People
Profiles of MRAP Participants
Bhagirath Behera
Dr. Bhagirath Behera is an assistant professor at IIT- Kharagpur- Humanities & Social Sciences Department. Prior to joining IIT-Kharagpur, he was affiliated with Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He has obtained Ph.D degree from University of Bonn, Germany. His core research area includes environmental and natural resource economics. He is an expert member of the board of studies in humanities at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India. Currently, he is the principal investigator of the Ministry of Rural Development sponsored project titled “Appraisal of procedures and processes of NREGA in Orissa”. Behera has research publications in both national and international referred journals including Asian Economic Review, European Journal of Development Research, Journal of Rural Development etc.
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Bhavna Mehta
Dr. Bhavna Mehta is a senior lecturer at the faculty of Social Work- M.S. University of Baroda. She is a qualified social worker with 20 years of experience in the field of social work and women studies. She has worked extensively on women’s issues in the areas of domestic violence, health, human rights, empowerment and development. She was instrumental in initiating a PG diploma course on social development and organization management wherein she currently teaches courses on gender, empowerment & development and social justice & human rights.
Dr. Mehta is associated with the Women’s Studies Research Centre of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. She was a core team member of the interdisciplinary project on gender, health and development funded by the Ford Foundation. She has also organized a number of gender sensitization training programs for several groups such as police, government officials, NGO functionaries, students etc. She is an executive committee member of Indian Association of Women’s Studies, Bombay Association of Trained Social Workers and a standing committee member of Women’s Studies Research Center, Honorary Program Director for Council of International Fellowship (CIF) for the city of Baroda.
Bijay Kumar Swain
Dr. B.K. Swain works as a professor & head at the Centre for Rural Credit & Development Banking, National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad. He is a faculty in the area of Banking and Finance. Swain was awarded with UGC Fellowship for his research programmes. He was also the recipient of C.H.Bhaba Research Fellowship from the Indian Banks Association, Mumbai for his pioneering work of “ Customer Satisfaction Index: Methodology and Construction”, which is implemented by all the public sector banks under instruction from the Government of India.
After joining as a probationary officer in the State Bank of India, he served the bank for more than 15 years in various senior managerial positions. Subsequently, he worked as the Joint Director of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, New Delhi for around 7 years. He was a Professor in the School of Management, KIIT University for more than 3 years.
Dr. Swain has published a few books and several articles in various reputed journals including IBA Bulletins, Professional Banker, CS Bulletins and other reputed journals of various professional bodies. At present, he is focusing on the domain of Rural Banking, Micro-Finance, Financial Inclusion and Rural Credit.
Biswa Swarup Misra
Dr. Biswa Swarup Misra is an Associate Professor in Economics in the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. He teaches courses in Economics and Finance. His research interests include Regional Growth Dynamics, Restructuring Strategies for Social Banking, Institutional Studies and Fiscal Policy apart from Macro Economic Modeling. Misra started his career as an Economist in the Union Bank of India in 2001. Subsequently he joined the economics research department of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2002. At present he is serving at XIMB on lien from the Reserve Bank of India. Before joining academics, Misra headed the research department in the Patna office of the RBI. He has been a core team member for the various research publications and resource person for policy documents of the RBI. He has also been a visiting faculty in the RBI’s training establishments. He has obtained his Ph. D. in Economics from Patna University. He is also a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance.
He is the author of the book ‘Regional Growth Dynamics in India in the Post-Economic Reform Period’ published by Palgrave Macmillan, UK. Misra has research publications in both national and international referred journals including Comparative Economic Studies, Applied Econometrics and International Development, Journal of Quantitative Economics, Reserve Bank’s Occasional Papers, Indian Economic Journal. His present research interest relates to functioning of primary credit cooperatives in India.
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Daniel Lazar
Dr. Daniel Lazar is on the faculty of the Department of Commerce, School of Management, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry. In addition to M.Com, M.Phil and Ph.D degrees, he is a qualified cost accountant with a professional MBA degree. His areas of specialization and research are: financial management including corporate finance, micro finance, international finance and stock markets. He is the recipient of the best researcher award for research in the area of financial management. Prior to his present affiliation, he worked for 18 years at Loyala College, Chennai. He has worked in Bhutan on deputation by Government of India under TCS of Colombo Plan.
Debabrata Das
Dr.Debabrata Das is an associate professor in Tezpur University (Central University )at Department of Business Administration. Before joining Tezpur University, he was affiliated with Gauhati University, Guwahati. He obtained his Masters in commerce from Gauhati University specializing in finance and Ph.D in Commerce from Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh. He has experience of over 13 years in teaching Financial Management, International Finance, Securities Analysis and Portfolio Management at post graduate level. Before joining Gauhati University, Dr.Das taught at Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh for a couple of years. His research interest and published works include areas of rural credit and microfinance, banking, insurance and capital market. Dr. Das has recently conducted a study on microfinance in north east India funded by ICSSR, New Delhi and presently working on Asymmetric information problem in insurance market ,a project sponsored by UGC, New Delhi.
