Archives: Meet Our India Fulbrighters

Priya Laxmi

Dr. Priya Laxmi teaches vocal music to grades six to 12 at an girls’ government school run by the Delhi Directorate of Education. She actively engages in all music related endeavors in her department. A graded artist of Aakasvani, Dr. Laxmi received a doctoral degree in vocal music from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in 2019. She received the JRF-SRF award during her Ph.D. She also qualified for the National Level of All India Civil Services music competition.

Through her Fulbright DAI Project, Dr. Laxmi is finding ways and means to transform perceptions about the scope of music as a subject, providing students with the opportunity to explore and enhance their learning and creativity. She aspires to make music education accessible to every child and emphasize on the aesthetic importance of music education for all.

After her return to India, she will share her Fulbright experience and learning with fellow music teachers by preparing a guideline for music education and through workshops, training programs, and publications.

Ashima Gupta

Ms. Ashima Gupta is a mentor teacher with the Delhi Directorate of Education. In her present role, she facilitates pre/in-service teacher trainings, develops content for secondary grade classes and observes classes in her mentee schools. She has been teaching English to the students of primary and secondary grades for fifteen years. She has a master’s degree in English from IGNOU and a certificate in TESOL core.

Ms. Gupta is actively involved in the planning of student development programs like student advisory board, sports meet at state level and spoken English project (Project Voices). During weekends, she provides career and spoken English counselling to students from disadvantaged families. She was honored with the Om Foundation’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017 for her efforts to provide students from underprivileged backgrounds with access to education.

During Ms. Gupta’s participation in the Fulbright DAI program, she plans to study the strategies to improve soft skills of students through co-scholastic activities. She believes, students’ interest in co-scholastic activities like sports, arts and crafts, and theatre, can be used for developing their overall personality, soft skills, and English communication skills. The findings and learnings from her project will help her transform the teaching learning scenario of government schools of Delhi. She intends to cascade her learnings to the fellow educators through workshops and training programs, hence benefitting her community.

Sumana Dutta

Ms. Sumana Dutta is an educationist with 21 years of experience. In the last 15 years, she has focused on supporting individuals dealing with autism and intellectual disabilities. She has a master’s degree in special education needs and inclusion from the University of Northampton, UK. She is also a certified autism consultant recognized by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI).

As the Founder Executive Director of Akshadhaa Foundation, Ms. Dutta spearheads ‘Equip the Special Million’ community outreach project. Her initiatives include sensitization workshops for university students, capacity-building training for parents, mainstream teachers, and community health workers. She orchestrates inclusive education through early screening camps, policy advocacy and arts-based therapy, utilizing multi-sensorial modalities of learning.

Ms. Dutta received the topper award for diploma in special education (autism spectrum disorder) in 2010. Her decade-long service was honoured with the Dr. Amarnath Annual Award, and in 2022, she was recognized with the All India Women Achiever Award for excellence in social service. She has co-authored an article “Journey of Akshadhaa: Supporting Neuro-Developmental Disabilities in Bangalore, India” in Psychosocial Rehabilitation Mental Health Journal by Springer in 2023.

Through the Fulbright DAI project, Ms. Dutta is aiming to enhance her expertise in Universal Design of Learning and structured teaching approaches for special needs children. Upon her return to India, she would like to establish an online learning platform under the Akshadhaa Foundation, providing inclusive education methodologies for teachers and parent-caregivers. Her vision extends to sharing Fulbright experiences, preparing guidelines, and incorporating inclusive education pedagogy in state-run schools in Karnataka, contributing significantly to the education landscape in India.

Shanthie Mariet D Souza

Dr. Shanthie Mariet D’Souza is Founder & President of Mantraya, an independent research forum. She is also a visiting faculty at the Naval War College, Goa; a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, Washington D.C.; a Research Fellow at WeltTrends-Institut für internationale Politik, Potsdam; an International Advisor at the Nordic Counter Terrorism Network, Helsinki; and an Adviser for Independent Conflict Research and Analysis, London. In a career spanning over two decades, she has conducted extensive field research in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Africa, and Australia.

Dr. D’Souza, with a Ph.D. in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, is an established inter-disciplinary researcher on conflict resolution, foreign policy, decision making, and human security. She has been widely published in national and international journals, newspapers, policy forums, and edited books, receiving attention from academic and practitioners, informing public debate and discourse.

She has been awarded various fellowships and been associated with a number of thinktanks, universities in India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. Most recently, Dr. D’Souza has been a Founding Professor at the Kautilya School of Public Policy,Hyderabad. She has been a recipient of the Fulbright Junior Research Fellowship (2005-06) and the President’s Award for Excellence in Research (2009) from the Manohar Parrikar-Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.

