India_Policy Home Page

Biodata of some of
the Contributors/ Supporters of this effort

 

    Being mentioned here as a contributor/ supporter does not in any way make anyone liable to be a signatory of the first draft of the Manifesto (which will be printed in due course). Being a signatory will mean that you agree with almost everything. The list of signatories will be prepared much later. The current list is in alphabetical order.

  1. Ajay Gandhi: Ajay, 40, is a senior partner of Gandhi & Gandhi, chartered accountants, based in Hyderabad, India. He writes a weekly column on income tax and related issues in the Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad.

  2. Andrew Vargo: Andrew is employed as an Economist at the Department of Commerce, USA, where his primary duty is measuring economic growth. He is also currently pursuing a PhD in Economics. He has undergraduate degrees in Geology and Economics from Ohio State University, an M.A. in Geography, and an M.B.A. in Finance. He also holds an M.A. in Development Banking (Economics) from American University.

  3. Antony Joseph: Antony is an engineer from Trivandrum Engg College, Kerala and and MBA from NTU Singapore. He now works as an IT Staffing Consultant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

  4. Apoorv Misra:

  5. Arindam Roy: Arindam is a journalist with the Times of India.

  6. N. Arvind Kumar: Arvind did his bachelor's in mathematics at Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Madras and M.E at Indian Institute of Science and worked at various places. He is currently working at Singapore International Monetary Exchange, and reading economics is his hobby.

  7. Ashwin Mahesh: Ashwin Mahesh is a doctoral student in atmospheric science at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is also is a contributing columnist for Rediff and is the co-founder of India Together group which is building an awareness campaign in India.

  8. Anil Gupta: Prof. Gupta teaches at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is also the Coordinator of SRISTI and the Editor of Honey Bee, a Newsletter of Creativity and Innovation at the Grassroots.

  9. Atul Gupta: Atul is an IAS officer of the 1980 batch from Rajasthan cadre, currently doing a Ph.D. in Economics at USC. He has an M.Sc. in Physics. He worked in the Bhaba Atomic Research Center, before joining the civil service.

  10. Balaji Prakash: Balaji is currently doing post-doctoral studies in X-ray crystallography on proteins in Germany. He did his MSc from Univ of Hyderabad, and PhD from IISc, Bangalore, before going to Germany in Jan. 1997. He hopes to be involved in public life in India when he returns home next year.

  11. Barun Mitra: Barun is the Managing Trustee of Liberty Institute, New Delhi, which seeks to strengthen four pillars of a free society- individual rights, rule of law, limited government and free market. The Liberty Institute is building a new website. Click here

  12. Bibek Debroy: Prof. Debroy is the Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Jawahar Bhavan, New Delhi

  13. Chandran Gnanamuthu: Dr. Chandran Gnanamuthu is Professor & Head, Dept of Neurological Sciences, & Deputy Director, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore 632004, Tamilnadu.

  14. Charudatt: Charu did his B.Sc. from IIT Kharagpur, BE in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has extensive experience working in the USA, in Motorola and other firms. He believes that the aspirations of this group are best described by Omar Khayyam:

      Ah Love, could you and I conspire
      To grasp this sorry state of things entire
      To smash it all into a million bits
      And mold it back to heart's desire.

    This perhaps does define the key emotion of the members of this group, and has been therefore elevated to its rightful place as the theme of India_policy.

    Though strongly influenced by Noam Chomsky, he is willing to give alternative hypotheses a try.

  15. Dave Mahadevan:

  16. Deepak Lal: Professor Deepak Lal teaches economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Some more info on his work is here

  17. Devarajan Sundaravaradan: Deva works on computer databases in the USA and writes his opinions on various issues on the web.

  18. George Kurien: George lives in Pittsburg, USA

  19. Girish Malpani:

  20. Guru Chopra:

  21. Harvi Sachar: Harvi is the publisher of Silicon India, the Business and Technology Magazine for Professionals of Asian Indian Origin, published from New York.

