Faculty

Anunaya Rajhans is currently a PhD candidate at the Media Studies department, University of Amsterdam, where he studies internet memes; esp. meme culture in India and its impact on public and democratic discourse. His research involves browsing memes across platforms and borrows from practices across media & culture studies, anthropology, critical theory, digital methods and anthropology. He has taught writing, communication and critical thinking courses at the Young India Fellowship and the Plaksha Tech Leaders Programme. He runs a lit-pop magazine called Pendora. He is convinced that the internet and the classroom are the places where he truly belongs.

After a 30-year career as a restaurant manager and owner, Eric attained an MBA from Missouri State University and a PhD in Organizational Communication from UCSB. His research interest focused on team dynamics, leadership, and workplace relationships. He currently lectures in the Technology Management Department at UCSB, working with both undergraduate and graduate students on entrepreneurship, management, leadership, strategy, communication, and persuasion. As a consultant, Eric works with a wide range of organizations on leadership development, team building, and strategy, as well as with small businesses tackling challenges such as market-validating a business idea to assessing how to expand to multiple locations. Eric is also a regular presenter on LinkedIn Learning.

Gaurav Saini is a theatre trainer, actor, director, and short-film maker. He conducts a range of workshops in theatre and theatre therapy for individuals as well as institutions. He started his journey in theatre with Barry John, first as a student of acting and then as an assistant teacher.  

Nandini Nair is the literary and culture editor of Open magazine. She has worked as a writer and commissioning editor in the feature sections of The Indian Express and The Hindu. She writes on social and cultural issues.

Presently, founder Rcube Ventures a platform for sustainable products and livelihoods, Angel Investor with India’s leading Angel Network IAN, Communication Advisor – Integrated Mountains Initiative, Centre For Excellence IIT Delhi. Guest Faculty for business schools on the topics of Corporate Communication, Public Relations .Non – Executive Member at Muskaan, NGO for the Intellectually Disabled. Formerly, CEO at NewsCorp VCCircle, COO at Godfrey Phillips India Ltd and VP at DDB Mudra Communications Ltd.

Pushpa Nair is a marketing and communication professional with over 25 years of experience in PR consulting, corporate communications, and marketing. Her specialties include Integrated marketing strategy, public relations and communication strategy and implementation, brand building, media sensitization and message development for spokespersons. She is currently an adjunct faculty at Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication and a guesst faculty at Vedica Scholars Programme for Women.

Sandeep Sen is an Education Consultant, Editor, and Writer. He has over 10 years of experience in Media and Education. Sandeep has conducted over 150 sessions, worked with an audience of over 10,000 students and professionals on their Professional Communication. With a dedicated focus on improving communications, his career goal is to enable his students to communicate effectively. In this endeavour, he has served as the Managing Editor of Higher Education Review for over 3 years. In 2017, he was selected for the Young India Fellowship and continued to pursue his love for writing. He then joined the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women in 2019 and served as the Head of the Writing and Communications Centre till 2021. Currently, he is an Educator who specializes in Professional Communication and a consultant who works with various organizations driving strategic initiatives and programme management.

Anunaya Chaubey is a well-known artist and former Principal of the College of Arts & Crafts, Patna University. Dr Chaubey also taught English Literature at Patna University. For his Doctoral thesis Dr Chaubey worked on Ezra Pound’s critical theories and practice. -The natural object is always the adequate symbol,’ is one of his favourite Poundean precepts. A self-taught painter, he has had a few exhibitions of his paintings in India and Canada. Many paintings of his are to be found in private and public collections the world over. In 2008, he was invited by the Government of Mauritius as a Visiting Fellow to set up the department of Arts and Crafts at the Rabindranath Tagore Institute. Prof. Anunaya Chaubey, is also the Deputy Dean of the Young India Fellowship Programme and looks over all the Marketing and Admissions activities at YIF. He also teaches a course in - Painting and Art Appreciation’ under The Visual and Performing Arts Minor at Ashoka University.

