ILDC 2022 Advisors

Dr. Nivedita P. Haran Graduated with Economics and Philosophy (Hons), obtained Masters in Philosophy from Jadavpur University and PhD in Sociology from IIT, Delhi.

She joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1980 and worked in the state of Kerala and in Govt of India in various departments that include departments of Land Revenue, Disaster Management, Agriculture, Industries, Labour & Employment, Planning and Home apart from serving as District Collector/ Magistrate. She was Director and later Joint Secretary in Ministry of Urban Development, Govt of India. She was on deputation to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Kosovo for 5 years.

Post-retirement she has been engaged in activities related to research and academics in the areas of Digitisation of Land Records, Disaster Resilience-building, Good Governance, , Labour & Migration issues and management of Water, Waste Water and solid waste. She is a member of the Court-appointed Committee of Experts for cleaning up and conservation of the Dal Lake and the committee related to modernization of land records in Delhi. She is also the chairperson of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development and Ente Bhoomi Trust. She has been a regular speaker at various training Institutes including the Civil services training academy at Mussoorie.

Deepak Sanan is a Senior Visiting Fellow at CPR. Major areas of his interest include public policy in the areas of state capacity, land governance, public finance, water and sanitation.

He is a former civil servant, living in Himachal Pradesh. He retired from the Indian Administrative Service, the centrally recruited senior civil service of India in January 2017. He was allocated to the state of Himachal Pradesh. His other current affiliations include advising at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Delhi and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore on a variety of subjects related to his experience and special interests. In particular, he heads the Centre for Land Governance at the IIHS and the Land Policy Initiative at NCAER.

Sanan has published regularly on public policy issues with an interest specially in creating incentives to more effectively use Central funds to overcome State budget constraints and improve governance. He has a special interest in designing schemes of inter-governmental financial transfers that can improve institutional arrangements at state and local government level to enhance the effectiveness of these transfers and service delivery especially in basic services. He has undertaken many assignments over the years as a consultant with the World Bank, The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), The Department for International Development (DFID), The Institute of Development Studies (IDS Sussex) and AusAid relating to his skills and experience in public finance, urban and rural development and especially in relation to the water and sanitation sector in India. He has also been on the staff of the World Bank as the India Country Team Leader in the Water and Sanitation Program (South Asia) for two years between 2005 and 2007.

Sanan has completed an MA Politics (International Relations) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in 1979 and a BCom (Hons) from Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University in 1977.

Tim Hanstad leads the Chandler Foundation as its CEO. The Chandler Foundation seeks a world of shared prosperity in which nations are well-governed, businesses help drive economic growth and societal well-being, and all individuals have the opportunity to flourish. Tim previously co-founded and was the longtime CEO of Landesa, the world’s leading land rights organization.

Tim led Landesa’s growth from a 2-person operation to the #1-ranked human rights NGO in the world. He is a Skoll Social Entrepreneur Awardee and a 2008 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Fellow. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Huffington Post and beyond. Tim is the proud spouse of Chitra and a father to four adult children from whom he draws inspiration. He has two law degrees from the University of Washington and has completed certificate programs at Harvard Business School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Dr Shekhar Shah is the Vice Chair of the Academic Advisory Council at the Indian School of Public Policy in New Delhi and Non-resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability at Monash University in Melbourne. He is a development economist with more than four decades of global experience working on policies and programs related to macro, trade, fiscal, labor markets, and service delivery in health and education. He remains particularly interested in what keeps some people and countries poor: the failure of markets, governments, politics, and foreign aid.

Dr Shah is the former Director-General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), India’s oldest, independent, economic think tank. Between 2011 and 2021, he led NCAER in its institutional transformation, the deepening of its research and survey capacities, the diversification of its funding, and the development of its new, world-class campus.

