Archives: Meet Our India Fulbrighters

Siva Naga Pavani Ayinampudi

Siva Naga Pavani Ayinampudi is a life scientist with a master’s and Ph.D. in animal biology from the University of Hyderabad. She holds a remarkable academic record, having received the Achievers Award three times and the Kiran Kumar gold medal in 2010. She is currently serving as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) with the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS), Government of Telangana, overseeing 30 residential undergraduate institutions. Prior to this, she was a lecturer and taught zoology at the undergraduate level. In her role as OSD, she championed the efforts to improve the quality of education for around 30,000 young women from under-served communities in Telangana. Her leadership has transformed institutional practices, fostering international collaborations with renowned universities such as Harvard, John Hopkins, and the University of Toledo, along with partnerships with organizations like Launch Girls, United Way, and Nirmaan.

Under Pavani’s guidance, TSWREIS’s Department of Higher Education introduced pioneering programs, including a bachelor’s in pharmacy, agriculture, and unique courses like BSc in design and technology, BSc in bioinformatics, and French as a second language. She co-created the TSWREIS Research Council, promoting research engagement among students and staff, and is the convenor of the institution’s first international conference, BioMe 2023.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Pavani is deepening her understanding of higher education administration, learn best practices, and contribute to enhancing the landscape of higher education in India. She aspires to democratize education, and design customized frameworks for institutions enabling them to serve as catalysts in societal transformation.

Lakshmi Priya Manirangu Sobhana

M.S. Lakshmi Priya, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), hails from the state of Kerala, and is a medical doctor by training. She is a recipient of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Administration for her project Sampoorna which helped reduce childhood malnutrition by 95.6% in the district of Bongaigaon in Assam where she worked as district collector. The project is based on the concept of ‘positive deviance’ and an innovation called ‘buddy mother’ model which is adopted in the national guidelines for combating malnutrition in the country.

Lakshmi Priya has been working in the state of Assam since 2015 in various capacities such as assistant collector in Jorhat, sub-collector in Bijni and Bilasipara, collector in Sivasagar and Bongaigaon, and as State Mission Director (MD) of National Health Mission (NHM). As MD, NHM, she has been instrumental in the reduction of maternal and child death rates in the state of Assam. She is known to be an upright officer who believes in participative governance and women empowerment. She also has the experience of working in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. She is an accomplished Carnatic musician who has performed in over a hundred venues, including the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, and Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts, New Delhi.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Lakshmi Priya is studying public health in the U.S., which will help her broaden her vision, and focus further on policy formulation and the smooth implementation of health-related administrative innovations. She believes her time in the U.S. will enable her to become a part of the larger global community working towards the betterment of humanity.

Ranjit Kumar

Ranjit Kumar, a nautical science graduate, has extensive experience of sailing. He has traveled around the world as a merchant navy officer, learning about the complexity and diversity of the marine environment and picking up a wide array of survival skills. For his leadership and managerial skills, he was appointed as chief cadet captain. As a member of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), he has been dealing with critical interventions in development and regulatory administration for the past 16 years. For his all-round performance, he was awarded best ‘District Collector’ by the Government of Maharashtra.

As the district collector of Gadchiroli, an area severely affected by left wing extremism, Ranjit has laid extra emphasis on socio-economic development to further the cause of peace. For his innovative approach and effective contribution, he has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

Currently, as director of National Jal Jeevan Mission, Ranjit is engaged in policy formulation and implementation of the National Jal Jeevan Mission, one of the largest programs in the world, related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6). He believes inclusive and rapid economic development with ecological sustainability is a major challenge. A study of environmental management and policy analysis will equip him with the necessary knowledge and skills to work on this challenge and help improve the quality of life of millions of citizens. Ranjit is a marathon runner, an excellent swimmer, and a sports enthusiast.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Ranjit hopes to gain valuable cross-cultural exposure, a chance to learn from diverse professionals, and an opportunity to befriend multi-talented individuals.

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.

Amartya Kanjilal

Amartya Kanjilal graduated from the Faculty of Law, Delhi University in 2013. Since then, he has been engaged in human rights and criminal law litigation and research. He has worked as a judicial clerk in the Delhi High Court and practiced as a criminal defense lawyer in various courts in Delhi. He also worked at Project 39A, where he provided legal representation to death-sentenced prisoners in the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts. He has researched and written extensively on issues of criminal and constitutional law, with a special focus on capital punishment jurisprudence and gender law reform.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Amartya is studying the administration of criminal justice in the U.S., concentrating on legal aid mechanisms. He hopes to continue building his practice in the future, focusing on criminal justice and legal aid. He also hopes to teach seminar courses at law universities in the future.

Abhiram Giri Sankar

Abhiram Giri Sankar is an IAS officer by profession. He completed his B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Kerala. He secured fourth rank in the all-India Civil Services Examination, 2010 and joined the Karnataka cadre. He is a passionate birdwatcher and volunteers actively towards eBird, a global citizen science initiative of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Abhiram currently serves as Deputy Director at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Government of India, Mussoorie, where he trains and mentors civil servants. In his public service career spanning over a decade, he has served in various capacities in the state of Karnataka, including Deputy Commissioner, CEO Zilla Panchayat, among others. This experience deepened his understanding of ground-level realities of development administration and exposed him to a wide range of issues.

