Our People
Mr. Raghavan Suresh – Director
Mr. Suresh holds post-graduate degrees from the Birla Institute of Science and Technology, Pilani and the Institute of Rural Management, Anand. He has worked for over 27 years focussing on social and environmental change through the design and management of rural and urban development programmes, as well as projects in sustainable agriculture, watershed management, enterprise development and sanitation. He has been with PAC since October 2008, leading PAC’s flagship programme, Citizens Against Corruption. This programme stimulates citizen initiatives against corruption in local environments with the active support of NGOs. It now operates in Karnataka, Orissa, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan in India, as well as in Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Mr. Suresh has previously worked with the National Dairy Development Board and Centre for Environment Education, and has had significant tenures at different field NGOs and with international agencies such as the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation and Plan International. He has also been a speaker and resource person at management institutes and taught at the post-graduate level. He has carried out a variety of national and international consultancy assignments pertaining to monitoring and evaluation, developing modules and training tools in the areas of organisation and programme analysis, strategic planning, organisational learning and knowledge management.
With his primary background in natural resource management, renewable energy and livelihoods development, and experience with various stakeholder networks, Mr. Suresh is well equipped to take PAC to new frontiers of work in the analysis of public policies in employment generation, food security and climate change. PAC aims to utilise his experience to initiate fresh programmes and explore innovative opportunities for citizen participation in governance in all aspects of Indian public life.
Mr. Raghavan can be reached at director@pacindia.org
Dr. Meena Nair - Head, Participatory Governance Research Group
Dr. Meena Nair, joined Public Affairs Centre in February 2005 as Research Consultant, and was appointed Research Officer in April 2005 and Senior Research Officer in April 2007. Currently, as Head of the Participatory Governance Research Group (PGRG), she coordinates most of the research activities of the Centre, especially those related to the implementation of Citizen Report Cards (CRCs) in various spheres of governance and levels of public service delivery.
Prior to joining PAC, Meena worked for 6 years as a Researcher at various levels in the Social and Environment Research Centre (SERC) for Synovate on projects related mainly to health. She has specialized in the field of geography having done her M.Phil and Ph.D from the Centre of the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Dr Nair can be reached at meena@pacindia.org
Dr Kala Seetharam Sridhar – Head, Public Policy Research Group
Kala Seetharam Sridhar is currently Head, PPRG, and Senior Research Fellow, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore, India, prior to which she was Ford Public Affairs Fellow. Her primary research interests are in urban and regional economics/policies, urban infrastructure, state and local finances, and developmental issues.
Kala is currently visiting the United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) (http://www.wider.unu.edu) during April-May 2011. Kala received her Ph.D. (Public Policy & Management) from the Ohio State University, USA, and M.S.(Urban & Regional Planning) from the University of Iowa, USA. Prior to joining PAC, Kala was with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in New Delhi, before that, was Assistant and Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow, India, was visiting Sir Ratan Tata Trust Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, India, and a visiting Fellow at United Nations University's World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) in 2007 Kala was also a consultant for the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
Kala has published in many refereed international journals, and is a peer reviewer for many. Her paper " Innovative sources of development finance: The role of land in financing India’s large cities and comparisons with China" won the Joint First Prize Medal for completed research on development at the Twelfth Global Development conference held in Bogota, Colombia, in January 2011 (http://cloud2.gdnet.org/cms.php?id=competition_details&competition_id=11). She has been an invited speaker at many international conferences and workshops.
Kala is the author of three books – Incentives for Regional Development: Competition among Sub-National Governments, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2005, Costs and Challenges ofLocal Urban Services: Evidence from India’s Cities, (co-authored with Om Mathur), publishedby Oxford University Press in 2009, and State of urban services in India’s cities: Spending and financing (co-authored with Venugopal Reddy) published by Oxford University Press in2010. In 2007, the Indian Council of Social Science Research and the Institute for Social and Economic Change recognized her work for the VKRV Rao Prize for 2005 (http://www.isec.ac.in/vkrvraoprize.htm).
Kala also regularly contributes to the popular press and writes for India’s leading financial dailies such as the Economic Times.
Dr. Kala can be reached at kala@pacindia.org.
Mr. J Jangal - Head, Environmental Governance Group
Mr.J. Jangal holds a post graduate degree from Madras University. He has more than 25 years of working experience in managing field projects/personnel of various rural development projects funded by international donors. Hands on experiences in capacity building, Participatory Rural Appraisal methods for project planning, participatory implementation involving the communities and other stakeholders.
He has worked as Sr.Programme Coordinator for 6 years for developing integrated Natural Resource Management Projects in drought prone districts of Northern Karnataka State in collaboration with CSO and government agencies with the support of International Funding Agency. He has experiences in developing approaches and methods in sustainable agriculture practices and dry-land management like Participatory Technology development.
Mr Jangal can be reached at j.jangal@pacindia.org
Dr. Sreedharan is with PAC for the last one year. He is an experienced development practitioner who has worked in both government and NGO sectors for over three decades. He has a doctoral degree from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal and served the National Dairy Development Board for more than twenty years. He has travelled extensively both within and outside the country to study various development programmes.
For the last 15 years, he has been in the social and rural development sectors. He was a national standing committee member for rural technology in CAPART, Govt. of India. His key qualifications are project planning, appraisal, management & administration, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and documentation.
He can be reached at sreedhar@pacindia.org
Dr. A. Venugopala Reddy, Senior Programme Officer
His primary research interests are in public finance, fiscal decentralisation and Urbanisation
Venu received his Ph.D. (Economics) from Sri Krishnadevaraya University Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. Prior to joining PAC, Venu was at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, India.
