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Board & Advisors

Meet our leadership.

Our Governing Body

Dr. N.V. Varghese

Chairperson

Prof. (Dr.) N.V. Varghese is the former Vice Chancellor of National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi. He was the Founding Director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE/NIEPA), New Delhi (2013-2019) and Head of Governance and Management in Education at the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP/UNESCO), Paris (2006- 2013). He was responsible for managing the Asian Network of Training and Research Institutions in Educational Planning (ANTRIEP).
He has been a member of several International boards and committees and editorial boards of Journals. He is also the Chief Editor of the Journal for Educational Planning and Administration. He has directed several national and international research projects; carried out research projects in several countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America region; published more than 30 books and research reports, and more than 200 research papers and articles in academic Journals in the areas related to educational planning, financing and higher education. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics with specialisation in educational planning.

Dr. Farida Abdulla Khan

Vice Chairperson

Dr. Farida Abdulla Khan is a former professor and Dean at the Department of Educational Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University. She was also the managing editor of Contemporary Dialogues in Education by Sage. She has a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology and has taught in many institutes, including Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She is a former member of the National Commission for Minorities.
In 2011, she was appointed as a member of the Task Force on Research and Evaluation by the National Advisory Council. Her research interests include: Cognition in social contexts; Mathematics education; Exclusion in Education: Issues of gender, class and community.

Dayaram

Secretary

Dayaram is the Executive Director of ASPIRE. He served as the Education Head of the Aga Khan Foundation, New Delhi, for six years. He also served as the Chief Consultant for 7 years in the Alternative Schooling Unit of the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a flagship programme of the Government of India for Universalisation of Elementary Education. Dayaram has an M.A in Sociology and an M.Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
His areas of interest are enhancing the quality of the public school education system, including decentralised planning and management of schools, innovative classroom practices, community participation and ownership, education of marginalised children, and evolving sustainable and replicable models of school improvement.

Binoy Acharya

Treasurer

Binoy Acharya is the Founder Director of UNNATI – an NGO working towards building an inclusive and democratic society. He has worked as a researcher and public educator to promote social inclusion and democratic local governance. He also plays a consultative role to a wide range of institutions locally and internationally, like Dalit Adhikar Abhiyaan in Rajasthan, Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan and Gender Resource Centre in Gujarat, National Platform for Decentralised Governance, Members, Working Group, Governance and Democracy programme of the Commonwealth Foundation to mention a few. He holds an M.Phil degree in Social Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Dr. Madhumita Bandyopadhay

Member, Co-Founder

Prof. (Dr.) Madhumita Bandyopadhyay is a professor at the Department of School and Non-Formal Education, NIEPA. She holds a Ph.D in Geography from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and is a visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK. She has vast experience working with NGOs and research institutes on various development issues with special focus on gender, health, education, sustainable livelihood, poverty, and tribal development.
She is the lead researcher on a DFID funded international consortium on research on educational, access, transition and equity in which NIEPA is a partner institute together with University of Sussex. Her areas of interests include policy analysis, decentralised planning and management, and education of girls and deprived groups.

Dr. Swati Jha

Member

Swati Jha, Ph.D. is the Project Director for the Learning and Migration Program (LAMP) at the American India Foundation’s India country office since 2018. Dr. Swati has two decades of experience in the development sector and has previously worked with ASPIRE. She has also worked with NEG-FIRE, AIF’s Digital Equaliser program, and Hole-in-the Wall Education project.

Dr. Amita Govinda

Member

Amita Govinda holds a Masters Degree in Sociology and Education, and a Ph.D. from M.S. University, Baroda. The focus of her work for the past four decades has been on creating caring classrooms with the use of innovative pedagogies through teaching and training educators. She has conducted extensive field studies in early childhood and primary education in urban and rural areas of India. She has also published a training handbook and an activity bank for pre-school education programmes.

Danger Kalyan Vajsurbhai

Member

Kalyan Dangar is the Director at Swadeep (Swadeep Shikshan Vikas Sanstha). He holds a MRS Master in Rural Study and has more than 21 years of experience in the developmental sector. He has undertaken implementation and rapid assessment with different projects. He is also a trainer on education, team building, project management, participatory approaches, and Right to Education.

Dr. N. Uppender Reddy

Member

Dr. Upender Reddy is currently a member of the state advisory group on curriculum reform and textbook development in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. He is also working as an advisor at the Centre for Innovation in Public Systems (CIPS) in Administrative Staff College of India. Previously, he was a professor and head of the Department of Curriculum, Textbooks and People Assessment Procedures at SCERT, Hyderabad. He has also worked as an advisor on educational reforms at the Department of School Education, Telangana and as an academic specialist at Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education.

Prof. Pushpendra Kumar Singh

Member

Prof. Pushpendra is Professor and Chairperson of the Centre for Development Practice and Research, a Patna-based centre of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. A sociologist by training, he has a distinct career in diverse fields. He has worked with various academic institutions, international development NGOs, and grassroots organisations. Prof. Pushpendra worked with the ActionAid International at its offices in Patna, Brussels, and Colombo in various capacities (2000-2006). He also worked as a researcher with the Planning Division, UNICEF, New Delhi. He is a life member of the Indian Sociological Society and the Indian Society of Labour Economics.

