People

FMES Managing Committee (2016-2019)

Amita Pitre, Member, Lead Specialist- Gender Justice, Oxfam India
Barun Mukhopadhyay, Member, Professor, Biological Anthropology Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. WB.
Lubna Duggal, Member, Assistant editor, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) Mumbai. MH.
Sanjay Nagral, Chairperson, MS-General Surgeon and Gastroenterologist, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai. MH.
Shamim Modi, Member, Assistant Professor, Chairperson, Centre for Law and Society, School of Law, Rights and Constitutional Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. MH.
Sunita Sheel Bandewar, General Secretary, Director, FMES’ HEaL Institute; Working Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. Mumbai. MH.
Sunita Simon Kurpad, Member, Professor and Head, Department of Medical Ethics, St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru. KA.

Leadership (2016-2019)

Sunita Sheel Bandewar, Director (2018 onwards)

Team

Mahendra Shinde, Finance and Admin In-charge (2018 onwards)
Navneet Wadkar, Program Officer (2018 onwards)
Nikita Surani, Sr. Program Officer (2018-2019)
Pranay Nakrekar, Support Staff (2019)
Shahnawaz Islam, Marketing and Promotion Officer cum Technical Support (2019)
Vijay Sawant, Admin and Website Manager (2019 onwards)

Affiliates & Subject Experts

Amita Pitre, Lead Specialist- Gender Justice, Oxfam India
Anant Bhan, Independent Sr Research Professional in Global Health and Bioethics; Visiting Professor, Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya University, Mangaluru. KA.
Dilnaz Boga, Freelance Journalist and Researcher, Mumbai. MH.
Olinda Timms, Dr. Olinda Timms is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Health and Humanities at St. John's Research Institute, Bangalore. KA
Supriya Subramani, Postdoctoral Fellow/Stehr-Boldt Fellow, Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zurich.

Speakers and Chairs at the Round Tables and Grand Rounds

Abhay Shukla, Senior Programme Coordinator, Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives (SATHI), Pune. MH.
Amar Jesani, Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME); Visting Faculty: Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya University, Managalore, and Centre
for Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantations, Karachi;  Mumbai, MH.
Amita Pitre, Independent Sr Researcher and Consultant, Gender and Public health, Mumbai. MH.
Anant Bhan, Independent Sr Research Professional in Global Health and Bioethics; Visiting Professor, Centre for Ethics,
Yenepoya University, Mangaluru. KA.
Anup Surendranath, Professor, National Law University, (NLU), Delhi and is also Director of the Centre on the Death Penalty. Delhi.
Ashish Srivastava, Advisor and leads the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Development domain at Centre for Study of Science,
Technology and Policy (CSTEP), Bangalore, KA.
Ashwini Kalantri, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Wardha, MH.
C D Sebastian, Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Bombay. MH.
Denny John, Evidence Synthesis Specialist, Campbell Collaboration, Global Development Network, New Delhi.
Jaya Sagade, Director, Women’s Studies Center, ILS Law College, Pune. MH.
Maitreyi Misra, Research Associate, National Law University, New Delhi.
Mathew George, Associate Professor, Centre for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, TISS, Mumbai. MH.
Meera Baindur, Professor, Guest faculty and coordinator of the Philosophy Department at Bengaluru Central University, Bengaluru. KA.
Nilesh Gawde, Professor, Chairperson – Centre for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, TISS, Mumbai. MH.
Radhika Ramkrishanan, Programme Officer, Centre for Internet and Society, New Delhi.
Ravi Duggal, Independent Researcher and Health Activist, Mumbai. MH.
Richard Cash, Senior Lecturer, International Health, Department of Global Health & Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health,
Boston. USA.
Ritu Priya, Professor, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Ruth Macklin, Distinguished University Professor Emerita, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA.
Sandeep Mahamuni, Dr. Sandeep Mahamuni is alumnus of prestigious Seth G.S. Medical College Mumbai. MH.
Sandhya Srinivasan, Freelance Journalist and Researcher, Consulting Editor of IJME, Mumbai, MH.
Sara Hodges, Professor, University of Chicago, USA; Visiting professor at Jawaharla Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Shamim Modi, Assistant Professor, Chairperson, Centre for Law and Society, School of Law, Rights and Constitutional Governance,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, MH.
Shivaram Kalyanakrishnan, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT, Bombay. MH.
Shisir Jha, Professor, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay. MH.
Siby George, Associate Professor, Philosophy at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay. MH.
Soumitra Pathare, Course Co-ordinator, Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at ILS, Pune, MH.
Sulakshana Nandi, Public Health Professional, Public Health Resource Network, Raipur, CG.
Sunil K. Pandya, Editor Emeritus, IJME, Neurosurgeon, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai. MH.
Sunita Sheel Bandewar, Director, FMES’s HEaL Institute; Gen Sec, Forum for Medical Ethics Society, Mumbai-Pune, MH.
Surajit Nundy, Raxa Health Intelligence Services, New Delhi.
Usha Ramanathan, SC, Advocate and Sr. Research Professional,
Vijay Hiremath, Independent Lawyer and Legal Consultant, Mumbai. MH.

Faculty for Bioethics Training Programs (2018-19)

Short-Duration Intensive Training Program in Social Science and Public Health Research, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Amar Jesani, Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME); Visting Faculty: Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya University, Managalore, and Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantations, Karachi;  Mumbai, MH.
Mala Ramanathan, Professor, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum
Srijit Mishra, Director, Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies, Bhubaneswar, an Affiliate Institute of Indian Council for Social Science Research.
Sunita Sheel Bandewar, Director, FMES’s HEaL Institute; Gen Sec, Forum for Medical Ethics Society, Mumbai-Pune, MH.