Venu was involved in several Citizen Report Cards studies carried out by Public Affairs Centre in various states and cities of India. Recently he has been involved in the study on expenditure analysis of Mukhyamantri Nagarothana Yojane (MNY), Urban Infrastructure Development Schemes for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) and Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY) and the final report is submitted to the Expenditure Reforms Commission, Government of Karantaka. He is also involved in the project entitled “Land as a Municipal Financing Option: A Pilot Study from India” the final report for which was submitted to the Thirteenth Finance Commission, Government of India. He is also involved in conducting a pilot social audit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Gulbarga district, Karnataka. The major findings were presented to the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department, Government of Karnataka. Further, he is involved in Citizen Monitoring and Audit of Pradana Manthri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) Roads and Project completion report is submitted to National Rural Roads Development Agency. Currently he is working on “State of cities” project, which is attempting to provide a comprehensive assessment of urban conditions and drivers of urban change.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at venu@pacindia.org
Dr. Srikant Patibandla, Programme Officer
He did his Masters in Politics & International Relations from Pondicherry University and has M. Phil in international relations from JNU, New Delhi. After a brief stint in teaching at the Department of Political Science, Pondicherry University, he did his Ph.D from Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. His doctoral thesis is on social movements and rights. His area of interest includes the cusp of development, grassroots movements and rights.
He joined PAC in February 2009 as Programme Officer in Citizen Action Support Group (CASG). He acts as a liaison between the donor agencies and grassroots partner organizations. As part of the CASG team he is involved in conducting social audits on National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). At present he is initiating community social audits on right to information act (RTI) in Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. He also represents CASG at the Coalition Against Corruption (CAC) – a coalition of six organizations in Bangalore to fight against corruption.
Mr. Srikant can be reached at srikant@pacindia.org
Dr. K. Prabhakar, Programme Officer
joined Public Affairs Centre in December 2006 as Research Associate and was appointed as a Research Officer in April 2008, before which he had also worked for two years as Research Associate for other reputed research institutions. He did his doctorate in Economics from Sri Krishnadevaraya University from Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh). At PAC, he is part of the Participatory Governance Research Group, and his responsibilities are planning, organizing, and conducting research project activities, including designing and implementing appropriate methodologies for field surveys, primary and secondary data processing, analysis and report writing of projects. He is involved most of the research activities of the Centre, especially those related to the implementing of research project activities of Citizen Report Cards (CRCs) in various spheres of governance and levels of public service delivery.
As part of his job, he is involved in all aspects of various research projects in the fields of Health Economics, Budget Analysis, public finance, Rural economy including decentralization, governance, education and health. He has hands on experience in academic projects involving data analysis using statistical techniques through IT, expertise in handling software packages for statistical, data analysis and report drafting, one international consultancy and association with premier institutes like Institute for Social and Economic Change.
He can be reached at prabhakar@pacindia.org
Ms. Prarthana Rao, Programme Officer
She joined PAC in 2008 as a Research Executive and was appointed Programme Officer in April 2009. She is mainly responsible for implementation of research project activities at the Centre. She holds post-graduate degree in Environmental Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. She has worked for over 5 years focussing on social and environmental management through implementation of urban development programmes.
Ms. Prarthana has previously worked with the City Managers’ Association and Centre for Sustainable Development, and has coordinated various projects including the City Development Strategy for Hubli-Dharwar. She is a member of the Institute of Town Planners, India from Karnataka Chapter. She is professionally trained in GIS applications. Her core competency is in developing Community Score Cards and Citizen Report Cards to address various governance issues.
She can be reached at prarthana@pacindia.org
Mr. Pavan Srinath, Programme Officer
He joined PAC in 2010 as a Programme Associate. He studied Biotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Biophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, before deciding to migrate to the fields of public policy and climate change. He has around 2 years of experience in scientific research, and has brought with him his scientific temper, analytical reasoning and a passion for research to his work at the Centre. He currently works with the Public Policy Research and Environmental Governance Groups.
He can be reached at pavan (dot) srinath (at) pacindia (dot) org.
He has an active photoblog on macro and insect photography at The Daily Critter and also infrequently blogs at The Enemy Within.
Ms. Nivedita Kashyap, Programme Officer
She joined PAC in January 2011. She studied Information Technology in R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore. She has worked in the IT sector for 4 years, including a year in Lima, Peru, developing quality assurance strategy for software applications. Her area of interest is the interface between research, policy and it's implementation. She is part of the Public Policy Research group at PAC.
She can be reached at nivedita@pacindia.org.
Ms. Poornima, Programme Associate
She joined PAC in 2010 as a Project Associate. She is mainly responsible for carrying out the field activities which include data collection, community mobilization and awareness building. She is a post graduate in Economics from the Kuvempu University, Shimoga.
Prior to this she has worked for over 4 years on projects related mainly to health in organizations like Society for People’s Action for Development (SPAD) and Sankalp. Her core competency is in Community mobilisation.
She can be reached at poornima.gr@pacindia.org
Mr. Kuldip Gyaneswar, Programme Associate
He has been with PAC since August 2010. He holds a post graduate degree in Development Administration. He brings with him rich academic learning’s in governance and development with focus on rights based approach. His core competency is in social and environmental research where he combines academic excellence with field understanding. He is adequately trained in participatory research tools and methodologies. A recipient of University Gold Medal, Kuldip works with the Environmental Governance Group and the Citizen Action Support Group at PAC.
He can be reached at – kuldip@pacindia.org