Apurv Kumar Mishra is a visiting faculty at Vedica. He works as the Editor-in-Chief of India Law Journal and Senior Research Fellow at India Foundation. He is also a visiting Faculty of Law at Ashoka University and Consultant at University of Chicago India Centre. Apurv is a member of the Executive Council, Institute of Leadership and Governance at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda and teaches courses on law at several institutions including Gandhinagar National Law University, Maharashtra National Law University and National Law Institute University Bhopal. Apurv is a founding member of Robin Hood Army (RHA) - a voluntary organisation of young professionals and students that works to get surplus food from restaurants across to the less fortunate people in 42 cities across 12 countries. He has previously worked at Albright Stonebridge Group- a Washington-based strategic advisory firm and Mumbai office of law firm Amarchand & Mangaldas. Apurv is an alumnus of Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University and has a degree in law from National Law Institute University, Bhopal.

Yugank Goyal is associate professor in public policy at FLAME University where he is the director of Centre for Knowledge Alternatives that works on district level data and cultures. He pursued his masters and doctoral studies in law and economics as Erasmus Mundus Scholar from Europe. He was a founding faculty member of OP Jindal Global University. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant on rural development projects in a major bank. He routinely engages with government on public policy issues and has published in peer reviewed international journals as well as national dailies on policy, law and development, and psephology. He is passionate about rural education and has recently set up a school in rural western UP.

Meena is a social entrepreneur (founder of niiti consulting and Questera Foundation) and  a management consultant specializing in marketing and change management strategies for corporate and social sector alike. A double Masters’ with degrees in Biotechnology and Management as well as a certificate in Social Entrepreneurship. Her rich 28+ years of experience working across industry sectors in senior management and leadership roles sit lightly on her. She has published many papers and articles and has contributed to several management case studies including some for Harvard Business School and INSEAD. Meena is also a passionate musician and a travel bug!

Meena is a social entrepreneur and management consultant specialising in marketing and change management strategies. She has over 27 years of experience working across industry sectors in senior management and leadership capacities. She has several publications to her name and has contributed to several management case studies including some for Harvard Business School and INSEAD. She curates a citizen conversation platform called Knowledge Factory and a podcast on finding solutions for social challenges called Social Groove. Meena is also a passionate musician and a travel bug!

Meenakshi Gopinath is a Fulbright Scholar, a Padma Shri Awardee and an educationist. She retired as the Principal of Lady Shri Ram College in 2014, which is rated amongst the best institutions of higher learning in India. She is also the Founder and Honorary Director of WISCOMP (Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace).

Dr. Parul Bansal is a committed academic, deeply invested in reflecting, teaching, researching and writing about psychological matters.

Surinder S. Jodhka is  a Professor of Sociology at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He researches on social inequalities, caste in contemporary times, rural/agrarian change, and sociology of community identities. His recent publications include India’s Villages in the 21 st Century: Revisits and Revisions (with Edward Simpson OUP:2019); Mapping the Elite: Power, Privilege and Inequality (with Jules Naudet. OUP:2019); A Handbook of Rural India (OBS 2018.); Contested Hierarchies: Caste and Power in 21 st Century (with James Manor OBS:2018); The Indian Middle-Class (with Aseem Prakash OUP:2016); Caste in Contemporary India (Routledge:2015); Caste (OISI/OUP 2012). He is also a recipient of the ICSSR-Amartya Sen Award for Distinguished Social Scientists, 2012.

Dr. Pronab Sen is currently the Country Director for the International Growth Centre’s India Programme, on the faculty of Vedica Scholars for Women and Indian School of Public Policy, and is Editor, Indian Journal of National Income & Wealth. He is also a member of the High-level Expert Group on Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (OECD) and the Technical Advisory Group of the International Comparison Project (World Bank).

Most recently, he was Chairman of the National Statistical Commission. Prior to superannuation from the Government in 2012, he was the first Principal Economic Adviser at the Government of India\'s Planning Commission. He has also held positions as the first Chief Statistician of India, acting as the functional and technical Head of the national statistical system in India, as well as Secretary, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India (2007-2010). Born 1952 in New Delhi, India, Dr. Sen received his B.A. (Hons) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi (1972); M.B.A. (1974) and M.A. in Economics (1975) from the George Washington University, Washington D.C.; and Ph.D. in Economics (1982) from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He specialized in Open-economy Macroeconomic Systems, International Economics and Public Finance.

Dr. Sen worked as management consultant in Washington D.C. (1974-1977). He taught at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore and Delhi School of Economics, Delhi between 1977 and 1983. He turned to pure research in economics at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations, New Delhi (1983-1987) and the Economic Research Unit, New Delhi (1987-1990). Worked at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki in 1986 and again in 1989.

He joined the Government of India as Economic Adviser, Department of Electronics (1990-1994), where he was one of the architects of the National Software Policy 1990 and the Software Technology Park Policy 1991. Moved to the Planning Commission, Government of India in 1994. As Principal Adviser, Perspective Planning Division of the Planning Commission, he was the author of the Approach Paper to four Five Year Plans and the principal author and coordinator of three Five Year Plans and Mid-term Appraisals.

He has chaired a number of government Committees, most notably on Economic Statistics, Ecological Fragility, Control of Prices of Essential Drugs, and Slums.

Sundar Sarukkai is the founder of the Barefoot Philosophers, an initiative to bring philosophy to the public (www.barefootphilosophers.org). He is the author of the following books: Translating the World: Science and Language, Philosophy of Symmetry, Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science, What is Science? and two books co-authored with Gopal Guru – The Cracked Mirror: An Indian Debate on Experience and Theory and most recently Experience, Caste and the Everyday Social. His book titled JRD Tata and the Ethics of Philanthropy was published in July 2020. He is the Co-Chief Editor of the Springer Handbook of Logical Thought in India, the Series Editor for the Science and Technology Studies Series, Routledge and editorial advisory member of Leonardo as well as Marg. Sarukkai was a professor of philosophy at the National Institute of Advanced Studies till 2019 and was the Founder-Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities where he set up an innovative interdisciplinary postgraduate program. He has been actively taking philosophy to different communities and places, conducting philosophy workshops for children and bringing philosophy to the public through his writing in the media. His forthcoming book Philosophy for Children will be published in English and other languages.

Surinder S. Jodhka is Professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Senior Affiliate Fellow at the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi, India. His research interests include the dynamics of rural transformations and agrarian change; social inequalities - old and new -- and their reproduction with a focus on the social life of caste and the varied modes of its articulation in contemporary India; and the political sociology of community identities. He has published extensively including an edited book on Community and Identities: Contemporary Discourses on Culture and Politics in India (2001).

Urvashi Butalia is a publisher and writer. Co-founder of Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publisher, and now director of Zubaan, she is also author of the award-winning oral history of Partition, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India.

A Communication and EI Coach, Amit Kumar has more than 25 years of diverse experience as facilitator, L&OD consultant, instructional design specialist, and journalist in organizations across India, USA, Nepal and Mauritius. Notably, he has worked with The World Bank as a Senior Knowledge Management Officer. He has an MA in English Literature from Hindu College and an MSc in Computer and Information Science from Cleveland State University.

He had done theater for 8 years and brings all the theatrics and life experience in his classes. He had been invited to speak at TEDx twice and also been featured in the ‘200 most influential thought leaders to follow in 2021’ list.
He loves to reinvent himself and finds it difficult to box himself under one title. He is a curious learner and an explorer of life.
Avik Chatterjee has been working for over 23 years. In his life journey he has navigated these roles -  Sales Head, Experiential Educator, Business Coach, Leadership Consultant, Behavioral Consultant, Guest Faculty, Motivational Speaker, Learning Architect.

Mr Shekhawat is the UK-Europe CEO of Akshaya Patra Foundation and is based in London. He is a speaker, strategic partner and independent advisor on company boards including Erehwon Innovation Consulting, Sevendots. He has had a career of over 25 years where he worked with Nielsen, Reckitt Benckiser and Coca-Cola.

Kanika Pandey Tiwari has experience in human resources with Baxter (a US Based Healthcare Organisation). She is also a certified Trainer (ASTD), Mentor (Cherie Blair Foundation), Assessor and Leadership Coach. She is currently engaged in teaching at premier business schools, research, mentoring and training/consulting in different areas. 

Kathy Harvey is Associate Dean, MBA and Executive Degrees at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. In this role she is responsible for the success of the School’s graduate management programmes. She is a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. Previously she held the position of Director of Open Programmes at Oxford. In this role she designed the School’s postgraduate diplomas, developed a number of short finance programmes and launched an innovative, modular, Oxford Transition to Leadership Programme. Before joining Saïd Business School she worked as a journalist and consultant, coaching senior executives and leading the strategic development of executive programmes for managers across the private and public sectors.

Dr. Nivedita Narain works as an Integrator for PRADAN, and Indian-based NGO that works at grassroot level to remove mass poverty and challenge inequalities at multiple levels. She is also Senior Fellow at the Centre for Development Practice in Ambedkar University Delhi.

Nivedita’s professional expertise includes rural development, organisation behaviour and human resource development, women’s empowerment, livelihoods development, and group processes. She has undertaken consulting assignments for organisation development. She is a certified trainer in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, training of trainers, and entrepreneurial motivation trainer at NIESBUD (National Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development) and is currently undergoing certification as a group process facilitator.

Radhika Singh is an organisational leadership performance and executive coach. She consults on leadership coaching and succession planning. She is a Certified Coach in Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

After getting a law degree from Oxford, Roz Savage spent the first 11 years of her career working as a management consultant, before an environmental epiphany led to her radical career change into a world-class adventurer. Since 2005 Roz has rowed - solo - across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, earning her no less than four Guinness World Records. She has rowed over 15,000 miles, taken approximately 5 million oar strokes, and spent over 500 days alone at sea in a 23-foot rowboat. In her most recent incarnation, she is the founder of ’The Sisters’, a global women’s network dedicated to designing and creating a better future.

Santhosh Babu is the Managing Director of Organisation Development Alternatives and works with organisations and leaders to shift limiting beliefs and bring about lasting positive change. He has been identified as a CEO Coach by Business World, Economic Times and Business Standard.

Stacy Blake-Beard is a renowned scholar, consultant, speaker, mentor and coach. In addition to her organizational leadership consulting practice, she has held a number of leadership roles, serving as the 2016-2019 Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Chair of Women and Leadership at the Simmons College School of Business, where she teaches organizational leadership. She is Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Gender in Organizations at Simmons and Visiting Faculty at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India. Prior to joining Simmons, Stacy was on the faculty at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education for six years. tacy holds an MA and a PhD in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan and a BS in Psychology from the University of Maryland at College Park. Stacy’s academic research focuses on the challenges and opportunities offered by mentoring relationships, with a focus on how these relationships may be changing as a result of increasing workforce diversity. She is particularly interested in the issues women face as they develop mentoring relationships.

Valerie Belanger is an internationalist with 10+ years of experience in building networks and rethinking leadership. She has problem-solved with municipal leaders in Central America, coached education entrepreneurs in the Middle East, and convened journalists, artists, environmentalists, diplomats, and venture capitalists from across 80+ countries. Most recently, she has been inspiring new thinking around leadership development within the business school context. Her previous experience includes work with Yale World Fellows, Ashoka and the Synergos Institute. For two years, Valerie served as a municipal development volunteer with the Peace Corps in El Salvador.

Vivek Law is the Founder of Investonomix, a digital content website on managing finance. He has also been a senior Business journalist with Bloomberg UTV and has diverse range of experience in Broadcast Media. He is also the author of The Money Book, which simplifies the process of investing and saving.