Short-Duration Intensive Training Program in Biomedical Research Ethics, Kolkata, West Bengal
Amar Jesani, Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME); Visting Faculty: Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya University, Managalore, and Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantations, Karachi;  Mumbai, MH.
Anant Bhan, Independent Sr Research Professional in Global Health and Bioethics; Visiting Professor, Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya University, Mangaluru. KA.
Shantanu Tripathi, Professor and Head, Department Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata.
Sunita Sheel Bandewar, Director, FMES’s HEaL Institute; Gen Sec, Forum for Medical Ethics Society, Mumbai-Pune, MH.

Short-Duration Intensive Training Program in Public Health Ethics, Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Core Faculty
Amar Jesani, Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME); Visting Faculty: Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya University, Managalore, and Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantations, Karachi;  Mumbai, MH.
Anant Bhan, Independent Sr Research Professional in Global Health and Bioethics; Visiting Professor, Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya University, Mangaluru. KA.
Mathew George, Associate Professor, Centre for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, TISS, Mumbai. MH.
P. Manickam, Scientist E, ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE), Chennai,
Sunita Sheel Bandewar, Director, FMES’s HEaL Institute; Gen Sec, Forum for Medical Ethics Society, Mumbai-Pune, MH.
Tarun Bhatnagar, Scientist E and FETP Coordinator, ICMR School of Public Health, ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai.

Guest Faculty
Amita Pitre, Independent Sr Researcher and Consultant, Gender and Public health, Mumbai, MH.
Kajal Bhardwaj, Human Rights lawyer, Delhi
Kaustubh Joag, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Mental Health, Law & Policy, Pune, MH.
Nilangi Nanal-Sardeshpande, Consultant and Sr Health Researcher, Pune, MH.
Nilesh Gawde, Professor, Chairperson – Centre for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, TISS, Mumbai, MH.
Ravi Duggal, Independent Researcher and Health Activist, Mumbai. MH.
Sambuddha Chaudhuri, Post Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bomaby (IITB), Mumbai, MH.

Interns (2018-2019)
Iswari Kale, Master’s Student, Sir Parshuram College, Pune, MH.
Swati Jadhav, Master’s Student, Sir Parshuram College, Pune, MH.

Creative Artist (2018 onwards)
Sangeeta Gandhe, Writer/Translator, Pune, MH
Sayan Das, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Videography Artist (2018 onwards)
Anand Pagare, Pukar Films Production, Nashik, MH.

Managing Committee

Sanjay Nagral, Chairperson

Dr Sanjay Nagral is a surgeon with specialisation in hepato-pancreatobiliary surgery and liver transplantation, who practises in Mumbai both in the public and private sector. He is a consultant surgeon and coordinator of the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology at Jaslok Hospital. He is also Head of the department of eneral surgery at the KB Bhabha Municipal General Hospital, Bandra, Mumbai. He was involved in the first successful liver transplant programme in Western India. He is also involved in postgraduate training as a guide for Surgical Gastroenterology and General Surgery training programmes. He has 80 publications in peer reviewed medical journals to his credit. He is the joint secretary of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee based in Mumbai, which regulates cadaveric transplant activity in Mumbai and the chairperson of its liver committee. He is the publisher and a member of the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics and chairperson of the Forum for Medical Ethics. He is also involved with the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, which is the Indian circle of the worldwide Peoples’ Health Movement. Dr Nagral regularly writes on issues related to public health, medical ethics and organ transplantation. He has contributed to various publications including the Times of India, Hindustan Times, Mumbai Mirror, Economic & Political Weekly, Rediff.com, National Medical Journal of India, the British Medical Journal, scroll.in and thewire.in.

Sunita Sheel Bandewar, General Secretary

Dr. Sunita Bandewar has training in Anthropology and Bioethics. She was with CEHAT 2013 Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes, Anusandhan Trust, for 15 years. She was awarded an International Fellowship by the International Fogarty Centre, NIH, USA, to pursue a Masters in Health Sciences (Bioethics) at the Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto, Canada, in 2003-04. Her engagement with health as a field of enquiry over these past 20 years is primarily via empirical research and advocacy in the areas of women and health, global health, and bioethics. She was a senior research fellow in bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto on the initiative titled 201 Ethical, Social, Cultural Program in Global Health 201, Canada, for five years. Through this programme, she had extensive opportunities to work in the African continent and engage with the newer ethical challenges in global health. She has published a number of papers in peer reviewed journals. Amongst others, she serves on the International Ethics Review Board, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Geneva; and as Secretary on the Managing Committee, Forum for Medical Ethics Society, Mumbai, the publisher of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME). She served on the Board of Trustees of Sama Resource Group for Women and Health, New Delhi between 2013 and 2016. Her primary engagement is her association with the IJME, as one of the working editors. She is deeply involved in organisational matters with FMES. She is affiliated to the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and is also one of the founding trustees of Vidhayak Trust, Pune. Besides these commitments as a volunteer, she works independently as a senior research professional, a consultant and a trainer in the areas of bioethics, global health, research methodology, programme evaluation and policy analysis

Ms. Lubna Duggal, Member

Ms Lubna Duggal is assistant editor with the Economic & Political Weekly (EPW). She has been working at EPW since 2012. She is also treasurer-member of the managing committee of the Forum for Medical Ethics Society, which publishes the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. She has studied philosophy at Sophia College, Mumbai and at the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University. Her interests include moral, analytic and feminist philosophy.

Amita Pitre

Amita Pitre has a Master's in Public Health and is currently working towards her Ph.D. in Women's Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India. She has worked for nearly 15 years in the development sector, mostly on issues of gender and health. Her research looks at how systemic gender, class, and caste discrimination operate within society and is directed at making recommendations for policy change. Her current project will look at judgments and trial court data in rape cases in order to understand how medical evidence is used in the adjudication of cases. She is also interested in looking at how women's bodies are constructed in the process of the trial and how meaning is made of medical evidence.

Barun Mukhopadhyay, Member

Dr Barun Mukhopadhyay is currently a professor attached to the biological anthropology unit, Indian Statistical institute, Kolkata. He earned his Ph D degree in anthropology from the University of Calcutta. He remained engaged in research on demographic aspects and sociocultural determinants of health and healthcare of the tribal populations of Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalaya since 1980s. His other major areas of research interest are: the biocultural dimensions of ageing, ethno-biology, and bioethics. He has conducted several research projects on these topics and has several publications in international and national journals including edited volumes. He has been regularly presenting his research findings at international and national conferences in anthropology and other related disciplines. He is engaged in various ways in matters of post-graduate education in anthropology. He currently serves as one of the associate editors of the Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society, and as one of the consulting editors of the journal, Collegium Antropologicum.

Shamim Modi, Member

Ms Shamim Modi has received formal training in psychology from the Jesus and Mary College, New Delhi and completed her post graduation in clinical psychology from Lady Shriram College, New Delhi. She completed her M Phil in social psychology from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Shamim also holds a degree in law from Barkatullah University, Bhopal, MP. She has worked with OXFAM (India) Trust for a short period of time in 1990, before she moved on to mobilising the tribal communities in Madhya Pradesh. She is one of the founder members of the Shramik Adivasi Sanghatana (SAS), a tribal rights organisation engaged in empowering tribal and dalit communities in seeking justice in cases of gross violation of their rights. She has been a member of the working group on empowerment of Scheduled Tribes under the 11th Five Year Plan of the central government. Ms Modi has been a full- time socio-political activist for the last 24 years, before joining the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, in May 2009 as a full-time faculty member. She currently chairs the Centre for Law and Society under the School of Law, Rights and Constitutional Governance at TISS. She also co-coordinates the Masters in Laws in Access to Justice Programme. She is involved in conducting trainings and workshops with staff of the Indian civil and police services on the issue of emotional intelligence for effective, efficient and sensitive functioning. She has been engaged with the Central Industrial Security Force on a long term basis to develop the counselling skills of its personnel to deal with suicides and fratricides. She has also been engaged in training educators to make pedagogical interventions to enhance the emotional competencies of the teachers/educators and developing their skills to inculcate empathy and compassion in students.

Sunita Simon Kurpad, Member

Dr Sunita Simon Kurpad is Professor and former Head, Department of Psychiatry, and Professor and current Head, Department of Medical Ethics, St. John's 2019 Medical College, Bengaluru. After completing her MBBS from St John's 2019 Medical College, she did her MRC Psychiatry from Cambridge University, UK. After obtaining her DNB Psychiatry, she has been a faculty member at St Johnu's 2019 for more than twenty years. She is actively involved in clinical work, teaching and research-teaching medical undergraduates, postgraduates across various disciplines, paramedical students and students in health administration courses at St John's 2019. Her work on sexual and non sexual boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship with colleagues in The Bangalore Declaration Group was instrumental in getting the Medical Council of India to include this topic in the proposed revised medical undergraduate MBBS curriculum for 2013. She is Co-chairperson of the Indian Psychiatric Society Task Force on Boundary Guidelines and involved in drafting guidelines for doctors on sexual boundaries in India.

Team

Mahendra Shinde, Finance and Admin In-charge

Mahender is post graduate in commerce, with a Diploma in Financial Management and Government Diploma in Co-operation and Accountancy. He is certified GST practitioner and has worked on documentation, taxation and statutory compliances from a project point of view.

Nikita Surani, Sr. Program Officer

Nikita Surani is a public health professional with over 8 years of experience in public health research, project management, scientific writing, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy, and stakeholder engagements. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Dentistry, a Master's Degree in Public Health, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Care Quality Management. During the course of her public health career, she has worked with various national and international non profits, academic institutes, and development organizations such as Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, Salaam Bombay Foundation, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, SNEHA, SWASTH India, Aga Khan Foundation, and Aga Khan Development Network to name a few. The areas of public health that she has worked on include non communicable diseases, tobacco control, health insurance, maternal and child health, adolescent health, nutrition, mental health, and

Shahnawaz Islam, Marketing and Promotion Officer cum Technical Support

Shahnawaz has an education in Sociology. He has worked in content development, journalism, marketing, and e-governance. He is interested in various sociological issues particularly social change.

Pranay Nakrekar, Support Staff

Pranay Nakrekar has completed his HSC from D. G. Tatkare College, Raigad. He has been associated with FMES from February 2019 as an Office Assistant.

Vijay Sawant, Admin and Website Manager

Vijay has vast experience in library administration. He has completed his bachelors in Library Science and has in-depth knowledge of various library software, open sources and website management. He has previously worked with the Centre of Enquiry into Health and Allied Trust for over 24 years.

Affiliates & Subject Experts

Amita Pitre

Amita Pitre has a Master's in Public Health and is currently working towards her Ph.D. in Women's Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India. She has worked for nearly 15 years in the development sector, mostly on issues of gender and health. Her research looks at how systemic gender, class, and caste discrimination operate within society and is directed at making recommendations for policy change. Her current project will look at judgments and trial court data in rape cases in order to understand how medical evidence is used in the adjudication of cases. She is also interested in looking at how women's bodies are constructed in the process of the trial and how meaning is made of medical evidence.

Anant Bhan

Member, Ethics and Scientific Advisory Group, Anant Bhan is trained as a medical doctor with a masters 2019 degree in bioethics from the University of Toronto. He is a researcher in the fields of Global Health, Health Policy and Bioethics and is also an Adjunct Visiting Professor in the Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), Mangaluru, India.

Dilnaz Boga

Dilnaz Boga is a freelance journalist and researcher based in Mumbai. She has written and taken photographs for several Indian and international publications and websites such as The Guardian, L' Humanite (France), Al Jazeera (Qatar), Frai (Sweden), Dawn (Pakistan), New Internationalist (UK), Asia Sentinel (Hong Kong), Himal (Sri Lanka), The Rising Nepal (Nepal), India Spend, The Hindu Business Line, Daily News Analysis, Hindustan Times, The Crest edition of the Times of India, The Sunday Times, Scroll, Fountain Ink, The Caravan magazine Countercurrents, South Asia Citizen Web, The Hoot, Galli, South Asia One World, Women Features Service, The Tribune, Press Institute of India, The Better India and Info Change. Dilnaz has covered issues like health, development, conflict, human interest, civic, education, and crime. In 2019, she completed her Ph.D. at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on the local, national, and international media coverage of the conflict-torn region of Indian Kashmir from 1990 to 2010.

Olinda Timms

Dr. Olinda Timms is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Health and Humanities at St. John's Research Institute, Bangalore. She is author of ‘Biomedical Ethics’ 2nd Ed. (Elsevier) and Working Editor of Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. She is an Anesthesiologist and alumnus of Christian Medical College, Vellore and has worked as Consultant Anesthesiologist at Private and Mission Hospitals in Bangalore since 1987. Her interest in the field of Medical Ethics led to a Post Graduate Diploma in Medical Law and Ethics from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, a Post Graduate Diploma in Bioethics from the Indian Council of Medical Research, and is a Fellow in Research Ethics from WIRB, Seattle. She has been teaching and writing on Medical Ethics and has many publications on these issues in local newspapers and magazines. In March 2016, her book 2018 Biomedical Ethics 2019 was published by Elsevier India. She has written the curriculum on Medical Ethics for the IGNOU BSc. course in Allied Health Sciences and is Adjunct faculty at CMC Vellore for Research Ethics. Dr. Timms currently serves as Chairperson of the Institution Ethics Committee of St Martha 2019s Hospital, Bangalore and Bangalore Baptist Hospital.

Others ( Chairs, Faculty, Speakers )

Abhay Shukla

Dr. Abhay Shukla is a Public health physician, with a postgraduate degree in Community Medicine from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Since 1995 he has been working on health issues in Maharashtra, in collaboration with people 2019s movements and grassroots NGOs. He is presently Coordinator of SATHI-CEHAT, is a member of the National Rural Health Mission Advisory Group for Community Action, and is one of the national organisers of People 2019s Health Movement 2013 India. He has co-edited / co-authored the books 2018 Review of Health care in India 2019, 2018 Report on Health inequities in Maharashtra 2019, 2018 Health system in India 2013 crisis and alternatives 2019 and 2018 The Rights Approach to Health and Health care 2019. He coordinated the national secretariat of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (PHM-India) during 2003 to 2008 and was centrally involved in organisation of JSA's Right to Health care campaign. He has played an active role in developing the framework of Community based monitoring and planning (CBMP) of health services at national level, and is involved in coordinating implementation of CBMP in Maharashtra. Along with his team members, Abhay is actively involved in promoting regulation of the private medical sector and discussions on a public-centred system for Universal Health Care in India.

Amar Jesani

Amar Jesani, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics: He is an independent researcher and teacher in bioethics and public health. He is the co-founder of the Forum for Medical Ethics Society and its journal, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (www.ijme.in), published since 1993, and presently its editor. He is a Visiting Faculty at the Centre for Ethics, Yenepoya University, Mangalore (since 2011), the Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Culture, Karachi (since 2010) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi (since 2017). He is a Member of the Institutional Review Board of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai and International Ethics Review Board of the Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF).

Anup Surendranath

Dr. Anup Surendranath teaches Constitutional Law at NLU Delhi and is also Director of the Centre on the Death Penalty, which currently comprises the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic and the Death Penalty Research Project. He was invited by Chief Justice RM Lodha (as he then was) in May 2014 to serve as the Deputy Registrar (Research) in the Supreme Court and was on deputation to the Supreme Court until August 2015. The only other instance of an academic being invited to the Supreme Court for a similar assignment was almost 30 years ago, in the late 80s, under Chief Justice PN Bhagwati. The Death Penalty Research Project and the resultant Death Penalty India Report (released in May 2016) is of tremendous importance, given that it is the first-ever empirical work on the administration of the death penalty in India. The Project, initiated in June 2013 in collaboration with the National Legal Services Authority, seeks to develop a socio-economic profile of prisoners sentenced to death in India and also map their interaction with the criminal justice system. Over 90 students were involved with the project in different phases and the project was entirely supported by the University. The findings of the project received extensive and prominent coverage in the national media and was also covered by major international publications like the New York Times and The Guardian. To build on the work of the Death Penalty Research Project, the Centre on the Death Penalty was established at the University. Currently staffed with 18 full time staff comprising researchers, lawyers and administrative staff, the Centre is involved in the carrying out three major research projects and also in ensuring effective legal representation for 55 prisoners sentenced to death across various prisons in India. He has been responsible for establishing many student-led initiatives in the University like the INSAAF Legal Aid Project, Public Law and Policy Discussion Group and the Cinema Club. His doctoral research at the University of Oxford, supervised by Professor Sandra Fredman, was on equality and anti-discrimination in the context of reservation (affirmative action) policies in India.

Ashish Srivastava

Ashish Srivastava is an advisor and leads the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Development domain at CSTEP. With over two decades of experience in the IT industry, he has managed global IT businesses, directed the rollout of several programmes, and functioned as the head of an IT Product Company. He is an Enterprise Architect specialising in the Telecom Domain and has led initiatives in AI and IoT. Ashish has been providing ICT consulting and leadership for application of IT solutions to public-policy challenges, such as e-governance and energy optimisation. He holds a BTech from IIT (BHU) and PG Certificate in Economics from the University of London.

Ashwini Kalantri

Dr Ashwini Kalantri, MD is Assistant Professor of Community Medicine at MGIMS. He obtained MD from MGIMS in 2015.nHe leads the Hospital Management Information System development at the Kasturba Hospital. He is also in-charge of the Rural Health Training Center at Bhidi.nHis interests lie at the intersection of technology and healthcare. He dreams of a system that is able to harness the power of technology and at the same time being invisible to the end-user. A system that truly simplifies work processes.

CD Sebastian

Prof. C. D. Sebastian C. D. Sebastian has been holding a permanent faculty position since 2004 (and now he is Professor of Indian Philosophy) in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India. He holds his M.A. in Indian Philosophy (First Rank with Distinction and two Gold Medals from Banaras Hindu University) and Ph. D. in Indian Philosophy with specialism in Buddhism (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi). He did his Postdoctoral Research at the University of Bristol, UK. He was also DAAD Fellow at the University of Erfurt, Germany. He is editor Journal of Sacred Scriptures. He has published more than 110 papers on many aspects of Indian philosophy, and Buddhism in particular, and his books include Metaphysics and Mysticism in Mahayana Buddhism (Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series No. 238, 2005) and Recent Researches in Buddhist Studies (Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series No. 248, 2008), The Cloud of Nothings: The Negative Way in Nagarjuna and John of the Cross (Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, Vol 19 2013 London, New York and New Delhi: Springer, 2016), and Buddhism: Essays on Ethics and Religion (Delhi: Buddhist World Press, forthcoming). For more details see his URL: http://www.hss.iitb.ac.in/en/faculty-profile/prof-c-d-sebastian-

Denny John

Denny John, Evidence Synthesis Specialist.nDenny has experience of working across several review types, such as effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, barriers/facilitators, prevalence, risk/etiology and diagnostic test accuracy. Dennyu2019s research focuses mainly on economic evidence in systematic reviews including equity components. With a background in epidemiology and health economics, he has considerable methodological and statistical expertise, including conducting cost-effectiveness alongside randomized controlled trials and observational studies, as well systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Denny is Co-Convenor, Cochrane & Campbell Economic Methods Group (CCEMG), and Advisory Member, Disability Coordinating Group, Campbell Collaboration. He has been part of review groups of World Health Organisation (WHO) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Jaya Sagade

Dr. Jaya Sagade: Doctorate in Law; her research areas are women's rights, violence against women, mental health and law; Retired as Vice Principal from ILS Law College, Pune. Currently is Director, Women's Studies Center, ILS Law College.

Kajal Bhardwaj

Kaustubh Joag

Kaustubh Joag : Dr. Kaustubh Joag is a trained as psychiatrist from Mumbai University. He is working as a senior research fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Indian Law Society, Pune since 2009. He has a faculty for the 2018 International Diploma in Mental health, Human rights and Law run by Indian Law Society, Pune. He is larger interest is in community mental health and he is leading a community-based project called 2018 Atmiyata 2019. The project aims to improve access to mental health and social care in rural parts of India.

Maitreyi Misra

Maitreyi Misra earned her B.B.A.LL.B. Degree from Symbiosis Law School, Pune. She holds a Masters of Law from New York University. She was an International Law and Human Rights Fellow as part of which she worked with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Before joining the National Law University, Delhi Maitreyi worked with Mr. Anand Grover and assisted him in his work as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health.

Mala Ramanathan

Mala Ramanathan Professor, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum

Mathew George

Mathew George is Associate Professor with the Centre for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has a basic training in Public Health with a doctorate in Social Medicine and Community Health from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) New Delhi. His background in public health has created a keen interest in developing a social epidemiological approach in public health as it is relevant in Indian context. Currently he is engaged with research on the scope of restructuring the Indian Health Services System from a public health perspective. As a passion he is also engaged in the field of Sociology of Health and Illness with special emphasis on the sociology of medical practice and medical knowledge in biomedicine and also interaction between multiple systems of medicine.

Meera Baindur

Dr. Meera Baindur is a Researcher and philosophy pedagogue based in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Currently, she is guest faculty and coordinator of the Philosophy Department at Bengaluru Central University. She has a doctoral degree from philosophy National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore in Environmental Humanities. Earlier, she stayed with village communities in the Himalayas for a few years, (1991-1997) working directly on environment and sustainability issues. Her research interests include environmental philosophy and environmental humanities: conceptualization of nature in Indian thought, ecological sustainability, cultural geography and environmental ethics. Her recent publications include papers related to the idea of place and cultural geography. Her publications include many contributions on environmental humanities and place and she also has authored a book titled “Nature in Indian Philosophy and Cultural traditions" published by Springer International. She has taught and lectured on traditional Indian philosophy, Philosophy of religion, Hinduism, mythology, and narratives. Her recent work focuses on body and gender issues in Indian philosophy related to health and gender.

Nilangi Nanal-Sardeshpande

Dr. Nilangi Sardeshpande is an Ayurveda graduate with Masters in Health Sciences. Nilangi received doctoral degree in Social Sciences from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Her doctoral research focused on women 2019s access to health services, with reference to young women who underwent hysterectomy. Other areas of research are health equity, public health system functioning and nutrition. Currently she is working as a consultant for a SDGs related project being implemented by SAHAJ. She is also a steering committee member of CommonHealth, which is a coalition working on reproductive health with emphasis on safe abortion and maternal health. Nilangi is working as a member of ethics committee for organizations like Anusandhan Trust, Prayas (Pune) and Vishawanand Kendra (Pune). Having received training for evaluation, Nilangi also undertakes evaluations for community-based health related projects. Currently, her work is more in the SDGs especially the goals related to health and gender equality.

Nilesh Gawde

Dr. Nilesh Gawde (MD PSM), Assistant Professor, Center for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He has worked in the past for HIV and TB control programmes and is also currently associated with these in various capacities. He is involved in teaching MPH programmes at TISS. His research interests include TB, HIV, migration and environmental health. Among his publications, include two commentaries on ethics in public health interventions.

P. Manickam

P. Manickam serves as Scientist E (Epidemiology) at ICMR-NIE. He is a physician in Siddha Medicine, the counterpart of Ayurveda in South India. He did Masters and Ph.D., in Epidemiology. He serves as core faculty for two-year Masters in field epidemiology/public health programmes of ICMR School of Public Health since 2001. He co-ordinates development and running of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in health research. He teaches in several short-term training programmes. His core areas are (a) teaching and training in field epidemiology (b) public health preparedness and surveillance during mass gatherings (c) programme evaluation (d) chemotherapeutic trials for leprosy (e) clinical research in traditional medicine. He has published 42 papers and two chapters in books.

Radhika Radhakrishnan

Radhika Radhakrishnan is a Programme Officer at The Centre for Internet and Society where she conducts research on regulatory policies for AI. She is also a former Consultant on Gender & Access at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum. She obtained her M.A. in Women's Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai in 2019, and has a B.E. in Computer Science Engineering. She researches questions at the intersection of gender and emerging technologies from a critical feminist perspective through ethnographic methods. Her current research is focused on the social implications of AI-enabled automated diagnostic tools on underrepresented and marginalized communities in the Indian healthcare sector.

Ravi Duggal

Ravi Duggal is a Sociologist, trained at the University of Bombay. He presently is an independent researcher and consultant. He has been involved in health services research, advocacy and training, especially related to health economics, primary healthcare systems, health policy, budgets, decentralization/ governance, human rights, right to healthcare and reproductive health for now nearly four decades. He has recently completed a tenure with the International Budget Partnership coordinating the India country program. Prior to this he has worked with the Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), SWISSAID and Foundation for Research in Community Health (FRCH) as well as full time consultancies with the WHO, Action Aid International and IDRC in work across Asia. He has also been a visiting faculty at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Trivandrum. He has published extensively with more than 20 books/reports and over 200 articles in well known journals. (Access publications at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ravi_Duggal/publications ) He is also actively associated with the Peoples Health Movement, JagnyachaHaqachyaAandolan, the Medico Friend Circle and the Peoples Budget Initiative. Presently he is engaged in a global assignment for the WHO to develop training guidelines for UHC advocacy for parliamentarians, civil society organizations and media.

Richard Cash

Prof. Richard Cash is a global health researcher, public health physician, who specializes in infectious diseases and research ethics. He is a Senior Lecturer in International Health and Director of the Program on Ethical Issues in International Health in the Department of Global Health & Population of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. Dr. Cash began his international career over 50 years ago at the Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL) in Dhaka, Bangladesh (now the International Centre for Diarrheal Diseases Research, Bangladesh—ICDDR.B). He and his colleagues developed and conducted the first clinical trials of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) in adult and pediatric cholera patients and in patients with other infectious causes of diarrhea. At present, he has visiting faculty appointments at the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Sciences Studies in Trivandrum, PHFI in Delhi and other campuses, and at the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh In 2006 Cash was presented with the Prince Mahidol Award by Thailand for his work on ORT, a practical treatment for cholera and other diarrheal diseases that has saved the lives of millions of children and in 2011 with the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation Prize for Improving Health, also for his leadership in the development and dissemination of Oral Rehydration Therapy.

Ritu Priya

Prof. Ritu Priya Mehrotra has done MBBS and PhD in Community Health. Currently, she is working as a Professor at Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her areas of interest include Public policy formulation and analysis interlinking epidemiology, political economy & health culture, Communicable disease control programmes, Nutrition & health, Impact of public policies on health of migrant labour, the urban poor and dalit groups, Interdisciplinary health research methodology and Holistic Epidemiology. She has been a faculty member at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, since 1990 and Advisor, Public Health Planning at the National Health Systems Resource Centre (National Rural Health Mission, Min. of Health & Family welfare, GOI) on deputation, 2008 & 2009.

