Dr. Singh served as Associate Professor at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID). He brings over 32 years of extensive experience in research, training, and development. His expertise spans participatory rural governance, agriculture, water and irrigation, economic evaluations, decentralized planning, and capacity building. With significant contributions to policy-making, consultancy, and project evaluations, Dr. Singh has a strong focus on social development, particularly in Social Impact Assessments (SIA), Social Management Plans (SMP), and Resettlement Action Plans (RAP).

Dr. Singh has led and contributed to multiple Social Impact Assessment studies (SIA), focusing on land acquisition, community impacts, and mitigation strategies in compliance with the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. These assesments involved community consultations, data analysis, and preparation of comprehensive reports to facilitate informed decision-making while minimizing negative impacts on local populations.

Dr. Singh has extensive experience in community mobilization, participatory planning, and capacity building that has directly supported design and implementation of Social Management Plans (SMP) and Resettlement Action Plans (RAP). His work in agriculture, contract farming, water efficiency, and diversification offers valuable insights for mitigating the socio-economic impacts of land acquisition and infrastructure projects. He has undertaken several Multilateral Social development Projects towards Participatory Planning and Development.

Mr. Ajit Kumar is a passionate social worker and advocate for empowerment of the disadvantaged sections of the society. Believing that learning is the foundation of dignity and opportunity, he has dedicated years towards empowering the poor and marginalised students through education. Equally committed to social justice, he has been actively engaged in advocating for the health and welfare rights of farm workers, working at the intersection of research, policy, and community engagement. With empathy, vision, and unwavering commitment, Mr. Kumar provides strategic leadership to IRDF in pursuit of its mission of equitable, just and sustainable growth.

Ms. Chandra Kala holds extensive experience of working relentlessly for women’s empowerment and community mobilisation. Over the years, she has worked closely with grassroots organisations like Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) and marginalised communities, creating platforms for collective action, financial inclusion, and social justice. With a vision for strengthening women’s leadership, promoting livelihood opportunities, and addressing systemic inequalities, she has been instrumental in designing programmes that uplift vulnerable groups and enable them to participate fully in social and economic life.

Mr. Thakur is a dynamic development professional with expertise in the fields of sustainable agriculture practices, rural development programmes, rural livelihood promotion especially women’s entrepreneurship and youth empowerment. He holds extensive experience in conducting field based primary research. He oversees integrated research, capacity building programmes, advocacy initiatives and innovative practices to strengthen communities, enhance livelihoods, and inspire the next generation of change-makers.

Ms. Aishwarya is a versatile professional with specialisation in women’s reproductive health, arts and crafts, digital marketing and corporate branding. Being instrumental in blending social development knowledge with creative and market-oriented skills, she supports programmes aimed at empowering women, preserve cultural traditions, media outreach and connects communities to new opportunities in the digital and corporate space.

Ms Kaur is a dedicated development professional specialising in mental health, urban slum development, water and sanitation and community networking. She has a deep interest in creative writing and eloquently uses it as a tool for awareness and advocacy. She combines research and outreach to design impactful programmes that address social issues and give voice to marginalised communities.

Academic accomplishments of Professor Ghosh extend over decades of commitment to academics with varied research interests. Presently, he is Senior Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. After finishing his studies at JNU, New Delhi, he began his professional career at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, where he served as the Research Director for several years and later joined as Professor of South Asian Studies at JNU. Apart from holding several visiting Professorial positions in India and abroad, he also served as a Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi and ICSSR National Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He was also a member of the Central Board of Film Certification at its New Delhi chapter and a member of the international teams that observed the local provincial, parliamentary and presidential elections in Sri Lanka during 1991–94 are a testimony to his versatility. A sound political analyst in his own right, the opportunity of working at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, as a Humboldt Fellow and a Ford Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security (ACDIS), University of Illinois, USA, are among the major highlights of his career.

There is an array of publications that Professor Ghosh has to his name. With the spirit of being a student eager to learn more, Professor Ghosh also explored several new domains of interest like migration, ethnicity, majority–minority relations and regional cooperation. Throughout he has been commenting on contemporary domestic and international socio-political issues through his writings.

An eminent Economist, Professor Ghuman is Professor of Eminence at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and a Member of High-Powered Committee on Agrarian Reforms constituted by Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. With an academic career spanning over 46 years, he fulfilled various roles and responsibilities throughout his academic career serving at many prestigious institutions including Punjabi University, Patiala; Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh. He has also been the Chairman, Punjab Government Committee on Minimum Support Price and Member State Advisory Committee of Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission etc.

Professor Ghuman has numerous publications and research projects in his areas of research interest on development economics, global economic issues, water resource, corporate social responsibility; socio-economic development in Rural India and drug addiction and abuse in north-west India.