Debabrata Lahiri
Dr. Debabrata Lahiri obtained Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics in 1978 from Banaras Hindu University in Agricultural Economics. He worked as a Farm Management Economist in Farm Management Data Unit (A World Bank Project) at Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar from June 1978 to November 1979. He worked with Operations Research Group (A Division of Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprise) as Research Executive (Agri.) from December 1978 to May 1981. From June 1981 onwards, he has been with Rural Development Centre at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. Presently, he is working as Associate Professor at IIT-Kharagpur.
Dr. Lahiri was assigned to Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand as a Seconded Faculty by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India from January 2005 to April 2005. Dr. Lahiri has worked on various research projects related to socio-economic, technology development and agricultural marketing, that are sponsored by various departments of Government of India and State Governments. Apart from his involvement with these research projects, he has also been actively engaged in several trainings and consultancy.
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Debashis Acharya
Debashis Acharya is an associate professor at the Department of Economics, University of Hyderabad. He has a PhD degree in monetary economics from the University of Hyderabad. Prior to joining the University of Hyderabad, he worked as an assistant professor at IIT- Madras and as a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh. Debashis has about 11 years of teaching and post PhD research experience. He has published in the areas of macro-monetary economics, banking and health policy in different journals including the Economic and Political Weekly, Indian Economic Journal, International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Banks and Bank Systems, and Journal of Health Management. For the last four years he is also engaged in research projects related to health sector reforms and financing as part of a consortium sponsored by the DFID, UK.
Indrani Roy Chowdhury
Dr. Indrani Roy Chowdhury is currently working as a Senior Assistant Professor at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) Central University. She teaches Microeconomic Theory , Quantitative Economics and Environmental Economics at the post graduate level. She has PhD degree in Economics from the Centre for International Trade & Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Prior to joining JMI, she worked as an Economist at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi, and as an Associate Fellow at the Council for Social Development (CSD), New Delhi.
Chowdhury has publications in reputed international journals like Bulletin of Economic Research, Keio Economic Studies, Group Decisions and Negotiations, Seoul Journal of Economics. Her broad areas of research interests include industrial Organization, environmental economics and development economics. In the recent years she has done research projects on Micro Finance in India sponsored by Planning and Policy Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute and Mizoram State Development Report sponsored by the Planning Commission.
Roy Chowdhury is interested in the institutional design issues of Micro Finance institutions. She has presented and participated in discussions on the issues of rural credit, agency problem, group lending and economics of microfinance in various conferences, workshops and other academic forums.
Lakshmi Kumar
Dr. Lakshmi Kumar is a Faculty at Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai. She has Master’s degree in Mathematics and Econometrics from the University of Madras and a Ph.D degree in Economics from IIT Madras. She has over 15 years of experience in research and teaching. Prior to joining IFMR, she worked in The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry as an economist for 3 years. Earlier, she taught economics in the graduate program in Rizvi College and Sophia College in Mumbai, and worked on several research projects at S P Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai.
She teaches Macro Economics, Managerial Economics, International Business and Financial Services at IFMR. Her research interest includes Macro Economics, specifically Banking, and Development. In banking sector, she is working in the areas of efficiency in banking, benchmarking in banking and general equilibrium modeling in banking. She is also working on gender dynamics in microfinance and developing micro insurance products for rural health insurance.
Mallikarjun Chandakavate
Dr. Chandakavate is currently working as a principal of Sri. Padmaraj College of Business Administration. He obtained Ph.D Degree in Economics from Gulbarga District. He carried out several research projects on microfinance and women empowerment. His research interests include impact evaluation of self help groups.
Mani A. Nandhi
Dr. Mani A. Nandhi is an Associate Professor at Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, Delhi. Nandhi obtained her Master’s in Commerce with specialization in Industrial Economics, Marketing and Human Relations Management from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi and a Ph.D in Management from the Faculty of Management Studies from University of Delhi. She has collaborated in several research studies for International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. Her research interests include development economics, micro credit with special reference to group credit, poverty reduction and empowerment of the poor.She has presented her research papers in a number of international economic conferences.
Manju Singh
Dr. Manju Singh is currently working at Council for Social Development, Hyderabad as a Professor. She was a fellow ICSSR and associate at Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. She obtained Ph.D in Economics from Sardar Patel Institute of Economics and Social Research, Ahmedabad. She has been an active researcher for the last 19 years, having gained wide experience in technology transfer, human development, gender studies and environment. She has more than two decades of PG teaching experience and also successfully supervised four doctoral students. She is a keen project planner, strategist and implementer of social and engineering projects. Her core area of interests include technology transfer, gender main streaming, educational innovation, capacity building of under possessed, environmental management and personal enrichment.
Dr. Singh has published several books and research papers. She is currently involved with two evaluation studies: an evaluation study on Rural Telephony on behalf of Planning commission and evaluation study on Mid Day Meal Programme in Meghalaya funded by Government of Meghalaya.
Rosina Nasir
Dr. Rosina Nasir is an anthropologist by training and presently, working as an Assistant Professor at Centre for the study of Social exclusion and inclusive policy, at the Central University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. She obtained her Master’s degree in Anthropology and Doctorate of philosophy in Anthropological Demography, Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi. She received fellowship support from Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment, Government of India, for one year training in integrated geriatric care.