Ruth Macklin

Dr. Ruth Macklin is Professor Emerita at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She retired from her full-time faculty position on June 30, 2016, after 39 years on the faculty. However, she continues her research, writing, and consulting in bioethics. Her chief research interests are Research involving human subjects, multinational research, global health, ethics in reproductive health, ethical aspects of research and treatment of HIV/AIDS, human rights. Prof Macklin is an adviser to the World Health Organization and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. She is a past president of the International Association of Bioethics and a former member of the Association's Board of Directors. She serves on the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics has a long-standing association with the journal and the FMES network.

Sambuddha Chaudhuri

Sambuddha Chaudhuri is a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay. He obtained his PhD from the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation looked at ‘Exploring Financial Incentives to promote Adherence to Anti-retroviral medications in People Living With HIV/AIDS’. He is also a qualified medical doctor and has many years of fieldwork experience, in both the public health sector and hospital practice. His current research interests include Health Policy: History, Theory and Practice, Medical Sociology, Social determinants of Health, Health Communication, HIV, STDs, and Tuberculosis, Gender, Sexuality, and Sexual Health, and Mixed Methods Research.

Sandeep Mahamuni

Dr. Sandeep Mahamuni is alumnus of prestigious Seth G.S.Medical College Mumbai.He is working as class 1 Psychiatrist in government sector since last 12 years. Previously we was with regional mental hospital Yerawada. Since last 3 years he is working as prison Psychiatrist at Yerawada Central Prison Pune. His role is assessing prisoners for presence of mental disorders and it's management and forensic work related to prisoners' mental health.

Sandhya Srinivasan

Ms. Sandhya Srinivasan is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist and researcher with a bacheloru2019s degree in philosophy and masteru2019s degrees in sociology and public health.nShe has been a journalist since 1986, writing in academic publications and in the general media on public health and medical ethics, particularly ethical issues in health research. She was executive editor of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics from 1998 to 2011 and is at present consulting editor with the journal. She is a member of the Network of Women in the Media-India, the Indian Association of Medical Journal Editors, and the World Association of Medical Editors. She is on the board of trustees of the Centre for Communication and Development Studies, Pune.

Sara Hodges

Dr. Sarah Hodges M.A., Ph.D, Sarah Hodges is a Reader in the Department of History at the University of Warwick. She was also associated with University of Warwick as an Associate Professor and as a Lecturer at University of London. She works on the social and cultural history of modern South Asia, specifically the politics of health in colonial and postcolonial India. Her interests lie at the intersection of a number of fields: modern South Asian history (particularly of the Tamil south), development, anthropology, and the history of science, technology and medicine. Her current work ‘What’s at stake in the fake? Indian pharmaceuticals, African markets and global health' critically re-examines our collective common sense about fake drugs and global health. Her past work addresses the politics of reproduction and sexuality in colonial and postcolonial India, particularly in relation to questions of how and why the relationship between India and the West was mediated by a scientific modernity during the first half of the twentieth century.

Shishir Kumar Jha

Prof. Shishir K. Jha is the Head of Department at the Centre for Policy Studies at IIT Bombay. He is also a Professor at the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management. His research areas include Information Economy, Copyright and the Public Domain, International Business and WTO and Global Political Economy. He obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science from Syracuse University in 1998. He also holds an MBA and a Masters degree in International Relations from the same university. He did his undergraduate degree, a BSc, from Hindu College, Delhi University. He was the National Lead for the launch of the Creative Comons India chapter in 2007.

Shantanu Tripathi

Prof.( Dr.) Santanu Kumar Tripathi Professor, Head of Department, Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkatta, WB

Shivaram Kalyanakrishnan

Dr. Shivaram is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He specialises in artificial intelligence. Driven by the goal of creating intelligent agents—especially ones that can learn—he considers questions in areas such as sequential decision making, multiagent learning, multi-armed bandits, and humanoid robotics. Application domains include robot soccer, computer games, and on-line advertising.

Siby George

Siby K. George is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Specializing in contemporary continental philosophy, he writes from a phenomenological vantage point on themes as varied as development, technology, pain and dying, political ethics, and subjectivity, focusing specifically on Indian/ non-western contexts. He is author of Heidegger and Development in the Global South(Springer, 2015) and co-editor of Cultural Ontology of the Self in Pain (Springer, 2016).

Soumitra Pathare

Dr. Soumitra Pathare MD MRCPsych PhD is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at the Indian Law Society, Pune, India. His primary interests are in the areas of mental health policy, scaling up mental health services, rights-based care and legislation. He was a member of the Mental Health Policy Group appointed by Government of India to draft India 2019s first National Mental Health Policy released in October 2014. He has provided technical assistance the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India in drafting India 2019s new Mental Health Care Act 2017, which takes a rights-based approach to mental health care and prvides for publicly funded universal mental health care. He has served as a WHO consultant in many low and middle-income countries assisting in developing mental health policy and drafting and implementing mental health legislation. He was the Principal Investigator of Quality Rights Gujarat project (2014-2016) which implemented the WHO Quality Rights program in 6 public mental health facilities in Gujarat. He is currently involved in scaling up Atmiyata across Mehsana district, Gujarat (2013-2019) with a population of 1 million. Atmiyata is a project to improve access to mental health services in rural areas, by training and mentoring women leaders of micro-credit self-help groups to provide basic psychological interventions and access to social benefits for a defined rural population. He is Project Director of SPIRIT Hub (2017-2022) a collaborative initiative of Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy ILS (Pune), TRIMBOS (Netherlands), SNEHA (Chennai) and BCCP (Bangladesh) with the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat funded by NIMH (USA). SPIRIT is scaling up and evaluating 3 universal suicide prevention interventions in a cluster randomised controlled trial. SPIRIT also has capacity building initiatives to improve implementation research capacity in South Asia as well as the capacity of policy makers to use scientific evidence for policy-making.

Srijit Mishra

Prof. Srijit Mishra Srijit Mishra is Director, Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS, an Indian Council of Social Science Research institute under the aegis of Government of Odisha). He is on leave from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research where he is a Professor. He was a Guest Scholar at Meiji University, Japan during June 2016. During the spring semester of 2015 he was the ICCR Chair Visiting Professor at the National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan where he taught a course of Human Development and Poverty. He was the Subir Chowdhury Fellow on Quality and Economics in the Spring of 2014 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Some of his recent works are on farmers' suicides (a symptom of the crisis in Indian agriculture), on measurement of poverty, and on a refinement of the Human Development Index. Earlier he worked at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Pune. He had also worked at NCDS earlier during 19997-2001. His M.Phil./Ph.D. on tribal agrarian economies were done at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram and awarded by the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He is married to Nandini and they both have been blessed with a daughter, Nerika.

Sulakshana Nandi

Sulakshana Nandi has been involved with the Public Health Resource Network (PHRN) since its conception. She is the State Convenor for PHRN Chhattisgarh, where she has been working for the last six and a half years. She has been actively associated with several leading campaigns in the state like Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (as state convenor), Right to Food Campaign etc. especially in facilitation, training and technical (including legal) support to tribal organizations on issues of the right to health and food. Ms Nandi holds a Master of Arts in Social Work from Jamia Millia Islamia. She has extensively worked in Rajasthan and MP in areas of women 2019s rights and SHG based women 2019s organizations etc Some of her publications include Mitanin 2019s struggles to reform PDS and to fight state sponsored 2018 deforestation 2019 and Addressing Women 2019s Concerns in NRHM etc.

Dr. Sunil K. Pandya

Dr. Sunil Pandya, Editor Emeritus, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Mumbai. Dr. Sunil is trained as a neurosurgeon and is currently associated with Jaslok Hospital. He is known for his contribution to ethical medical practice, for increasing the public’s awareness of bioethics, and for his untiring advocacy to bring ethics to the centre stage of health care and into the conduct of health professionals. Over and above everything that he has done as a medical professional and a reformer of medical practice and services, Dr Pandya’s contribution has been in laying the foundation of a medical ethics journal. His constant efforts led him to look beyond the narrow discipline of clinical medicine to the fields of medical history and bioethics. This interest led him to document the history of his alma mater, the Grant Medical College, to trace the development of hospitals and medical services in Mumbai, to write the history of medical ethics from ancient times to today in India, and so on.

Tarun Bhatnagar

Dr. Tarun Bhatnagar, MD (PSM), PhD (Epid), PGDBE (Bioethics) works as Scientist E at ICMR–National Institute of Epidemiology in Chennai, India. He provides leadership and oversight as Program Coordinator and serves as faculty for the Master of Public Health program offered by the ICMR School of Public Health at ICMR-NIE. His research interests include epidemiological and behavioral studies among HIV high-risk populations, emerging infectious disease epidemiology and interventions, cohort studies, operations research, and evaluation of public health control strategies/programs.

Usha Ramanathan

Usha Ramanathan, SC, Advocate and Sr. Research Professional, Usha Ramanatha is an Indian human right activist. She is an alumnus of Madras University. She studied law at Madras university, the University of Nagpur and Delhi University. Access Now organisation has given her 2018 'Human Rights Hero' award for tireless efforts to highlight the issues related to Aadhaar.

Vaijayanti Joshi

Vaijayanti Joshi, B.A. With Sanskrit from the Fergusson College, Pune. LL.B from ILS Law College, LL.M from the Pune University. Areas of Interest are Family Law, Private International Law and Legal Theory, Book entitled 201cVrittapatra ani Kayada 201d (Newspapers and the Law) widely received. Contributed to the draft 201cUniform Civil Code 201d and a number of papers. She has been a member of the Legal Education Committee of the Bar Council of India. Visited and lectured in 1999 in various law-schools in USA, viz. the Brandeis School of Law, Louisville, the New York University Law School and the Centre for International and Comparative Law, University of Baltimore. Visited Hawaii to participate in an International conference on 201d Educating Lawyers for Trans-national Challenges 201d organized by Association of American Law Schools. Visited Athens, Greece to participate in the academy of European Public Law,11th Session. Felicitated by Bar Council of India on the occasion of its Golden Jubilee Celebration of her valuable services rendered to the field of Legal Education.

Vijay Hiremath

Adv. Vijay Hiremath, Independent Lawyer and Legal Consultant Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Interns (2018-2019)

Iswari Kale

Iswari Kale, Master’s Student, Sir Parshuram College, Pune, MH.

Swati Jadhav

Swati Jadhav, Master’s Student, Sir Parshuram College, Pune, MH.

Creative Artist ( 2018 onwards )

Sangeeta Gandhe

Writer/Translator
I am an aspirant writer. I enjoy writing stories. I have accomplished a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Mass Communication & Journalism. Professionally, I document work developed by non-govt. organizations, donor agencies, and researchers. My work encompasses writing all forms of reports and stories. Sometimes, I do field studies and evaluate projects. And I also translate.

Sayan Das

Sayan Das, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Videography Artist ( 2018 onwards )

Anand Pagare

Anand Pagare, Pukar Films Production, Nashik, MH.