Dr. Pankaj is a Professor and former Director at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. His areas of interest and research are: law and political economy of development in India, with a focus on public policy, institutions of governance and development, and interface between democracy and development. He is a keen observer of rural society of India, and closely follows rural development and social welfare programmes, especially MGNREGA, NRLM, NSAP. He has conducted about two dozen sponsored field based studies on socio-economic developments, especially on employment, education and social sector development. He has published seven books; five in English and two in Hindi. In English: ‘Inclusive Development through Guaranteed Employment: India’s MGNREGA Experiences’ (Springer, 2023); (ed) ‘Right to Work and Rural India: Working of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)’, (Sage, 2012); (ed) ‘Subalternity, Exclusion and Social Change in India’, (Cambridge University Press, 2014); (ed) ‘Dalits, Subalternity and Social Change in India’, (Routledge, 2018); and (ed) ‘Social Sector Development in North-east India’, (Sage, 2020). In Hindi: लोहिया के सपनों का भारत: भारतीय समाजवाद की रूपरेखा’ (Lohia Ke Sapno Ka Bharat: Bhartiya Samajwad Ki Ruprekha’), (Lokbharati Prakashan, 2024) and राममनोहर लोहिया: भारत की हिमालय नीति (‘Rammanohar Lohia: India’s Himalaya Policy’) (Lokbharati Prakashan, 2025). Apart from serving on editorial boards of professional journals, he has regularly contributed research articles and book review to professional journals.

For the last 25 years, Professor Jayanti Dutta has been an integral part of the academic ecosystem of Panjab University, Chandigarh. She is a Professor in the Human Resource Development Centre. Originally with a background and training in biological sciences, she traversed into the domain of professional development of educators in higher education by encouraging and training them in transformative pedagogical practices. She has experience working with more than 5000 teachers and mentoring more than 100 professional development programmes. In 25 years of her academic journey, she performed varied roles in teaching, research, academic administration, governance and activism. Her publications, based on interdisciplinary exploration, move between research in areas of biology, higher education and public health, creative non-fiction, book criticism and science popularisation. Her research areas have been public health, higher education faculty training and science popularization. She has been the recipient of a National Award for her film on Tuberculosis, conferred by the CSIR, New Delhi.

Shri Prabodh Kumar is a senior law enforcement professional with a career spanning over 36 years of service in the Indian Police Service. Beginning his career in the Punjab cadre in 1988, he superannuated in January 2025 from the rank of Director General of Police, Punjab. Following superannuation, he continues to head Punjab and Haryana High Court–monitored Special Investigation Team. During his career, he headed police administration of multiple districts of Punjab, served as Director of the Punjab Bureau of Investigation and spent fourteen years with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in senior leadership positions.

His passion for academic excellence is reflective of his journey in higher education. He holds a degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, postgraduate degrees in Sociology and History and is currently pursuing Ph.D. on migrant construction workers’ access to the criminal justice system. His professional interests include urban policing, human rights, ethics in governance, transnational organised crime and police reforms. He has published work on human rights and regularly contributes as a guest faculty at premier national training institutions.

Professor Jeong is a distinguished environmental sociologist and educator with decades of experience in research, teaching and policy engagement on climate change and sustainable development. Currently, he is the Director, Asia Climate Change Education Centre, South Korea and Emeritus Professor, Environmental Sociology, Jeju National University.

He holds Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees in Sociology from Korea University and PhD in Environmental Sociology from The University of Queensland, Australia. Throughout his career he has served at important positions as Professor, Jeju National University, President, Asia-Pacific Sociological Association and Visiting Teaching Professor, the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. He represented South Korea at the UNFCCC and OECD environmental meetings and has been a member of the Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development. He has made substantial contributions in research and publications related to environment and climate change.

Shri Koirala is a specialist in Public Finance, Fiscal Federalism, Local Economic Development and Infrastructure Investment in Nepal. He holds an M.Phil. degree in Public Administration and an MBA from Tribhuvan University and courses on Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations and Decentralization (Hungary & Spain) and training in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Infrastructure Finance and Climate Change (Singapore & South Korea). With more than 24 years of professional experience, he has been supporting policy reforms, involved in institutional strengthening, strategic partnerships and capacity building to promote effective decentralised and democratic governance system in his country. He contributed extensively to the study of local self-governance and fiscal federalism during Nepal’s state restructuring and constitution-building process (2007–2015).

Dr. Garai teaches at the Department of Sociology, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. With decades of teaching and research experience, Dr. Joydeb’s academic interests range from climate change adaptation and its policy implications, indigenous people and community development, disaster management, gender, development and sustainable livelihoods. Garai, has over the years worked on the adaptation procedure of indigenous people to climate change during the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Garai is a regular reviewer of high-quality national & international journals. Joydeb has published many works in different high-quality international journals. Dr. Garai has been a frequent contributor of his research findings at different national and international academic and public policy platforms and is open to collaboration at both national and global levels.

Dr. Jamal's academic and professional journey reflects a deep dedication to the field of human biology, ecology and environment. Her expertise spans both scientific research and pedagogy and successfully blends academia and social activism. Besides her more than two and a half of active social engagements, she presently teaches at the Government College, Malerkotla, Punjab. In recognition of her decades of excellence in teaching, she was conferred with the Best Teacher Award from CT University in 2016. Her engagement in academic discourse is evident from a robust participation in national and international seminars and conferences. She has authored and co-edited books on maternal health and environments as also contributed to multiple peer-reviewed journals particularly focusing on preeclampsia, minority education, and climate awareness. Dr. Jamal truly exemplifies integration of research, education, and community service in her life and career.