The Team

A core team of research and coordination staff, along with a wide network of research collaborators from across the globe.

Trustees

Madhura Swaminathan

Madhura Swaminathan is a former Professor and Head, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Bangalore Centre. She is one of the Trustees of the Foundation.

V. Namasivayam

Namasivayam has over 37 years of consulting experience of which over two decades have been spent on leading several large, complex, multi-year reform engagements in various sectors, with a special focus on the electricity sector. He was a former member of the Kerala State Planning Board. He is one of the Trustees at the Foundation.

Parvathi Menon

Parvathi Menon is a writer, and former journalist. She was Resident Editor of The Hindu, Bengaluru, and also served as the London Correspondent of The Hindu. She is one of the Trustees of the Foundation.

V. K. Ramachandran

V. K. Ramachandran is a former Vice Chairperson of the Kerala State Planning Board and former Professor and Head of the Economic Analysis Unit at the Indian Statistical Institute. He is the Editor of the Review of Agrarian Studies and the Managing Trustee of the Foundation.

Sarita Alexander

Sarita is a special teacher and certified trainer in QST for autism spectrum disorders. She has been working at the Spastics Society of Karnataka from 2007, and is currently the Head of the Autism Spectrum Unit.

FAS Staff

Sandipan Baksi

Director

Arindam Das

Joint Director

Tapas Modak

Joint Director

Noopur Varma

Honorary Consultant, Human Resources

Sandipan Baksi

Director

Sandipan is the Director of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies. He holds a Ph.D. from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His research explores the relationship between science, technology, and society, with a particular focus on the development of agricultural science in post-independence India. He is currently building an oral history archive on the history of agriculture in India.

Arindam Das

Joint Director

Arindam is a Joint Director of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)-Pilani, Hyderabad. His research interests include the changing composition of socio-economic classes, labour relations, and sources of income in rural India. He currently leads the Foundation’s village studies programme, the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI).

Tapas Modak

Joint Director

Tapas is a Joint Director of the Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in Social Science from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His research interests include the irrigation economy of India, water policies and institutions, agricultural policy, economics of farming, and rural incomes.

Noopur Varma

Honorary Consultant, Human Resources

Noopur Varma is Honorary Consultant, Human Resources at the Foundation. She has more than 30 years experience in the area of Human Resources. She started her career in Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, where she worked for 14 years and her last corporate job was with Deloitte, Bengaluru.

Pinki Ghosh

Manager (Accounts, HR & Admin)

Pinki works as the Manager (Accounts, HR & Admin) at the Foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Financial and Management Accounting from Sikkim Manipal University and a Master’s degree in Economics from University of North Bengal.

Rebecca Rose Varghese

Coordinator (Communication and Events)

Rebecca is the Coordinator (Communications and Events) at the Foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics. A former data journalist with The Hindu, her expertise lies in data research and analysis.

Ajil Mankunnummal

Research Officer

Ajil holds an M.Phil. in Applied Economics from the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and is in the final stages of his doctoral research. His doctoral study focuses on the impact of government regulation on the technological developments in, and performance of, the chemical fertiliser manufacturing industry in India.

Sudha N.

Administrative Assistant

Sudha is an Administrative Assistant of the Foundation. She assists the administrative division of the Foundation and also has taken part in fieldwork organised by the Foundation.

Pinki Ghosh

Manager (Accounts, HR & Admin)

Sudha N.

Administrative Assistant

Nikita Gupta

Editorial Assistant

J. Jayamary

Office Assistant

Nikita Gupta

Editorial Assistant

Nikita is an Editorial Assistant at the Foundation. She is involved with the coordination of the Review of Agrarian Studies (RAS), the peer-reviewed academic journal of the Foundation. Nikita has extensive experience as a copy editor. She holds a Master’s degree in English from The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Lucknow campus.

J. Jayamary

Office Assistant

Jayamary is our Office Assistant. She assists the administrative division of the Foundation in maintaining office supplies and in upkeep and maintenance of office premises.

Harshan T. P.

Associate Research Fellow

Harshan is an Associate Research Fellow at the Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Science from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, specialising in climate change and disaster studies. His research focuses on the socio-economic impacts of environmental shocks and disasters.

Kristy Saikia

Research Officer

Kristy is a Research Officer at the Foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from IIT Guwahati and has previously worked with various civil society organisations. Her research interests include women and gender, rural development, and WaSH (water, sanitation, and hygiene).

Rebecca Rose Varghese

Coordinator (Communication and Events)

Harshan T. P.

Associate Research Fellow

Nikita Gupta

Editorial Assistant

Dona Safui

Research Assistant

C.A.Sethu

Senior Research Officer

Sethu is a Senior Research Assistant at the Foundation. He holds an Integrated Master's degree in Development Studies from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He has experience of coordinating a field survey of two villages in Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu in 2019. He is proficient in R programming language for statistical analysis.

