About

Dr. Sanju Purohit, currently an Associate Professor at Akamai University, USA, and a Research Fellow with the Women Researchers Council at the Azerbaijan State University of Economics, is a distinguished scholar in Geography and Sustainable Development. Dr. Purohit holds a Ph.D. in Geography, specializing in the ecological study of land, water, and human resources within the desert ecosystem of Nagaur District, Rajasthan, India, under the guidance of Dr. Ahmed Ali.

With an academic and research career spanning over two decades, Dr. Purohit has developed a deep expertise in Environmental Studies, Environmental Health Hazards, Sustainable Studies, Natural Resource Management, Land Degradation, Demography and Population Studies, Water Resources Management, and the impacts of Climate Change. Her work is driven by a commitment to sustainable development and the conservation of water resources, which has significantly influenced policy-making and resource management strategies, particularly in Rajasthan's water works department.

Prior to her current roles, Dr. Purohit has amassed a wealth of experience as an educator and entrepreneur. She served as an Assistant Professor in various prestigious institutions across India, imparting knowledge on Geography and Environmental Sciences. Additionally, she owned and managed a training institute, further diversifying her professional experience.

Dr. Purohit is an active contributor to the academic community, with publications spanning various critical issues in environmental geography, sustainable development, and resource management. She is a life member of several national and international geographical and sociological societies, and serves as a peer reviewer and editorial board member for multiple renowned journals.

Recognized for her impactful research and contributions to government policy-making, Dr. Purohit's work has led to significant advancements in sustainable management practices, particularly in water conservation, crop selection, and population control in semi-arid regions. Her efforts have been pivotal in enhancing the ecological balance and livelihood sustainability in the communities she serves.

Dr. Purohit's ongoing research interests include the management of desert ecosystems, the socio-economic dimensions of literacy and women empowerment, and the development of smart solutions for environmental sustainability. She continues to influence policy decisions and foster resilience against environmental challenges through her dedicated research and advocacy for sustainable development.

About

Prof. Paula Banerjee (M.A. & PhD from University of Cincinnati, USA) was Vice Chancellor of Sanskrit College and University, Kolkata. Previously, she was Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Calcutta and Professor and Head, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Calcutta. She is Governing Body Member of Centre For Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata; North East Hill University, Shillong; Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer, Central University of Karnataka, Gulbarga, Assumption College, Kottayam, Kerala and Governing Body Member, Central University of Karnataka, Gulbarga; Court Member of West Bengal State Women’s University, Diamond Harbour, Kolkata, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, North Bengal University, Siliguri and West Bengal State Women’s University, Diamond Harbour, Kolkata. She is at the International Editorial Board of Journal of Refugee Studies, Oxford University and Editor, Refugee Watch, Calcutta Research Group. She was Director of Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, Institute of Foreign Policy Studies, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, President, International Association for Study of Forced Migration (2013-2016), Fulbright Scholar 2013-2014, Chairperson, UGC Committee on Autonomy of Mata Gurji College, Punjab, 2017, Chairperson, UGC Expert Committee for Autonomy of Dhalakshmi Srinivasan College of Arts and Science for Women, Perambalur, 2017, Chairperson, UGC Expert Committee on SNR Sons College, Coimbatore, 2017, Chairperson, UGC Expert Committee on Autonomy for Nehru College of Arts and Sciences, Coimbatore, 2017, Chairperson, UGC Expert Committee on Autonomy for Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapally, 2017, Board of Studies Member, Dept. of International Relations, Netaji Open University, Team leader, Research on UNSCR 1325 in Kenya, Nepal and NE India, Govt. of Finland, Wiscomp Scholar of Peace Fellow, 2000-2001, New Delhi and Coordinator of National Commission For Women’s Project on Women and Displacement Due to River Erosion in Bengal. She was Visiting Professor at Oldenburg University, Germany, Institute of Human Sciences, Vienna, SUNY Oswego and OCC, Bielefeld University, Germany, Millikin University, USA, Millikin University, USA, Institute of Development Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland, University of Paris, International Program on Advanced Studies, MSH, Paris, Non-Traditional Security and Gender, WISCOMP, Minority Status Report for India, ICES, Colombo. She published 14 books, 32 research papers and 8 reports from Sage, Routledge etc.