Earlier, she has been engaged as a Research fellow in National Council of Education and Research Training (N.C.E.R.T) and Programme officer in Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) -London School of Economics (LSE) Health project, Mumbai. She also worked as a consultant for University College of London –Centre for the Study of developing societies Project, entitled “Comparative Electoral Ethnography”.
Nasir is interested in understanding the political context of different kinds of exclusion like social, financial, health, and educational and role of inclusive policy in this regard. Apart from this, she is keen to work on “Product Development”, especially health insurance product or other social security product, for the poor and other marginalized section of the society.
Shailendra Bisht
Shailendra Bisht is currently engaged in teaching and research at ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad. He is developing and testing a Service Acceptance Model (SAM) for new users. He has been involved in social and health projects for international donor agencies such as ORBIS. His engagement with the field of public policy and services marketing further deepened when he participated in a year-long visiting doctoral scholar program at Bentley University, Waltham, USA. He has developed and delivered a module on Labor Market Information for the ADB funded project on Life Skills Development for Govt. of Maldives in the year 2006. He was also a lead researcher for a study titled ” Improving Pediatric eye care services” for ORBIS International and actively contributed for Research design, Data analysis and report writing to determine the barriers to pediatric eye care study jointly conducted by CREED (Centre for Research and Education) and ORBIS International. He was actively involved with the study of Communication need assessment of men having sex with men (MSM) and female sex workers in Andhra Pradesh, HLFPPT project supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Shridhar Dash
Dr. Shridhar Dash did his Ph.D. in finance and has 14+ years of experience in research and corporate sector He is currently working as a professor at XIMB in Finance area. His teaching interests are in the area of Portfolio Management, Risk Management & Financial Management. He is currently pursuing research in the area of financial inclusion, Micro-equity and Entrepreneurship development.
Before joining XIMB he was Vice President and Head of Risk and Information Management at Reliance Retail – Membership, Finance and Travel Services. Dr. Dash also held the position of Sr. Vice President and Head, Decision Management for Citigroup India – Global Consumer Group and the position of Director, Credit Strategy in American Express – US Consumer and Small Business Services. He started his carrier in GE Capital and worked in many GE Capital businesses in the area of Business Analytics.
He has received BalckBelt certification from GE for his work and received chairman’s quality award in American Express and service quality award at Citigroup. In his research work he has published around 10 research based articles in referred international and national journals.
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Susmita Mukhopadhyay
Dr. Susmita Mukhopadhyay, is an assistant professor of human resource management and business ethics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. She has also been a research fellow at Indian Statistical Institute, an institute devoted to the research, teaching and application of statistics, natural sciences and social sciences. Mukhopadhyay has a Master’s in Industrial Psychology and Organizational Behaviour from University of Calcutta and a Ph.D in Organizational Behaviour from Indian Statistical Institute. She is the winner of Dr. Deva Senapathy Young Scientist Award by Indian Academy of Applied Psychology and “In search of Excellence” award by Pondicherry Psychology Association.
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Syed Aiman Raza
Dr. Aiman has a Ph.D in ‘Social Anthropology’ from University of Delhi. While working on the Kinnaurese tribal population in western Himalayas, he has researched on issues concerning environment and sustainable development, along with various dimensions of culture-environment nexus, which has helped this tribal group sustain the harsh cold climate of the Himalayas. Dr Aiman is also teaching at Department of Anthropology, Shia Degree College, Lucknow, India. He is also working on a project of Institute of Money Technology and Financial Inclusion, University of California, which studies how poor urban populations in third world countries, earning less than a dollar a day are able to manage their livelihoods. The study primarily focuses on social capital , including social networks.
Veerashekharappa
Dr. Veerashekharappa is currently working as an associate professor for Center for Economic Policy and Studies, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. He has obtained his Master and Ph.D degrees in Economics from Osmania University,Hyderabad. He has completed various research projects on rural finance, public health, water supply and sanitation, social capital, decentralization & development. He has published a book on Institutional Finance for Rural Development. He has published a number of working papers,articles in national as well as international journals, including Saving and Development. He worked as a consultant (community development programmer) for World Bank sponsored “Water Supply and Sanitation” project. He was also a faculty member at SIT Tumkur, where he taught MBA students, coordinated SCMRD research center, organized workshops and initiated an initiative to include Micro Finance in MBA curriculum. His research interests include development economics, including institutional economics, micro finance, public health, poverty reduction and empowerment of the poor.
MRAP Coordinator
Deepti Kc
Deepti Kc is currently working with Centre for Microfinance (CMF). At CMF, she coordinates Microfinance Researchers Alliance Program (MRAP). She has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from National Institute of Technology- Jaipur, India and Master’s degree in Environmental and Public Health Engineering from Oklahoma State University, US. Prior to joining CMF, she worked as a Project Coordinator at Columbia University Medical Center, New York where she oversaw a large population-based cohort study that focused on finding the relationship between the progression of cardiovascular disease and air pollution. She also has Executive Master’s degree in Fundraising Management and Nonprofit Administration from Columbia University.