  22. Indranil DasGupta:

  23. Isha Trivedi:

  24. R. Jagadiswara Rao. Prof. Rao is a Ph.D. in Geology. He retired as Professor of Geology from the service of the Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati in August 1997. During his 39 years of service, he held many positions, which include Head of the Department of Geology, Chairman of the Board of Studies, Special Officer of the Sri Venkateswara University P.G. Centre at Cuddapah, Principal of the Sri Venkateswara University College of Arts and Sciences at Tirupati, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Dean of the Academic Affairs, Member of the Academic Senate of Sri Venkateswara University, aand Member of the Executive Council (or Syndicate) of Sri Venkateswara University. His main field of research and extension work is the development of water and natural resources in and around Rayalaseema by applying geological, hydrological, geophysical, geochemical, and remote sensing techniques. He is now continuing the same work as the Chairman of the Rayalaseema Vikas Parishad (RVP), a non-profit organization established in 1980. Another work taken up by the RVP is to provide amenities to the NRI pilgrims visiting Tirupati and Tirumala.

  25. Jal Khambata Jal is a Delhi-based free-lance journalist contributing to more than two dozen Indian newspapers across the country. Click here to access Jal News.

  26. Jeffrey B. Nugent Professor J.B.Nugent teaches at the University of Southern California.

  27. John Rozario John is a 28 year old Singaporean doctor of Indian descent working in Singapore. His parents migrated to Singapore 30 years ago from Kerala. He is planning to do a Masters in Information Management since he feels that in whatever field one works in, the ability to handle and analyze information is of vital importance in the present information and knowledge driven era. He hopes to be part of an organization with a dedicated group of individuals committed to forming a large database gathering, sorting and analyzing (and monitoring) information from all over the globe and assessing its impact or usefulness for India.

  28. Kalavakunta Viswanatha Ravi: Dr. Ravi is currently a Senior R&D Manager in the Centre for Wireless Communications (CWC) at the National University of Singapore and leads a projectteam on LMDS activity. Prior to joining CWC, he was an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He has also worked as a Scientist/Engineer for Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for nearly eleven years on various technology development programs in digital satellite communications and was responsible for the development of satellite based CDMA systems, Digital modems, Error Control Codecs etc. He was also involved in the system engineering of Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) using INSAT-2series of satellites in India. His research interests include Coded modulation techniques, multiuser CDMA, mobile satellite networks and VSAT networks. Born in India in 1959, Dr.Ravi graduated from Sri Venkateswara University,Tirupati, India in 1981 and obtained his post-graduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1983. He was sponsored as a commonwealth scholar in UK and obtained his PhD from the University of Bath, UK in 1991. Dr.Ravi has presented/published more than 20 technical papers in various IEEE and IEE International Conferences and technical journals apart from thenumerous research and development reports to his credit. He is currently a Senior Member of IEEE and served as Vice-Chairman of IEEE Kharagpur Section (India) for 1997.

  29. K.S. Sastry: He is a retired official of the IAAS (Indian Audit and Accounts Service, 1957 batch). 1993-97: Budget Advisor, technical assistance projects, UN/IMF. 1991-93: Budget Advisor, Govt. of Sierra Leone. 1988-91: Founding Chairman, National Housing Bank, India. 1985-1988: Additional Secretary (Budget), Govt. of India.

  30. Karammel Abraham: Karammel was born and educated in Kerala, India, and is a postgraduate in Social Science. He has 24 years of work experience in Germany. In the organization that he works, he received extensive training in various subjects like Law, Total Quality Management etc, and now he works as an Administrator. He is currently working on a multipurpose Holistic Centre for his village in India to offer the youth, young families, and others interested, a basic general education to understand better about Individual, Personality, Health, Family, Society, Nation, Life, Environment etc. He thinks such centres are needed everywhere; if others cooperate, such centres can come up in other places too.

  31. Karthik: Karthik graduated in Electrical & Electronics Engg. He is currently working for a Bangalore based software company. He is keen to do something which adds value for our motherland.

  32. Krishna Vallabhaneni:

  33. Kush Khatri Kush hasa Masters in English from the University of Delhi and a Masters in Public Administration from the American University, Washington, DC. He migrated to US in 1981, worked in odd jobs, including as part-time consultant. He came in contact with numerous NGOs working in India and realized that despite their presence for years they were having no impact. He has concluded that without good government a society cannot change. He has now been working with the EPA (Environment Protection Agency) at Washington D.C. for about nine years. Check out
    http://www.epa.gov/oam/main/org/.

  34. Madhu Kishwar: Madhu is the editor of Manushi, a journal about women and society, founded in 1978, which aims to bridge the gap between academic/scholarly writing and popular literature. She thinks that we need to work together since it is a "do or die issue for India."

  35. Manjunath Somayaji: Manju lives in Dallas, Texas.

  36. Manoj Padki:

  37. Mohammed Azharuddin:I was born, raised, and lived in Nizamabad, AP, India for 16 years. Emigrated to the US in 1991and completed my high school in 1993. Got my bachelors (Chemistry) in 1997. Worked for a year and then started grad school to get my masters in CS (computer science). Currently I reside in Herndon, VA. Having kept myself so busy, I never had a chance to go back to India in last seven years. However, I do keep in touch through this information superhighway (thanks to the technolgical development). I used to have a webpage of mine at my past school's server. since I am no longer their student, they deleted it. I might build one some day. let you know when I do build one...

  38. Mukul Asher: Dr. Mukul Asher is Associate Professor of of Economics and Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

  39. Nikhil Parekh: Nikhil is a bachelors student studying Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a webmaster for one of the departments at the University.

  40. Nirvikar Singh: Nirvikar Singh is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His very extensive library of working papers can be obtained by clicking here.

  41. Nizam Ahmad: Nizam is the founder of Making Our Economy Right. He believes that "As a Third World nation, Bangladesh since its birth in 1971, has been a victim of dominance in the national economy by intellectual-socialist academics and economists trained mostly in the Fabian West."

  42. Parag Bhatt: From the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. He finished his Bachelors from the "Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers" and later finished his MS from "Oklahoma State University". He is presently a Design Engineer in the Silicon Valley and planning a move to Chicago (June 14, 1998).

  43. Parth J. Shah: Parth teaches economics at the University of Michingan-Dearborn, and has started the think tank called Center for Civil Society in New Delhi, of which he is the President.

  44. P. K. Madhu: P.K.Madhu did his Ph.D in NMR from the Department of Physics, IISc, and has been working as a post-doctoral fellow in the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel since November 1997.

  45. Prabhu Guptara: Prabhu is a Professor, and Director of Organizational and Executive Development, Wolfsberg Executive Development Center (a subsidiary of UBS AG), in Switzerland. His recent publications can be accessed here.

  46. Pratap Raju: Pratap has a Bachelors in Applied Math/Economics at Harvard in 1995 and looking to get a Masters in Economic Development in England in 1999. He is currently working in New York as an Emerging Markets Economists at IDEA, focusing on the Asian Financial crisis (with a minor focus on India and Pakistan). He is especially interested in the applicability of the Asian Miracle (sans the recent Financial Crisis which should prove to be only 2yrs or so in duration) to India, especially w.r.t. infrastructure and broad macroeconomic policies.

  47. Pravin Mishra:

  48. Prem Rallabandi: Prem is currently doing a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. Before coming to the US, he completed an M.Tech from IIT Kanpur and B.Tech from Andhra University. Coming to political philosophy, he believes in working together with people to find solutions to the various problems that confront us as a Nation. In his opinion we may develop very high-level theoretical analyses as to why we have so many problems, and why we can't change anything, but until we start doing something all our thoughts are useless. And why does he care? "Because that is the only way I become a better person - by being committed to the good of all" he says.

  49. Puneet Singh: Puneet Singh is a Design Engineer at Intel Co working with the Microprocessor Products Group. He graduated with a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur and an M.S from Univ of Iowa. He believes in the potential and promises of a better tomorrow for India, "where there is a will, there is a way". "Managing a country as diverse and as complicated as India is probably the biggest corporate challange, and it needs the most capable people. Undoubtedly, those who bring about the transformation will be rewarded in time."

  50. R. Krishnan: Krishnan is the Chief Access Facilitator of WebIndia

  51. Rachakonda Dattatreya Prabhu: Ph.D in Physics from I.I.Sc. Bangalore. Passionately in love with the problem of TURBULENCE (in any field ..fluid dynamics,stock markets,society, economics...you name it!). Presently in Singapore trying to shape myself according to the `law of the land'..lest I lose my job. My wife; Parvathi, designs controllers for robots, and my daughter; Gitanjali, creates CHAOS beyond Singapore'sCONTROL!
    Homepage: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/mprabhu or http://physics.iisc.ernet.in/prabhu.html

  52. R. Sivasankar: Born and raised in Malaysia, of Indian descent, undergraduate college in India, worked in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, currently living and working in USA.

  53. Robert A. Lawson: Robert Lawson is Asst. Professor of Economics at Capital University Columbus, Ohio 43209, USA. He is actively involved with Free the World and is one of the two authors of the Economic Freedom of the World Project.

  54. Rohit Shukla: Rohit Shukla is the Founder, President and CEO of Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance. Prior to this, Rohit was director of aerospace and high technology business at the Economic Development Corporation of Los Angeles County (LAEDC).

  55. Ram Narayanan: Ram, who is the President of the Janaki International Corporation at Kennmore, New York, is also the Regional Representative (Northeast Region) for the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Mumbai. He has over 30 years of marketing and senior management experience (in both India and the United States) in transnational business and finance. He says, "I want India to beat China in the economic race - a tall order indeed, some might say! And having visited China thrice during the last five years, I am aware that India has a long, long road to traverse. But it's not an impossible task." Here is a picture of him.

  56. Ratan Singh:

    Ratan is a practicing clinical psychologist.

  57. Ravi Malik: Ravi is an IAS officer of the 1983 batch of the Union Territory cadre. He is now working as a money manager in Los Angeles, USA and has tendered his resignation to the Government of India recently.

  58. Sanjeev Chopra: Sanjeev is an IAS officer of the 1985 batch from West Bengal Cadre, currently working as Deputy Director in the National Adademy of Administration, Mussoorie.

  59. Sanjeev Sabhlok: Sanjeev, 38, is an IAS officer of the 1982 batch from Assam-Meghalaya cadre, currently doing his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He was founder-Secretary of Shram India, an NGO working in the rural areas of North East India.

    He is working toward trying to persuade the People of India to do things which he believes will actually work, rather than things which are guaranteed to fail. Before doing that he wants to actively test his ideas against everyone else in India and the world, so that he is sure that he knows the chief worries and concerns of the People.

    He has "floated" an academic "political party" called Victory of India Party, established in 2000 AD (maybe someone should remind him that it is 1998 today!). He is also writing a book called, "Becoming Rich and Powerful: A Primer for the Citizens of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh", which attempts to communicate, in simple language, the key message.

  60. Sanjib Goswami: Sanjib, an MA in Economics and LL.B., is a practicing advocate in Gauhati High Court. He jointly helped organize Shram India and is today the Secretary of that organization, helping extend appropriate technology to the rural areas with the help of Mukul Mahant, an IIT engineer from the 1950s, with extensive international experience.

  61. Sanjive Mehta: Sanjive is an engineer from IIT, Delhi, who left his job as a Superintending Engineer in ONGC, a couple of years ago, convinced that there is not much that he could contribute to the nation in a public sector undertaking given its artificial constraints, politics and bickering. He explored the markets and found a niche in bar-coding, and started out a very small concern in this sector, called RS Enterprises. Today, after the first year, he has created a turnover of nearly half a crore rupees, employs over 10 engineers, and has helped provide bar coding solutions to some of the biggest private concerns in India.

  62. Shantanu Barua: Shantanu is a doctor working in Skylab Diagnostic Center, Guwahati, Assam. He was also the Secretary, and later, Special Secretary, of Shram India, a leading NGO in North East India.

  63. S.D.Sharma: He is the Chairman of Transparency International, India.

  64. Shashidhar Rajamani: Shashi is a resident of College Station, TX. He is pursuing an MS in Electrical Engineering.

  65. Sreekata Padiyar: Sreekanta is at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

  66. Sridhar Ramachandran:

  67. Srinivas Rao: "Srini" is an architect and urban planner from Nagpur, working in Los Angeles. He received his Masters in Building Science from the USC.

  68. Subroto Roy: Dr. Subroto Roy, 43, studied science and literature in India and England, got a First at the LSE 1976, specializing in monetary economics, international economics and econometrics, PhD in economics Cambridge University 1982 "On liberty & economic growth: preface to a philosophy for India" (Supervisor: F. H. Hahn, Examiners: C. J. Bliss, T. W. Hutchison).

    Main publications;

    1. Pricing, planning and politics: A study of economic distortions in India IEA Occasional Paper 1984, attracted the lead editorial of The Times of London May 29 1984;
    2. Philosophy of economics: On the scope of reason in economic inquiry (London & New York: Routledge, 1989, 1991);
    3. edited with W. E. James, Foundations of India's Political Economy: Towards an Agenda for the 1990s, Foundations of Pakistan's Poilitical Economy: Towards an Agenda for the 1990s (Sage New Delhi, OUP Karachi 1992), all quite widely reviewed at the time.

    Worked with J. M. Buchanan at Virginia Tech 1980-1982; taught economics at various universities in the USA 1980-1990; appointed by Rajiv Gandhi, then Congress President and Leader of Opposition, on September 25 1990 along with V. Krishnamurthy, Sam Pitroda, Gen. V. Krishna Rao and M. K. Rasgotra to draft Congress Party agenda for 1991 elections; after Rajiv's assassination, worked for short periods with the World Bank and IMF India teams and in the US private sector before returning to India. Since 1996, Professor, Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721 302 teaching economics and finance. Etc.

    Another web presence (as a Panelist on India's budget).

  69. Suresh Anand: Suresh is responsible for advising Director of Marine, Hong Kong Government,on policy relating to Hong Kong Shipping Register and ship safety. He has extensive marine experience and was ship captain for many years.

  70. Suresh Rajagopalan: Suresh, a graduate of IIT, Madras, owns Cinenet Communications, the ISP at Los Angeles which is hosting this debate.

  71. Tejinder Singh Rawal: I am a Chartered Accountant. My web page is at http://www.mahesh.com/india/tax and my profile and photograph is at http://www.mahesh.com/india/tax/rawal.html

  72. Utkarsh Kansal: Founded BDP. Utkarsh was born in Bulandshahr (UP). after finishing his secondary education in various towns in UP, he completed his B.Sc. (Engineering) from REC Rourkela. Utkarsh presently works for a telecommunications company. Before joining the real world Utkarsh finished graduate degrees in Engineering and Business from two US universities. Utkarsh lives in Washington, D.C.

  73. M.R.Vikram: Vikram is a Chartered Accountant, but more than that a trustee of M.Venkatarangaiya Foundation, (MVF in the NGO circles). He is doing pioneering work in the Ranga Reddy District of Andhra Pradesh and getting children out child labour and admitting them into schools. MVF is funded by CRY and HIVOS, a Netherlands based organisation.