M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, India
Dr. Govind Kelkar is Senior Adviser to Landesa India, New Delhi and was Senior Adviser, Economic Empowerment Programme at UN-Women, New Delhi. In a series of concurrent assignments, she holds the positions of Research Adviser to Women’s Access to Justice in Plural Legal Systems in South East Asia, sponsored by UN-Women and APWLD. She has taught at University of Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok. At AIT, Dr. Kelkar founded the graduate programme in Gender and Development Studies and the journal, Gender, Technology and Development.
V. Selvam is the Executive Director of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, academically specialized in Marine Biology – Mangrove Ecology. He has executed seven international and national projects and carried out extensive research and development work in coastal areas especially in conservation of mangroves and coastal resources. He serves as a member in many national and international committees including National Coordination Board of the IUCN-Mangroves for Future Programme.
R. Rengalakshmi is coordinating Gender and development initiatives in M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. She is academically trained in agriculture and involved in inter-disciplinary development research for the past two decades in sustainable agriculture, climate change, natural resource management, gender and collective actions.
Dr. Dev Nathan is working as a professor in Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, and serves as visiting research fellow, Duke University, Durham. Apart from this, he has been acting as member of many research coordination committees, and worked with people’s organizations of tribals (indigenous peoples), peasants, and workers in different parts of India, from 1973 to 1990. He serves as a co-editor of Development Trajectories in Global Value Chains, Cambridge University Press and has several eminent publications to his credit.
Ms. Manjula M is an Agriculture Economist, working in the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. She has more than a decade’s experience in applied quantitative and qualitative social science research in the fields of Agriculture, Food Security, Climate Change, and Ecosystem Services. Currently she is pursuing her PhD research from the University of Madras in the area of ‘Household Fuel Choice in rural India’.
Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal
Mr. Ganesh Ram Shrestha is the Executive Director, Center for Rural Technology, Nepal (CRT/N). He has held this position since 1989. In all these years he has led the organisation towards rural development focusing specifically in energy intervention He has vast experiences of working with government and private organisations at both national and international organisations. He also has the experience of working as an international consultant in Bhutan, Maldives, Laos, and Myanmar.
Dr. Purushottam Shrestha holds Ph. D in Economics from Tribhuvan University Kirtipur Kathmandu and M.A Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands. He is a Director of Climate Change and Program Support Division of Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal (CRT/N). He has more than 30 years of experience in rural finance, microfinance, renewable energy, training, research and project planning.
Dr. Indira Shakya holds doctorate in Economics, currently working with Centre for Rural Technology, Kathmandu, Nepal as gender expert. She has been working on issues related to technology development and climate change approaches in addressing sustainable livelihoods enhancement both at the national and international levels especially on renewable energy sector. She is involved in training and E-coaching on gender mainstreaming of energy projects.
Ashma PakhrinTamang is an Agriculture Engineer with a specialization on ‘Renewable Energy’. She did her Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from Institute of Engineering. Currently she is engaged in the capacity of Monitoring, Communication and Advocacy Officer in the project ‘Promoting Women-led Enterprises for Energy Access and Local Production- WEE Nepal’ implemented by Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal (CRT/N) with the support of ENERGIA.