Dona Safui

Research Assistant

Dona is a research assistant at the Foundation. She holds a Master's degree in Development from Azim Premji University . Her research interests include studying agrarian relations, and land tenancy in rural India.

Rithika Pulagiri

Research Assistant

Rithika is a research assistant at the Foundation. She holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics from Christ (Deemed to be University), Yeshwanthpur Campus, Bengaluru. Her research interests include, agricultural economics and the public policy.

Daya Susan Thomas

Research Assistant

Daya is a Research Assistant at the Foundation. She holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru. Her research interests include Gender and Development in Rural India.

Sai Chandan Kotu

Senior Research Assistant

Sai Chandan Kotu is a Senior Research Assistant at the Foundation. He holds a Master's degree in Economic Growth, Population & Development from Lund University, Sweden, and an Integrated Master's in Development Studies from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He has previously worked with FAS as an intern and is currently working on the entry and processing of data collected through our recently concluded survey in two Uttar Pradesh villages.

C.A. Ruthu

Research Officer

Ruthu is a Research Officer at the Foundation. He holds a Master's degree in Economics from the Central University of Tamil Nadu. His research interests include the study of the rural workforce in India, survey data analysis, and data visualisation. He has undertaken various academic and administrative roles and has worked as a Technical Assistant with the Kerala State Planning Board.

Vyshnavi Kanuganti

Research Assistant

Vyshnavi is a Research Assistant at the Foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics with a specialisation in Agribusiness from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. Her research interests include agriculture, agrarian studies, and rural development.

Savani Mane

Research Assistant

Savani is a Research Assistant at the Foundation. She holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru. Her research interests include agrarian studies, gender, and public policy.

Ashwin Sreekumar

Research Assistant

Ashwin is a Research Assistant at the Foundation. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Central Campus, Bengaluru. His research focuses on the dynamics of capitalist development, its impact on rural livelihoods, and environmental conflicts.

Ajil Mankunnummal

Research Officer

Kristy Saikia

Research Officer

Rithika Pulagiri

Research Assistant

Daya Susan Thomas

Research Assistant

Current Research Collaborators

T. Sundararaman

Aardra Surendran

Abhinav Surya

Aparajita Bakshi

T. Sundararaman

Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty at the JIPMER International School of Public Health, Puducherry. A former Professor of Medicine at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (1984–2002), he has served as Director of the State Health Resource Centre, Chhattisgarh and Executive Director of the National Health Systems Resource Centre.

Biplab Sarkar

Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, PES University, Bengaluru.

Abhinav Surya

PhD Fellow, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Awanish Kumar

Associate Professor, School of Development, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.

Aravindhan Nagarajan

Senior Lecturer, School of Development, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.

Yoshifumi Usami

Retired Professor, Osaka Prefecture University.

Fumiko Oshikawa

Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University.

R. Vijayamba

Assistant Professor, Social Science, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.

Aravindhan Nagarajan

Awanish Kumar

Barbara Harriss-White

Bheemeshwar Reddy

Barbara Harriss-White

Emeritus Professor and Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford.

Bheemeshwar Reddy

Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Finance, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus.

Daisuke Sakata

Associate Professor, Economics, Kanagawa University, Japan.

Jayan Jose Thomas

Professor of Economics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

Biplab Sarkar

Daisuke Sakata

Daizo Sugimoto

Deepak Johnson

Mrityunjay

Consultant, National Centre for Good Governance, New Delhi.

Niladri Sekhar Dhar

Associate Professor, Bihar Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Patna, Bihar.

Daizo Sugimoto

Professor, Department of Economics, Meijo University, Japan.

Deepak Johnson

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru.

Kunal Munjal

Senior Research Fellow, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Bengaluru, and Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad. Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

S. Niyati

Postdoctoral Fellow – Gender Research, Sustainable Impact Platform, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

R. Ramakumar

Professor, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Ranjini Basu

Assistant Professor, School of Economics and Public Policy, RV University, Bengaluru.

Fumiko Oshikawa

Jayan Jose Thomas

Kunal Munjal

T. Jayaraman

Ritam Dutta

Senior Research Fellow, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Bengaluru, and PhD Scholar, Department of Economics, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), University of Madras.

Satheesha B

Research Fellow, Azim Premji University, Bangalore.

Shruti Nagbhushan

Research Scholar, Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.

Shamsher Singh

Assistant Professor, Sociology, FLAME University, Pune.

M. Thangaraj

Former ICSSR National Fellow, Former Professor and Head : 1. Department of Economics, University of Madras 2. Dr. Ambedkar Centre for Economic Studies, University of Madras.

Soham Bhattacharya

Assistant Professor, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar School of Economics University, Bengaluru.

V. Sridhar

Former Associate Editor, Frontline magazine, Bangalore.

Venkatesh Athreya

Retired Head of Department, Department of Economics, Bharathidasan University.1. Department of Economics, University of Madras 2. Dr. Ambedkar Centre for Economic Studies, University of Madras.

T. Jayaraman

Former Senior Fellow, Climate Change, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai.