People

ADVISORS

Madhu Bharti is a Professor at Faculty of Planning, CEPT University Ahmedabad where she teaches urban development, land economics, housing and real-estate. She is a policy-planner with more than 30 years of experience in the sectors of urban development, slum-redevelopment and affordable housing, market driven approaches and real estate. Prior to joining CEPT University as a faculty she spent a long time (1986-2001) at the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) engaged in the sector of housing and infrastructure finance. Along with academics she has been involved in a large number of research and consultancy projects for central government and various state governments, development authorities in India, NGOs and international funding/development agencies like UNDP,ADB,WHO.

Professor R. Parthasarathy, Director, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad has a PhD in Economics from the ISEC, Bangalore. He has teaching and research interests. He teaches Natural Resources Management and Environmental Economics to Postgraduate students, besides guiding dissertations. He works on a nested framework to understand dimensions and implications on issues like large scale irrigation, urban housing and utilities, land use, climate change, human vulnerabilities and natural disasters. He has been a Shastri Faculty Research Fellow at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He has co-authored and co-edited books and has published extensively.

Ar. Rajkunwar Nayak is a dynamic professional with over 2 decades of sound and diverse experience in professional as well as academic spheres of Architecture and Urban Planning.  Her primary work areas have been concentrated in the Eastern states on India. She is a strong believer of Geddish Traid and Philosophy “Place-Work -Folk” and also appreciates the vision of Le-Corbusier for futuristic cities.  As an Academician, she enjoys teaching and sharing knowledge with young minds, which she believes gives her an understanding to delve into the taste and aesthetic sense of Contemporary Architecture! She is a consulting team member of IIT- Kharagpur and Bhubaneshwar Town and Country Planning Dept. She is currently secretary, ITPI, Odisha Regional Chapter and also an Executive Committee member- IIA, Odisha Region Chapter. She was also a core member for the Smart City Project- Bhubaneshwar. Quite recently she has been awarded the Neptune Gliz Design Honor 2016 for her outstanding contribution in the field of Urban Planning. 

Ranjan Panda, Ranjan Panda, a sociologist by education and popularly known as Water Man of Odisha; is a senior freelance journalist and Environmental thinker with nearly 3 decades of experience in Water Resource Management, DRR, Climate Change, Environment and Social Sector development. He started his career as a solution provider to the local challenges in the society, especially in traditional water harvesting with remote and forested pockets in one of the poorest areas in India . Later his pioneering efforts were recognised and he was honored by President of India in year 2010 as the first Green Hero Award- NDTV-TOYOTA. He has been honored with several awards, has been on  several important committees and task forces and has been invited at several national and international conferences to share his experience and views on environment, climate change, Water, WASH etc. His area of interest has expanded from micro to macro level engagements where he has led several assignments starting from national to international levels and in these he has worked with various organisations including INGOs, UN Houses and others.  He constantly follows the global climate change negotiations and engages with them through related CSOs to put forth the issues of water, DRR, small farmers’ resilience to climate change, cities and climate change etc.  He is also a well-known columnist for several publications and keeps writing on all these issues regularly.

Garima Srivastava is Doctoral Scholar at University of Missouri (Mizzou), Columbia US, estimated to complete by December 2023. She is pursuing PhD in Rural Sociology with emphasis on Society and Sustainability. Her Under graduation is in Architecture from MITS, Gwalior, and Masters in Environmental Planning from CEPT. Ahmedabad. Before coming to US in year 2019, she has been working as Assistant professor in School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Bhopal for almost eight years. Prior to getting into teaching, she has rich experience of around five years working in Development sector, Development Support Center, Ahmedabad. She also worked on few research consultancy projects for Govt of Gujarat, as a freelancer. Currently associated with research and teaching activities at Mizzou. Her area of interest, and expertise are, urban and regional planning, natural resource management, sustainable agriculture, environmental economics, qualitative (grounded theory, mixed research method) and quantitative research methods (structural equation modelling), spatial analysis etc.

PARTNERS

Deepa Gupta is an Environmental Research and Planning professional with work experience in sectors related to Environmental Impact Assessment, Climate Change, Micro finance and Renewable Energy. She was formerly associated with LEA Associates South Asia Pvt. Ltd. and Development Alternatives. Her professional experience is of 10 years and possess various publications on topics related to micro finance, value chain analysis, climate change and water management. She has experience of working with State level government agencies, International organisations and as a Freelance Consultant. She received Master’s degree in Environmental Planning from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India and Bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering from University Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India. 

Ruchi Rami Patil has a professional experience is of around 10 years in the field of urban planning, environmental planning, waste management, and socio-economic development. Her projects include Master plan, Development plan, City development plan, Rural planning, Solid and liquid waste management. She has worked with various institutions including government, private and research organizations. She has done her Master’s in Environmental Planning from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India and Bachelor’s in Environmental Engineering, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India. She was a Chief Minister Fellow in 2012, under the Government of Gujarat

Sireesha is a Planning and Development finance Professional with nearly a decade and half years of experience in Habitat Finance such as WASH, Affordable Housing, inclusive finance for women-microfinance. She is an Architect and Environmental Planner by qualification. She has a certificate in Housing  Finance from Warton University, Basic financial management and accounting systems from MicroSave  and currently pursuing Business Finance from IIM-Ahmedabad. Her experience ranges from providing Government advisory services, Institutional technical advisory services, fund management, allocation of resources, capacity building, strategic operations, research and analytics. She is partner at DRS research and consulting, Co-founder at Medsugar and also on the board of  ADITH Corporate Services as an Independent Director. As part of DRS, she also manages social media group: "Women and Climate Change" on facebook.