Dr. Om Prakash Kulhari

Member

Dr. Om Prakash is the Secretary and Executive Director of the NGO CULP – Centre for Unfolding Learning Potentials, which works to ensure quality education for children from excluded communities in rural Rajasthan since 2001. Previously, he was part of the professional group in education to provide technical support to the government’s innovative education projects (mainly Shikshakarni, Lok Jumbish, and Janshala) for universalisation of elementary education in Rajasthan. He has published in national and international journals and has conducted 35 research studies with the Indian government, UN agencies, and international NGOs. He has a Ph.D. in Botany from University of Rajasthan.

Advisory Board

Dr. Shantha Sinha

Prof. (Dr.) Shantha Sinha is a leading child rights activist of international reputation. She is the founder of Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation, popularly known as MV Foundation, a rights based grass root level NGO operating out of Hyderabad, which has withdrawn over 10,00,000 children from work and put them into schools. She served as a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad.

She has served on various boards and influenced policy at local and national level. Notably as Member, Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE), Member, National Steering Committee, NCERT, Chairperson, National Focus Group on ‘Systemic Reforms in Curriculum Change’ (NCERT), Member, National Resource Group (NRG) for Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education (EGS&AIE) under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, Member, Board, Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Academy, Govt. of India, Ministry of Home Affairs), Member-Managing Body, Indian Red Cross Society, Member, Executive Committee, National Institute of Rural Development, Govt. of India, Member, Sub Committee on Women and Child Labour, National Labour Commission, Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India, Member, Grants in Aid Committee, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Life Trustee, Andhra Mahila Sabha to name a few.

She was nominated as the first Chairperson of the National Commission for Child Rights (NCPCR) in the year 2007 and served two terms in that position until 2013. She laid the foundation for NCPCR and built institutional and lasting mechanisms, structures and processes for monitoring children’s rights across 31 states covering 420 million children.

In 1998 she won the Rotary India Award for Elimination of Child Labour, Rotary Awards for service to Humanity (India) Trust. The same year she was awarded the Albert Shanker International Award by Education International in recognition of outstanding personal contribution for education, at Washington D.C. In 1998 she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India which is one of the highest civilian awards, and also won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 2003 that is considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. She was awarded the “Goldene Feder” Award by Bauer Publishing House, Germany in 2007.

Prof. Shyam B Menon

Prof. Shyam B Menon is currently the Vice Chancellor of BML Munjal University. He was also the Chairman of the Commission for Reforms in Higher Education constituted by the Government of Kerala. Previously, he was Professor at the University of Delhi in its Central Institute of Education. He was the Vice Chancellor of the Dr BR Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) during 2008-2018.

He had been Dean, Faculty of Education and the Proctor of the University of Delhi and earlier Director, School of Education, Indira Gandhi National Open University and Professor at the Central Institute of Educational Technology, NCERT.

He began his teaching career in 1982 at the M.S. University of Baroda where he taught for several years. His education was at the University of Kerala and at the M.S. University of Baroda. He was later at the University of Wisconsin, Madison as a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow. His work has mainly been in Curriculum Studies, Higher Education and Teacher Education. 

Dr. Dhir Jhingran

Dr. Dhir Jhingran is the Founder Director of Language and Learning Foundation. He has worked in the primary education sector for over two decades, within and outside the government. As an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, he served as Principal Secretary, Education with the Government of Assam and as Director in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Mission Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as well as the District Primary Education Programme.
In addition, he has handled several other profiles, such as Senior Advisor to UNICEF India, Asia Regional Director and Chief Program Officer with Room to Read and Country Director, TESS India. He has made significant contributions to the development and implementation of early grade reading programs in several countries in Asia and Africa and several states in India. Dr. Jhingran has authored two books based on empirical researches in primary education that he conducted and has contributed to many books and journals.

Shankar Venkateswaran

Shankar Venkateswaran has about 35 years of experience of working in the corporate and social development sectors. He started his career in mainstream management consulting before going on to set up Partners in Change, a pioneering non-profit specialising in corporate sustainability. He set up the India office of the American India Foundation and served as its Executive Director, India and Director of the think-tank and consultancy firm, SustainAbility, before joining PwC as Director, Sustainability. In 2017, he retired as Chief of Tata Sustainability Group. Shankar has held board and advisory positions with several non-profits and academic institutions in India and overseas.

Prof. Rajeev Malhotra

Prof. Rajeev Malhotra bridges the world of academics and policy making. A development economist and a civil servant with over 28 years of experience, he has worked with the Government of India, where until August 2012 he was Economic Adviser to the then Union Finance Minister. From 2002 to 2008, he worked at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and prior to that at the Planning Commission, New Delhi. Over the years, he has been a consultant to several international organisations.
He has expertise in macroeconomic issues in development policy, fiscal policy and budgeting, planning, monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessments, poverty estimation and human development, and human rights and development. He has led research on human rights and rights sensitive development indicators at the UN and is recognised as an international expert on that subject.

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