Before joining NCAER, Dr Shah spent over two decades at the World Bank, including as the Bank’s Deputy Research Administrator, Lead Economist for Bangladesh, Sector Manager for Governance and Public Sector Management for Europe and Central Asia, and Regional Economic Adviser for South Asia. He was a principal author of the 2004 World Development Report, Making Services Work for Poor People. He was earlier the Ford Foundation’s Program Officer for Economic for South Asia based in New Delhi, and before that worked in Washington D.C. consulting for the US Federal Reserve Board and other US financial regulators. Dr Shah holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Economics from St Stephens College, Delhi University.

Mr S B Dangayach is a distinguished alumnus of IIMA.After spending 45 years in corporate world in leadership position ,he is now busy as Founder Trustee of Innovative Thought Forum -an India centric “think+act “ tank and as National Vice President of Arogya Bharati .

Mr Dangayach is an independent director on the boards of Gujarat Mineral Development Corpn Ltd(GMDC),Guj Industries Power Company Ltd (GIPCL)and Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL).He is also on the board of governors of IIM,Udaipur and Auro University ,Surat

Mr Dangayach is an ardent supporter of Homoeopathy and is a patron member of Global Homoeopathy Foundation (GHF). He was actively involved with Homoeopathy industry and was chairman of Healwell International Limited until a few years ago .

Mr Dangayach is a strong proponent of integrating all health and medicinal sciences for improvement of both public and personal health .He has been pushing for a much larger role for AYUSH everywhere .

Mr Dangayach is a passionate proponent of green ,clean and sustainable development .
He has been advocating integration of renewables in the energy mix for improving access ,availability and affordability of energy to all in India .

He views waste as a resource at wrong place and has been an ardent supporter of waste to wealth creation .

He has been focusing on micro enterprises and is evolving simple modules like VyaparSutra for empowering them

He has recently compiled an anthology on “Pragmatic ways for Atmanirbhar Bharat “that contains articles of 75 India centric thought leaders .

Dr. Usha Ramanathan is an internationally recognized expert on law and poverty. She studied law at Madras University, the University of Nagpur, and Delhi University.

She is a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, teaches environmental law, labour law and consumer law at the Indian Law Institute, and is a regular guest professor many universities around the world.

She is a frequent adviser to non-governmental organizations and international organizations. She is for instance a member of Amnesty International’s Advisory Panel on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and has been called upon by the World Health Organisation as an expert on mental health on various occasions.

Dr. Ramanathan is also the South Asia Editor of the Law, Environment and Development Journal (LEAD Journal), a peer-reviewed academic journal jointly published by IELRC and SOAS.

Her research interests include human rights, displacement, torts, and the environment. She has published extensively in India and abroad. In particular, she has devoted her attention to a number of specific issues such as the Bhopal gas disaster, the Narmada valley dams or slum eviction in Delhi.

Mr. Jagat Basnet is a social activist, researcher and founder member of Community Self-Reliance Centre (CSRC), Nepal, a non-violent social movement based organization. He has been facilitating the land and agrarian rights movement since 1994 through the establishment/promotion of peasants’ organization.

In recognition of his innovative work for the landless and tenant families of Nepal, Mr. Basnet has been awarded with the prestigious Maja Koene Social Activist Award in 2006 from India (CECI)

R AVINASH MISHRA is a General Civil Service officer , presently working as Adviser in Tourism, culture, Panchayati Raj, Water & Land NITI Aayog (GOI).

He is having an experience of 29 Years of working in various positions in GOI ..He has been working in the National Policy Planning formulation, Action Plans of the country. He is engaged in the Development Plans, Proposals of the State Governments relating to Tourism & culture, Water Resources sectors. Also assisted the Plan Panel of the country in the Analysis and prioritization of various projects in terms of socio-economic benefits and its impact. Represented the Planning Commission now NITI Aayog in the various technical advisory committees. Member of Various Committee on Tourism, culture, Water Resources including the Committee on Water Resources of Bureau of Indian Standards.