Kiran Bhatty

Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research [CPR]

Dr Bhatty works on issues of institutional functioning in elementary education. She coordinates the PAGE [Public Accountability and Governance in Education] project at CPR, which is aimed at analyzing systems of data management, accountability and community monitoring in education, through action research. Her current research focuses on decentralized data systems for education, the response of the judiciary to implementing the RTE Act and an examination of the regulatory framework for education. She is also the founder-coordinator of The Forum for Deliberations in Education [The Forum] – a collaborative initiative that conducts a monthly seminar series on education. Prior to joining CPR she was the National Coordinator for RTE at the NCPCR- mandated to monitor the RTE Act. She has also worked as an Education specialist at UNICEF and on several research projects such as the PROBE report on Basic Education and the FOCUS report on early childhood care. Dr Bhatty will bring strong policy perspectives to the project and with her experience with policy and community networks bring ideas on dissemination of the project findings.

Farida Khan

Professor (Retired), Department of Education, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi; Member, National Minorities Commission

Prof Khan has been associated with teaching psychology, gender, curriculum studies and research methodology for over thirty years. She has written extensively in the areas of math education, teacher education and women's studies, and been associated with several academic committees in universities. She has been part of several national level committees and also a member of the National Commission on Minorities. Prof Khan would be able to substantively contribute to the project conceptually, methodologically and also give direction to framing its policy implications.

Pankaj Mittal

Additional Secretary, University Grants Commission; Former Vice Chancellor at Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat

Dr Pankaj Mittal, Additional Secretary, UGC is a Fulbright scholar and has been a topper in MSc and PhD in Agricultural Statistics from IARI, New Delhi. She has a wide-ranging experience of about three decades in Higher Education in the fields of Policy Planning and Management of Higher Education including Promotion of Access, Equity, Relevance, Quality and Human Resource Management. Dr Mittal was appointed as the first regular Vice Chancellor of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya at the age of 44 years. She was also the proud recipient of Fulbright Nehru Scholarship grant for Educational administrators in 2017 and of the Padamshree Subhashini Devi Award in 2018. Dr. Mittal has been a member of various Committees and Professional Bodies including Programme Advisory Board and HRM Network Steering Committee on Human Resource Management of Association of Common wealth Universities, London, Pay Review Committee for University and College teachers in Haryana, Kerala State Council for Higher Education, Rehabilitation Council of India, Haryana State Council for Higher Education and Haryana Innovation Council. She has published a number of papers, articles, occasional papers and reports on issues relating to higher education and women empowerment in national and international journals.

Claire Noronha

Founding Member and Director of Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD)

Claire Noronha has experience in doing field-based research in education in India for over 15 years. She was a member of the PROBE team which conducted the research and analysis for the landmark Public Report on Basic Education (PROBE) (Oxford University Press, 1999). With CORD she has been researching issues related to private schools for the poor for over a decade in several studies ranging from a field study of private schools in three northern states in 1999, to the exploratory study done with Professor Prachi Srivastava of the University of Ottawa. She was Principal Investigator for the work in India of the RECOUP research consortium (2005-2010) which focused on improving education outcomes for disadvantaged young people. She has also published widely including the work, ‘Schooling and Domestic Transitions: Shifting Gender Relations and Female Agency in Rural Ghana and India’, with Madelaine Arnot and Patricia Jeffrey in Comparative Education. She would bring strong policy and research perspective to the project with her wide experience of research including surveys and attention to the field. Further, we may draw upon her for dissemination of the project findings.

Ratna M. Sudarshan

Former Fellow, NUEPA; Trustee: Institute of Social Studies Trust New Delhi

Ratna M. Sudarshan is a feminist scholar specialising in gender, education and work. She is a former fellow of NUEPA and former Director of Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST), New Delhi. Ratna M. Sudarshan is currently serving as a trustee of ISST, and is also associated in an advisory capacity with other organizations working on issues of education, work, gender and development. The research with which she has been associated is fieldwork based and attempts to connect practitioner experience with policy discussions. Ratna M. Sudarshan will bring with her the experience on multiple ways to bridge the gaps between research, action and policy.

Asha Singh

Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences (Emerita), Principal Magadh Mahila College, and Former HOD of Economics (Emerita), Patna University, Patna

Professor Asha Singh is an alumna of Patna Women’s College at Patna University and was a Lecturer at Magadh Mahila College in the Economics Department from 1974. She completed her Doctoral Research in 1982 on “Poverty in English Economic Thought – from Adam Smith to Arthur Cecil Pigou”. Her academic career has lasted more than 44 years, during which she has guided 11 students through their doctoral programmes. Asha helped with the development of as well as founded and coordinated several B. Com and BBA courses. In addition to her numerous publications in books and journals, Asha was also the organizing secretary of an International Conference on ‘Youth Unemployment in India: Dimensions, Challenges and Strategies’ and of a seminar on ‘Social Security for Unorganized Workers in India’. She recently participated in a project on "Reforming Higher Education for Civic Learning and Community Engagement: Diversity and Discrimination in Higher Educational Institutions in Bihar" undertaken by NIEPA (CPRHE) jointly with the ICSSR, New Delhi. She worked as the Project Team Leader for Bihar state.