Institute for Social Engineering

Management Team

Dr. Arunashree Panda

Dr. BinoPaul G. D.

Bino Paul G D is an economist. Currently, He is an Assistant Professor at TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Karnataka, India. Before joining TAPMI in June, 2004, he was on the faculty of School of Management and Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai during 2001-2004. He had a six months stint with Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur as a visiting faculty in 2004. He holds Ph D in Economics and M. Phil in Planning and Development from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He has done MA in Development Economics from Department of Economics, University of Calicut, India. His research focuses consist of Economics of Science, Regional Development, and Economic Systems.

Chirag Kantharia

Dr. Chithprabha Kudlu

Chithprabha is currently engaged in research on ethno medical traditions, and the emerging trends in commodification of indigenous medical traditions. Prior to this, she was member of the faculty of Center for Education Studies of the Indian Institute of Education Pune. Chithprabha has earned her PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Psychology, where she focussed on the talent education.

Dr. T. Karunakaran

Dr T. Karunakaran is the Vice Chancellor of Gandhigram Rural University. He carries the rich experience of having served two terms as the Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Rural Development University, Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh - the latter being the only other rural university in the country. After his basic degree in Electrical Engineering, Dr.T.Karunakaran had the rare distinction of serving in four IITs of the country for nearly 19 years in various capacities. After 13 years in IIT Delhi, Kanpur, and Mumbai, he took up his assignment in IIT Madras in 1982 with the mission of creating rural employment though appropriate technology. He served as the planning officer of the famous RICHES (Rural Industries Community Housing and Essential Services) project initially conceived by Professor P.V. Indiresan. This concept has been reshaped and enriched as PURA (Provision of Urban-amenities in Rural Areas) by His Excellency Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India. In 1987, Dr.T.Karunakaran, joined the Gandhigram Rural Institute as Director of Rural Technology Centre and successfully developed a Technology Resource Center Model and Rural Growth Networking Processes aspects of which have been recently implemented in 20 blocks of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar under the auspices of UNDP in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Dr.T.Karunakaran, has served in a large number of international fora and national committees. He served as the advisor to Flensburg University Germany and a number of national missions and task forces - the latest being the National Literacy Mission. He has won a number of recognitions the latest being the award by the Educators of the World USA for his contributions to fast-literacy process through `morphological-sequence approach'. His experiments in leading an unlettered to a stage of involvement in high-tech products have resulted in certain `technocracy packages' His experiments by living in a tribal hut in Valayapatty village for ten years have been documented in a Penguin book by the well-known author Rajni Bakshi. His innovations are well documented in Scandinavian countries like Denmark. He has visited and lectured in over ten countries. But he hopes to create a process of ``instruction through construction'' where societal entrepreneurs capable of providing true leadership will emerge.

Shailaja Paik

Shailaja is a Ford scholar with her research interests in Women's Issues, Dalit Studies, Subaltern Studies. Shailaja is currently on a Special Standing Student Fellowship with Emory University, Atlanta, USA. She is a historian by academic training. She served as a Lecturer in History with Kirti College, Mumbai for seven years. Later with the Indian Council of Social Sciences and Research Doctoral fellowship, she started working with the issues of Dalit Women in Pune. Interacting with these Dalit women to understand their lives she provoked them to be vocal about their experiences. This was a new experience for her which got her back into the community. Talking to them, lending them an ear, sharing their joys and sorrows brought her very close to them and made her recover the `lost voices' of these women in history and try to get to their `guarded secrets'. Currently she is pursuing her doctoral research with the University of Warwick in the UK. Her current research is about Dalit women's oral history focusing on their narratives of education so as to understand the process and outcomes of education. Education is an extremely crucial tool for mental and moral empowerment. It has a special significance for the disadvantaged in the society and has brought about immense benefits to the Dalits. She is also interested in the practical implications of education for the `slave of the slaves'-- Dalit woman. This exercise has improved her network and enabled her to interact with lecturers, social activists, social workers, Non-Government Organisations working for women, Dalit Women, and children. Shailaja is the founder member of a project which has started an English medium school (Dnyandeep English Medium School) in a remote village near her native place.

Sony Pelliswey

Sony Pellissery is a public policy analyst and researcher, specialising in social welfare policies in developing/transition countries. His work focuses on how market and social structures influence the local state and policy implementation. Prior to his research career, he lived among the Bhil adivasi community in Satpura hills (in the state of Maharashtra, India) for more than two years (1997-99) to mobilise them, and to facilitate their aspirations for welfare rights. Later, he completed his M.Phil. (Planning and Development) from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Currently, Sony is completing his doctoral research at Oxford University on Ford Foundation International Fellowship.