Who We Are

A 1981-batch IAS officer, Mr. S. M. Vijayanand cleared his Civil Services examination securing seventh rank. During his 11 years as Secretary, Local Self-Government, Government of Kerala, Mr. Vijayanand pioneered the People’s Plan movement. Subsequently he has held many important positions in the Government of Kerala, including as the Director, Institute of Management in Government, and as Chairman, KILA.
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Mr. S. M. Vijayanand
Member

Ex-IAS officer

A 1981-batch IAS officer, Mr. S. M. Vijayanand cleared his Civil Services examination securing seventh rank. During his 11 years as Secretary, Local Self-Government, Government of Kerala, Mr. Vijayanand pioneered the People’s Plan movement. Subsequently he has held many important positions in the Government of Kerala, including as the Director, Institute of Management in Government, and as Chairman, KILA. He also conceptualised and operationalised 'Kudumbashree', the women's self-help group movement in Kerala. He became the Chief Secretary in 2016. Post retirement, he has also been active in the academic field as Visiting Professor in Gandhigram Rural University and Expert Faculty of National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), Hyderabad. Presently he is the Chairperson of the 6th Finance Commission of Kerala. A passionate crusader on the matter of democratic decentralisation and local self-governance, Mr Vijayanand is constantly pursuing the cause of Panchayats and Panchayati Raj in the country. Mr. Vijayanand lives in Thiruvananthapuram with his family.

Trained as an economist in India, Rukmini completed a BA at St Stephen’s College and attended Delhi School of Economics. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and later earned her Ph. D at the University of Chicago. She returned to India in 1996 and has been with Pratham ever since. Rukmini has extensive experience in the field - working directly with rural and urban communities as well as in designing and implementing large scale partnerships with governments. She led Pratham’s research and assessment efforts including the well-known ASER initiative (Annual Status of Education Report) from 2005 to 2014. Originally from Bihar, Rukmini now is based in Delhi. She enjoys telling and writing stories for children and loves being a grandmother.

Virginius Xaxa is currently a visiting Professor at the Institute for Human Development(IHD), New Delhi. A Master's in Sociology from Pune University and a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, Virginius Xaxa’s specialisation lies in Tribal Studies, Development Studies, Agrarian Social Structure, and Labour Studies. Mr. Xaxa has authored, co-authored, and co-edited several books. He has also published a large number of articles in reputed journals and edited volumes. He was the Chairman of the High-Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India, constituted by the Government of India in 2013.

Nayantara Sabavala began her journey in the development sector in late 1980s after almost a decade in advertising during which she set up a unit dedicated to public service communication work for the social sector. In 1996 she joined the Tata Trusts and led two five-year strategic plans. In 2009 she moved to an implementing agency, working in the education sector. She returned to the Tata Trusts in 2014 . Her role included strategy development, conceptualizing, evolving and nurturing new institutional and programmatic initiatives as well as contributing towards the evolution and implementation of program and project development norms and procedures.

Sanjay is an advocate at the Supreme Court of India. He is also the founder and Managing Director of India's first environmental law firm, the Enviro Legal Defence Firm. He was an India Visiting Fellow at the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, Global Fellow at Duke Marine Lab, Duke University, USA and a legal intern to the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, San Francisco. He lives in New Delhi with his family.

Bala Devi Ningthoujam joined PRADAN in 2002 after completing Masters in Social Work from Delhi University. Since then she has worked on programs related to Community Institutions, livelihood, Gender Equality, Governance and Natural Resource Management in Jharkhand. During last five years, she spearheaded operations across 35 micro watersheds covering 15,000 Hectare of land area under flagship scheme of PMKSY by Government of India. She anchors ‘National Resource Centre for Livelihoods’ (NRCL), Jharkhand, a knowledge partner to National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). As Integrator, Bala specifically oversees function of a Development Cluster comprising of Four districts based at Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Alak has done masters in agriculture in Genetics and Plant Breeding. In 2018, he has received the Australia Awards Fellowships program for study on nutrition-sensitive agriculture. In the year 2012, Alak worked with IDE- Ethiopia to identify innovative solutions for water management. In the year 2011, he was invited by Rockfeller foundation for a collaborative practitioner residency on women Self Help Groups & their institutions. Alak has widespread experience in community-led livelihood enhancement, in particular on the development of natural resource management and sustainable farming systems.

Saroj Kr. Mahapatra has more than 26 years of experience of working with State Government Projects, multi-stakeholder networks, and several projects of WFP, IFAD, UNICEF, MGNREGA and NRLM with focus on participatory planning process involving the marginalised households in remotest area of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. He directly worked with poor communities of Central India tribal pocket and has been instrumental in preparing the Integrated Natural Resource Management manual for MGNREGA implementation of Ministry of Rural Development, GoI. Saroj holds a Master of Engineering in Hydraulics and Irrigation Engineering from UCE, Burla.

For most of her 23-years career, Archana has remained engaged in on-ground development practice with tribal communities in one of the poorest pockets of Madhya Pradesh, India. She is empanelled as National Resource Person (Gender) at NRLM Resource Cell, National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad, India. She was selected by UNWomen as a delegate advocate for rural women’s economic rights at 61st and 62nd sessions of CSW (Commission for Status of Women) held in New York in March 2017 and March 2018. She is a member of National Facilitation Team (NFT) of MAKAAM – Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (www.makaam.in). Archana holds a Ph.D. in Development Communication and has completed graduation and post-graduation in Agriculture Science.

Bala Devi Ningthoujam joined PRADAN in 2002 after completing Masters in Social Work from Delhi University. Since then she has worked on programs related to Community Institutions, livelihood, Gender Equality, Governance and Natural Resource Management in Jharkhand. During last five years, she spearheaded operations across 35 micro watersheds covering 15,000 Hectare of land area under flagship scheme of PMKSY by Government of India. She anchors ‘National Resource Centre for Livelihoods’ (NRCL), Jharkhand, a knowledge partner to National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). As Integrator, Bala specifically oversees function of a Development Cluster comprising of Four districts based at Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Avijit is a Masters in Economics from Kalyani University, West Bengal. He joined PRADAN in 1997. He has extensive grassroots experience working with women Self Help Groups on Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM), agriculture, forest-based livelihoods and local governance. He has led action research partnerships with international organisations and pioneered new thematic areas in PRADAN like Adult Functional Literacy & Child protection, WATSAN and Nutrition. Currently he leads the Resource Mobilisation, Communications and Partnerships efforts of PRADAN. As Nutrition thematic anchor, he continues to build knowledge, internal human resource, competencies and evidence base for the work.

Yoganand joined PRADAN in 1994. In between, he also worked for 2 Years with Jharkhand Water Resource Department in capacity of a Consultant. He has extensive experience of promoting Livelihoods, TASAR Development, and Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM). In PRADAN, Yoganand successfully pioneered a pilot demonstration with ICRISAT for Pigeon pea (Arhar Daal) cultivation. He also has elaborate Project Management Experience. From 2015 onwards, he has been heading Finance, Accounts & Administration unit at PRADAN’s Corporate/Head Office (the unit comprises Procurement function as well). Additionally, he’s also a member of the Management Unit. He holds a bachelor’s degree in B. Tech. Civil Engineering and PGDM from IIM Ranchi.

He has been with PRADAN since 1997. He is a graduate in Agricultural Engineering from Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar. He has pioneered the Agriculture Production Clusters with small and marginal farmers as an approach for livelihood enhancement of rural poor in India. He served in many senior management positions. Currently he is integrating PRADAN’s operation in South Odisha region, and also a member of Management Committee which oversees the overall management of PRADAN. He is also in the board of PRADAN.

She is a senior grassroots development professional with more than two decades of experience. She spearheaded the use of ICT for streamlining SHG financial management systems. She has extensive experience in working with tribal women collectives around their livelihoods and gender aspects. In the past few years, she co-created several community process toolkits which are extensively used in capacity building programs for the marginalized. She is also a skilled trainer of Achievement Motivation and Entrepreneurship, Group Processes, Gender Equality, and Human Process Laboratories. Tamali possesses a Master's degree in Biophysics from the University of Kalyani, West Bengal.

Alak has done masters in agriculture in Genetics and Plant Breeding. In 2018, he has received the Australia Awards Fellowships program for study on nutrition-sensitive agriculture. In the year 2012, Alak worked with IDE- Ethiopia to identify innovative solutions for water management. In the year 2011, he was invited by Rockfeller foundation for a collaborative practitioner residency on women Self Help Groups & their institutions. Alak has widespread experience in community-led livelihood enhancement, in particular on the development of natural resource management and sustainable farming systems.

Arnab has more than 28 years’ experience in working with and for institutions of smallholder women farmers and leading collaborative projects with government and civil society organizations. His expertise lies in developing community-based organizations, integrated natural resource management, farm-based livelihoods, and enhancing income opportunities for smallholder women farmers. Contributing to development research is one of his core interest areas. A Master in Agricultural Economics, Arnab was the recipient of the Rotary Peace Fellowship by The Rotary Foundation for International Studies in the peace and conflict resolution program, in 2014. The same year, he was appointed as an Australian Award Mentor by the Honourable Australian High commissioner. Arnab is also the recipient of the John Dillion Fellowship from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in 2008.

Sahana has 24 years of experience working on gender, sustainable agriculture, and natural resource management. She has worked extensively in building women collectives for their socio-economic-political empowerment. Sahana has worked closely with government departments in MP, Odisha, and Bihar. She is skilled in designing and implementing large-scale development projects at the grassroots in partnership with government and non-government agencies. She is a Graduate in Economics and has a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management and was a fellow in the Leadership Development Program at McCain Institute of International Leadership in the USA. Currently, she integrates the operations of Bihar and works closely with Govt. of Bihar on issues of gender and agriculture.

Saroj Kr. Mahapatra has more than 26 years of experience of working with State Government Projects, multi-stakeholder networks, and several projects of WFP, IFAD, UNICEF, MGNREGA and NRLM with focus on participatory planning process involving the marginalised households in remotest area of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. He directly worked with poor communities of Central India tribal pocket and has been instrumental in preparing the Integrated Natural Resource Management manual for MGNREGA implementation of Ministry of Rural Development, GoI. Saroj holds a Master of Engineering in Hydraulics and Irrigation Engineering from UCE, Burla.