About

A Ph.D from University of Alberta and a former Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, Professor M. P. Singh presently a National Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla; an honorary Senior Fellow at the Centre for Multilevel Federalism, Institute of Social sciences, New Delhi and the past Editor of Indian Journal of Public Administration (IIPA/SAGE). A nationally and internationally published expert of Indian and Comparative Politics, he has just joined as a National Fellow of the IIAS for two years to work on Indian Federalism in a Comparative Perspective. He published books through SAGE, Routledge, Orient BlackSwan, Pearson, Manohar, Primus Books, National Book Trust India, Prentice-Hall of India etc.

About

Dr. Meghna Guhathakurta taught International Relations at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh from 1984 to 2006. She is currently Executive Director of Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB) a research support organized based in Dhaka, which specializes in participatory action research with marginalized communities. Dr. Guhathakurta graduated from the University of Dhaka and received her Ph.D from the University of York, UK. in Politics. Her field of specialization has broadly been international development, gender relations and South Asian politics. She is well published in migration trends in Partition histories, peace-building in post conflict societies and minority rights in South Asia. She is also Associate Editor of the Journal of Social Studies published from the Centre for Social Studies in Dhaka. Meghna was formerly Member, National Human Rights Commission, Bangladesh. She is currently advisor to the International Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, and has been project coordinator of RIB’s project in the registered Rohingya refugee camps as implementing partner of UNHCR from 2011 to 2015 and currently leading two projects with host communities in Cox’s Bazar.. She co-edited The Bangladesh Reader and has several publications on the above issues in national and international journals.

About

Prof. Dr. Shibashis Chatterjee is Professor at the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He was Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Lecturer at Department of Political Science, Indiana University-Bloomington, United States. He holds PhD degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, for his dissertation on “The Role of Structure and Agency in Indian Foreign Policy”. His broad area of interest is international relations theory and its application to South Asia. He published 4 books, 11 research articles and presented papers in many prestigious conferences worldwide.

About

Prof. Samita Sen is now Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She received her Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1992 and was Fellow at Trinity College, 1990-1994. She taught at Calcutta University and Jadavpur University from 1994 to 2018. She was Vice-Chancellor, Diamond Harbour Women’s University and Dean, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Jadavpur University, India. Her monograph, Women and Labour in Late Colonial India (Cambridge University Press, 1999) won the Trevor Reese Prize in Commonwealth History. She has published extensively on gender and labour. Her specialization is colonial South Asia but she has also done contemporary and interdisciplinary research on issues such as domestic violence and labour in the informal sector. She is a member of editorial boards of various academic journals, including Modern Asian Studies and South Asian History and Culture. She edited Global South: Sephis e-Magazine, one of the first online journals and a south-south platform for young scholars, from 2004 to 2014. Her areas of interests are include South Asian History and Society, Global History, Colonialism and Post-colonial Studies, Gender Studies, Labour Studies, Education (especially Higher Education), Migration, Women's Movement, Trade Union Movements, Transport workers, Domestic workers (and their movements), History of domesticity, Slavery and Indenture, Marriage and Sexuality, and Legal History.

About

Dr. Eeva Puumala is Senior Research Fellow at Tampere Peace Research Institute, Tampere University. Her research is thematically focused on political agency, community, human mobility, and participation. Methodologically, Puumala draws on interviews, multi-sited ethnography and participatory approaches. Her work has been published in journals such as Discourse Studies, Environment and Planning C, Journal of Refugee Studies, European Journal of Cultural Studies, and Body & Society. She is the author of Asylum seekers, sovereignty, and the senses of the international: a politico-corporeal struggle (Routledge, 2017) and a co-author of Choreographies of resistance: mobile bodies and relational politics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, with T. Väyrynen, A. Kynsilehto, S. Pehkonen & T. Vaittinen). She is currently working on the Project on “Coexistence and conflict in the age of complexity: an interdisciplinary study of community dynamics” and “Neighbourhood Yurt: A study into everyday community relations and neighbourhood dialogues”.

About

Prof. Yeliena Prokhorova (PhD in Economics) is currently Professor & Deputy ead at Department of Management & Economics, Kyiv National Economic University, Ukraine. She has 25 years of teaching experience in several parts of the world. She has done several projects and published research papers and books. She is Member of the Faculty of Management Council, Member of the University’s Scientific and Methodical Council, Participated in consulting projects to improve the efficiency of enterprises, transferring them to self-sufficiency, forsited strategic sessions for companies, prepared methodical recommendations and held the training for the top government managers on Strategic Management in the state authority at the school of the senior civil service corps of the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service. She is Honorable International Editor of Amit International Impact Factor Journals (AIIFJ); Honorary Member of the Hon'ble Editorial Board of the IJBST Journal Group; and Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities (JSSSH) Associate Editor.

About

Holding a Masters Degree in Economics from Madras University, Pascal Alan Nazareth was selected for the Indian Foreign Service in May 1959. He has served in India's diplomatic and consular missions in Tokyo, Rangoon, Lima, London, Chicago and New York and as India's High Commissioner to Ghana and Ambassador to Liberia, Upper Volta, Togo, Egypt, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador A Belize.

During the 1982-85 period, when Mr. Nazareth was ICCR Director General, multifaceted Indian cultural festivals were held in Britain, USA and France, and international conferences on 'Buddhism and National Cultures' and 'India and World Literature', and a World Poetry Festival at New Delhi. An India-Greece Symposium organized during this period at Delphi resulted in the scholarly publication India and Greece'. Subsequently when Mr. Nazareth was Ambassador to Egypt and Mexico 'India and Egypt' and 'India and Mexico' were published, following similar symposia held in Cairo and Mexico City.

Mr. Nazareth retired in May 1994 and since then has been guest lecturer at National Institute of Advanced Studies A Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and National Defense College, New Delhi. Among the foreign institutions he has lectured at or participated in seminars are Gandhi Memorial Centre at Washington DC, American, Yale, Columbia, Stonybrook, UC Berkeley A Stanford Universities, MIT, San Francisco World Affairs Council, East West Centre and University of Hawaii, and Aspen Institute in the USA, Asian Institute of Management A Ateneo and Philippine Universities in the Philippines, Udayana and Shiyarif Hidayatullah Islamic Universities in Indonesia, Universities of Trinidad A Tobago and the West Indies in Port of Spain and Mahatma Gandhi Institute at Moka, Mauritius. His lectures have been published in electronic form as two CDRs titled 'Historical Perspectives - Asia' and 'Historical Perspectives - Europe'.

Mr. Nazareth is a founder and Managing Trustee of Sarvodaya International Trust which is dedicated to promoting the Gandhian ideals of Truth, nonviolence, communal harmony, humanitarian service and peace. It was established in March 1995. Its website URL is www.sarvodayatrust.org. His widely acclaimed book 'Gandhi's Outstanding Leadership' was released in New Delhi by the former Prime Minister of India Dr. I.K.Gujral and at the UN in New York by Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor.

On October 9, 2007 he was presented the U Thant Peace Award by the Sri Chinmoy Peace Meditation Group at the United Nations, for his 'Life Time of Dedication and World Service by promoting of the Gandhian Values of Truth, Non Violence, Communal Harmony and Humanitarian Service'. Among previous recipients of this Award were Pope John Paul II, The Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.