As the Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair in Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she will be teaching and conducting research on Global Climate Change and Geopolitics of Energy and prospects for cooperation between India and U.S. in addressing issues of climate change, mitigation, and crisis management.

Melari Shisha Nongrum

Dr. Melari Shisha Nongrum is Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health, Shillong, Meghalaya. She is an indigenous woman from the Khasi indigenous community of Meghalaya, located in the northeastern region of India. Dr. Nongrum has a master’s in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She conducted her research on sociocultural factors of vitamin A deficiency among children in Meghalaya, which was part of her doctoral thesis at Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong. Since her Ph.D., Dr. Nongrum has worked in the field of public health, especially in traditional knowledge systems of food and healing of the indigenous communities in her region. She acquired expertise on this subject through research and community projects, grounded in active community engagement. She co-authored the chapter “Treasures from shifting cultivation in the Himalayan’s evergreen forest” in a publication led by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems: Insights on sustainability and resilience from the front line of climate change. This publication was awarded the 2021 Best in the World Sustainability Report Award by the Hallbars Sustainability Research Organization.

As Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair at Emory University, Dr. Nongrum’s is working on “The Multifactorial Facets of Tribal Health: Development of a Training Module on Tribal Health for Public Health and Allied Health Professionals”. She is also teaching a course titled “Multifaceted Nature of Tribes in India and the Traditional knowledge Systems of Food and Healing: Experiences from Tribal Communities in Northeastern India”.

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.

Vivek Tejaswi

Mr. Vivek Tejaswi is a public policy research and governance practitioner with a strong background in technology, social science, and climate change mitigation. He has dedicated over a decade of his career to studying and working on interdisciplinary aspects environmental science and sustainability, and collaborating with private, government, and non-governmental organizations at the sub-national level.

As a Founding Member and De-facto Director, Mr. Tejaswi has led the Centre for Studies on Environment and Climate at the Asian Development Research Institute, a prominent social sciences research think-tank in Bihar. His work in Bihar, particularly on policy framing and implementation was supported by major philanthropies such as the World Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Tata Cornell Institute, and Oxford Policy Management. In his brief professional stint, he has led several other projects and team in this prior professional instant, specially with institutions such as the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Government of India), and the Department of Finance (Government of Bihar). Prior to his involvement in policy research, he was worked with major grassroots organizations like Tata Trust, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), and Selco Foundation. Mr. Tejaswi’s dedication to community development and sustainability is exemplified by his recognition as a State Bank of India Foundation’s Youth For India Fellow. During this fellowship, he implemented a project that positively impacted over 500 households in remote regions of Madhya Pradesh, providing them with access to basic energy sources and farm-based technology.

Academically, Mr. Tejaswi received training in ‘Development’ with a specialization in ‘Sustainability’ from the Azim Premji University, Karnataka. He also holds a degree in ‘Electronics and Communication Engineering’, from Ranchi University, Jharkhand. He is trained in applied technology design and installation, focusing on areas such as robotics, small-scale wind energy turbines, and decentralized solar energy systems. As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Mr. Tejaswi aims to gain international exposure and receive comprehensive training in climate change science, policy, and leadership to better address the socioeconomic impacts of climate crisis. After his return from the Fulbright-Nehru grant, Mr. Tejaswi envisions continuing his work in critical thinking and strategic policy dialogues related to climate change mitigation and resource sustainability at the regional scale. He intends to bridge alliances between the international research community and regional practitioners, aiming to strengthen evidence-based policymaking, planning, and implementation tailored to the specific needs of the region.

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.

Minaam Reyaz Shah

Mr. Minaam Shah obtained his master’s degree in politics and international relations from the University of Kashmir and is a full-time freelance journalist based out of Kashmir. He has completed courses in social entrepreneurship and modern diplomacy, and his work has been regularly featured in the Foreign Policy magazine, South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, and The Diplomat, among others.

Mr. Shah’s writing career began when he joined an acclaimed news portal, The Kashmir Walla in 2020. After a brief stint there, he started covering the refugee beat for several international publications and has written on the issues of refugees, forced migrations, and displaced communities in South Asia, including the Afghans, the Rohingyas, and the Tibetans.

Before joining journalism, Mr. Shah published regular commentary for a U.S. magazine The National Interest, where he closely followed the broad contours of U.S. policy towards South Asia. In addition, Mr. Shah helped set up the publication and communication verticals of a European think tank.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Mr. Shah is pursuing graduate studies in international relations at Tufts university. He believes this program will equip him with a multidisciplinary approach to optimally analyze issues of forced migration and displacement. Furthermore, he is confident this fellowship will help him realize his objective of building spaces for solution-based journalism and of adding new perspectives to policy research on global refugee crises.