Women Artists. Anna is an avid consumer of fiction and cinema. She also practices experimental forms of writing and photography.

Asad Tariq

Asad Tariq is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He completed his MA in economics with distinction from Jamia Millia Islamia, and BA from the University of Allahabad. His research interest lies at the intersection of development economics, politics, and religion. His work aims to document the discrimination against marginalised groups in India and investigate possible policy measures that aid their upliftment and development.

During his Ph.D., he has been awarded the Commonwealth Split-Site Scholarship in 2023 which sponsored 12 months of research at the Imperial College London. He is also a recipient of the Junior Research Fellowship by the University Grants Commission, India. He has presented his work at multiple national and international conferences. He has also been a part of multiple research projects under the Department of Science and Technology (Government of India) and Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research among others.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at Brown University, Providence, RI, Asad is evaluating the influence of Members of Legislative Assembly from religious minority backgrounds in India on the provision of public goods targeted towards minorities. He also hopes to compile a collection of essays employing econometric methods to illuminate the challenges faced by Indian marginalized groups. When he is not crunching numbers using econometric models, Asad can be found at a picket, savouring nihari-paya in the labyrinthine alleys of Purani Dilli and Okhla, or reading Allama Iqbal’s poetry.

Apoorva Singh

Apoorva Singh is a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. His doctoral thesis focuses on understanding the charge transport and degradation mechanisms in perovskite based solar cells and devices incorporating device fabrication and advanced electrical, optical and materials characterizations. Apoorva has published academic papers and presented his work at various national and international conferences. He has collaborated with prominent international research groups and research facilities including ones at the University of Oxford and Soleil French-National Synchrotron Facility.

Apoorva holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MJP Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, and a master’s degree in engineering by research from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru. After completing his master’s from JNCASR and prior to joining the Ph.D. program at IISc, Apoorva served as a senior project associate at the National Centre for Flexible Electronics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, Apoorva is studying perovskite solar cells, investigating the evolution in defects and recombination mechanisms at different stages of degradation through spectroscopic procedures. The insights gained from his research will contribute to achieving optimal device performance and stability in the field. Apoorva actively organizes and takes on leadership roles in various academic and cultural activities. He is a music enthusiast, with skill in live mixing, and he also enjoys reading, playing chess, and exploring new places.

Harish Sankar Aghila

Harish S A is a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. The broader domains encompassing his research interests include networks, systems, and security. His current research explores the security implications of in-network systems that leverage cutting-edge technologies like software-defined networks and programmable data planes.

Harish is a recipient of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) awarded by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. As a part of his doctoral research, he actively engaged in a security project alongside ASEAN countries and participated in their student exchange program. He published research papers and presented his work at reputed international venues. Additionally, he has received the notable SIGCOMM travel grant award, among many others.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the National Institute of Technology Puducherry, during which time he interned with the UMR TETIS Joint Research Unit in Montpellier, France. He holds a master’s degree in computer engineering (cyber security) from the National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, TX, Harish is examining to secure data-driven, in-network systems built on high-speed programmable data planes against adversarial inputs. His vision is to bolster the resilience of next-generation computer networks against security threats. Harish teaches undergraduate students about network security. He enjoys road trips and chess.

Anjineyulu Kothakota

Dr. Anjineyulu Kothakota, is working as a Scientist in CSIR- National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He has done his bachelors and master’s in food technology from Andhra Pradesh and Punjab respectively and Ph.D. in Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering from GBPUAT, Uttarakhand. He has a well proven track record of achievements in the field of post-harvest technologies and agri-waste management and has successfully developed technologies for conversion of agricultural residues to biodegradable products. The technology to produce such biodegradable products has so far been transferred to 18 companies.. A vital impact of these products is the reduction of the carbon footprint by 60 % when compared with plastic and paper counterparts, jobs for 5,000 to 7,000 rural workers; and additional income for 100 to 200 farmers for their raw material waste. He has also completed projects worth INR 3 crores from various funding agencies and private multinational companies like ITC Ltd. He has also recipient of several accolades like BRICS Young Scientist award 2023, Kerala State Young Scientist Award-2023, INAE –Young Engineer Award 2022, ICAR-NAAS Young Scientist Award 2021, ICAR-NAAS Associate Award 2023, CSIR Award for Science and Technology Innovations for Rural Development (CAIRD) 2020.

During Fulbright fellowship, he is focusing on the development and optimization non-thermal processing techniques for improvement of biodegradable food packaging materials sourced for U.S. based agri biomass like corn wastes, soybean wastes at South Dakota State University.

Kalyan K. Mondal

Dr. Kalyan K. Mondal is presently working as Joint Director (Research) at the ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. Prior to joining ICAR-NIBSM, he worked as Principal Scientist at Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He worked extensively on the bacterial type-3-secretion-system (T3SS)-effectors and how bacterial pathogens use the effectors to subvert plant immune responses, PTI/ETI. He profiled the T3SS-effectors in two important bacterial pathogens, Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae (Xap) and X. oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) infecting pomegranate and rice. His group identified key effectors (XopF, XopR in Xoo; XopC2, XopL, XopN in Xap) that immensely contribute to suppress plant immune responses. Using Y2H system his team identified the interactor(s) for effectors and further demonstrated that silencing the interactors in host plants led to disease resistance. Dr. Kalyan is a Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, Dr. Mondal is investigating the TAL effector PthXo2 of Xoo and its functional role in activating OsSWEET15 during blight disease development using CRISPR-Cas editing tools. This work may help understanding OsSWEET-mediated pathogenesis and identify novel targets to counter bacterial blight disease in rice.

Utsav Shukla

Utsav Shukla, a civil servant of the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), works at the intersection of railroad network planning, operations, regional development and urban transport. He has been working for 10 years in northeast India, connecting habitations and nurturing opportunities for improving the living conditions of millions. Hailing from Varanasi, the spiritual center of India, and trained as a medical doctor at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore, Utsav has been instrumental in designing people-centric infrastructure, sustainably dovetailing into the eco-sensitive milieu of the region.

Over the last decade, he has headed operations and business verticals, providing policy inputs on freight rebates and cargo aggregation, giving small agro-producers of the region access to national and international markets. He was pivotal in planning, coordinating and executing rail connectivity projects to Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. For the safe and successful operations of 232 Shramik specials (trains carrying stranded people) while resuscitating the supply chain of life-saving drugs and essential commodities in six northeastern states during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was awarded the National Railway Award 2021, the highest honor for any railway servant by the Minister of Railways, Government of India.

In his latest assignment at the Northeast Frontier Railway’s headquarters in Guwahati, Utsav influenced the operationalization of international connectivity links with Bangladesh and Nepal. Further, his commitment to wildlife conservation and sustainable development has institutionalized effective mitigation mechanisms along the elephant corridors in northeast India, reducing elephant deaths by 60%. Anchoring station redevelopment projects in Guwahati and New Jalpaiguri under the Amrit Bharat scheme, he is currently working on integrating the passenger and freight railway transit nodes with the urban transportation system.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Utsav is studying urban planning to gain insights into policies, technologies and institutions which can make cities more humane, livable and equitable. He intends to explore leadership roles and reforms in governance to bring about citizen engagement in delivering urban services.