Under his leadership, Mysuru district won national awards for the Cleanest Medium City, fifth overall cleanest city in India, and a 5-Star Rating for Garbage Free Cities. Mr. Abhiram also earned appreciation of the Government of Karnataka for his contributions towards the COVID-19 pandemic response as well as for flood relief efforts.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Abhiram is studying regional planning at Cornell University, where he aspires to gain deep insights into effective urban planning and policy-making necessary to transform Indian cities into livable, equitable, and resilient entities. After completing his fellowship, he aims to find sustainable solutions through a multi-stakeholder approach and be a change-maker public servant.

Neena Sinha

Dr. Neena Sinha is a professor at the University School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi. She has served as the dean of the University School of Management Studies, and has held numerous administrative roles, including director of development. She is currently the co-chairperson for accreditation and ranking for the university. She has been a visiting research scholar at Kobe University, Japan. Her experience there, along with teaching Slovakian students in 2012, provided unique insights into intercultural communication and cross-border partnerships.

Dr. Sinha has co-authored several journal publications with international researchers. She has presented her research at conferences, including the University of Manchester, UK, and the ITU Symposia on ICTs and climate change in London. In 2017, she was invited to conduct a masterclass on “Environment Law to Private Environmental Governance: Integrating Economics, Ecology, and Law” at an international conference at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. Dr. Sinha is a member of the Strategic Management Society and the Academy of Management. She is regularly invited by the state-owned broadcaster Rajya Sabha TV as an expert on issues of educational administration, including discussions on the internationalization of higher education and women empowerment in higher education.

Madhushree Sekher

Prof. Madhushree Sekher is at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). She is known internationally for her interdisciplinary research, being a recipient of the Australian Research Council (Discovery) grant, DFAT-Australia Awards fellowship, and grants from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI), ICSSR-Major Project grant, and the UGC-UKIERI Thematic Partnership Award. She represents TISS from India in a multi-university collaborative teaching program being led by Cornell University on ‘food-energy-water nexus.’ She is associated with an international research consortium on ethnic power relations which was funded by the Swiss Development Council and the Swiss National Science Foundation. She has been a visiting faculty at IFPRI-Washington, the University of Hohenheim-Stuttgart (Germany), the University of Sydney (Australia), and the Tata-Cornell Institute, Cornell University. She coordinated and led two training programmes for the Leadership for Academicians Program (LEAP) from TISS for the Ministry of Education, Government of India (2019, 2020), partnering with UPenn-GSE, Philadelphia. She has authored many research articles and books, including Feeding India: Livelihoods, Entitlements and Capabilities (Earthscan, 2013), Governance and Governed (Springer, 2017), and Including the Excluded in South Asia (Springer, 2019). She has a PhD in political science, and was a recipient of the World Bank Robert S. McNamara fellowship for post-doctoral research.

Sandip Rameshchandra Vasant

Prof. Sandip Rameshchandra Vasant is professor in computer science and engineering at the School of Engineering and Technology, and registrar at Navrachana University (NUV). He holds a PhD in computer science, and has over 20 years of experience in teaching, research, and academic and general administration in higher education. Prior to joining NUV, he was the registrar at Anant National University, Ahmedabad. He was instrumental in setting up systems, processes and policies of the university for effective and solution-oriented administration. Preceding his stint at Anant National University, he was heading the Office of the Academic Registrar at Ahmedabad University. He was responsible for strategic academic administration (planning and execution of academic processes), ensuring statutory compliances with UGC and the Government of Gujarat rules and guidelines, writing academic policies, designing the course catalogue, managing university courses, managing students’ life cycle at the university, and automation of academic processes for the Office of the Academic Registrar. He has taught courses such as object-oriented programming, open-source technology and software engineering at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Prof. Vasant has published over 15 research papers in national and international journals of repute, and has been instrumental in volunteering at various educational seminars and conferences. He has been invited as an expert on information technology to deliver sessions on ‘Effective Classroom Teaching and Learning using Information and Communication Technology’ to guide the trainers. Prof. Vasant has also served as vice-chairman and chairman at the Computer Society of India, Ahmedabad chapter, for the period of 2016-2017 and 2017-2018.

Soumini Raja

Prof. Soumini Raja is professor and head of the Department of Architecture at Avani Institute of Design, Kerala, and chairperson of the Board of Studies in Design at the University of Calicut. With over a decade of academic experience, she views design as an ongoing process involving dialogue and negotiation between society, culture, and the environment. She co-founded Studio Commune, and serves as its director of research. Prof. Raja holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Her doctoral research at CEPT University addressed human vulnerabilities to disasters in coastal regions using a human-nature co-evolutionary framework. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Council of Architecture Training and Research Centre Urban Studio Research Project Award (2022), the Indian Climate Research Network Research Award (2014), the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation Award (2008), and the Eklavya Education Foundation Scholarship of Excellence (2008). Prof. Raja has published extensively in national and international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. She collaborates with various educational institutions, NGOs, and governmental agencies in India. Additionally, she is a canine lover and a trained Kathakali artist.