Ashesh holds a PhD degree in Chemical Science from CSIR-CSMCRI, Bhavnagar, India. His interests lie in the field of desalination, wastewater treatment and concomitant value-addition. Currently he is working as a Scientist at the International Centre for Clean Water (ICCW) in IIT Madras Research Park and is involved in projects related to renewable energy powered membrane distillation (MD) process for potable water production, brine management and valuable minerals recovery. Ashesh has experience designing membranes and implementing membrane-based processes like nanofiltration (NF), forward osmosis (FO) and MD for dewatering different types of feed water. He is also interested in biomass/industrial solid waste conversion into high surface area carbon material for adsorption and energy storage applications.
A medical graduate from R G Kar Medical College, Kolkata and trained in clinical ophthalmology from Aligarh Muslim University and Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, Dr. Sil achieved distinction in the post-graduate course in Community Eye Health from the International Centre for Eye Health, University of London. Since 1995, he has been heading Vivekananda Mission Ashram Netra Niramay Niketan, Chaitanyapur, Purba Medinipur. Dr. Sil is Involved in rural eye care activities for more than 26 years. He is associated with several International NGOs like Sightsavers, Orbis, Seva as a volunteer and mentor. He is a Board member of ‘Vision 2020: The Right to Sight – India’.
Dr. Bibekananda Sanyal, PhD (Agronomy), recipient of Global Karmaveer award for social justice and citizens action (ICONGO 2012), is widely recognised as a ‘friend of farmers’. He strives to empower agrarian communities, particularly women, for sustainable and eco-friendly management of natural resources and integrated production systems, thereby facilitating improvement of quality of rural livelihoods.
Dr. Putatunda is an experienced animal scientist who was a leading expert in animal health at the Krishi Vijnan Kendra (KVK) run by the West Bengal Comprehensive Area Development Corporation (WBCADC) at Sonamukhi, Bankura, West Bengal. He had exposure with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which helped shape his vision and his contributions towards Operation Flood. During his career with the KVK, he was actively associated with the Lab to Land Programme (LLP), On Farm Trial (OFT) and Institution Village Linkage Programme (IVLP) of the ICAR. Developing training modules and facilitating training programmes on animal resource development is his forte. He has also worked with the West Bengal State Rural Livelihoods Mission and helped the MIssion in developing a team of community resource persons to facilitate the Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA) programme.
He is one of the foremost practitioners of Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) in India and is regarded as a pioneer in introducing several models of water conservation in the rainfed areas of the Central Indian Plateau. Apart from his basic education in Agricultural Science from the BCKV, Nadia, West Bengal and specialised education from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Philippines, Dinabandhu learned extensively from the field. During his long tenure of 28 years in PRADAN, he has been instrumental in developing an integrated approach to the natural resource management where the issues of conservation have been adroitly fused with the focus on livelihoods generation for the farming community. He provided consultancy in Ethiopia and Kenya for developing locally-specific rainwater harvesting techniques for better land use of smallholders. He acted as a consultant to IFAD for INRM and since 2016 has been working as an independent consultant providing support to multiple development catalysts at different corners of the country and abroad.
Dhruba Das Gupta is a conservation worker with a focus on wetland ecosystems, especially in rural settings. Dhruba’s work includes research in ecological history and how wetland conservation can promote climate adaptation and resilience. Additionally, with a background in rural development, anthropology and community management, her grassroots conservation work seeks to highlight the unheard voices of the marginalized wetland communities, to get them better recognition in the core conservation and management practices responsible for preservation of ecosystems. Dhruba also sits on the Board of Governors of the Rural Development Forum of the Institution of Engineers, Kolkata.
A masters in Structural Engineering, Dipankar has 45 years of experience in versatile projects and evolved as a complete civil engineer. By instinct he understands the basics of natural sciences and can elucidate in lucid terms. He promotes adoption of ‘cost effective and eco-friendly technology’ as appropriate and receptive engineering. His derived philosophy and engineering researches have acquired validity in all spheres of construction industry, be it a small house or a tower, a hydraulic structure or a river training work, a retaining wall or a pavement.
Dr. Mohan Lal Das retired in February 2021 as Vice President (Research & Development), Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. He did his Ph.D. in Colloids and Surface Chemistry in the eighties from Jadavpur University and thereafter had more than thirty years of experience in the field of greases and lubricants. He is widely acclaimed for his contributions in developing speciality lubricants, speciality chemicals, organic molecules synthesis for formulation of biodegradable and eco-friendly lubricants and micro-encapsulation of essential oils. He has several papers published in scientific journals of international repute, including six technical papers. He has five patents to his credit. In Balmer Lawrie, he was instrumental in developing spray oil for horticulture plants as a substitute to highly toxic conventional pesticides. He supports Ecovocal Solutions in its endeavour to provide services to the industrial sector in reducing its carbon footprint.
Palas has 29 years of experience in policy influencing, institutional capacity development, strategic planning, knowledge management and project planning in the development sector. A post-graduate in Journalism, Palash was a torchbearer of the literacy movement in its early days and received a National Award for preparation of reading materials for Neo-Literates in 1986. He has a diverse range of work experience with all major stakeholder groups in development including the governments, UN organisations and multinational corporations.
Pramit received his B.Tech and M.Tech degree in electrical engineering from Kalyani Government Engineering College, West Bengal, India, in 2012 and University College of Science and Technology (Rajabazar), University of Calcutta, West Bengal, India, in 2014 respectively. He earned his PhD in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Bihar, India in 2021. He also carried part of his research work from G.S. Sanyal School of Telecommunication at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. He has a keen interest in designing optimized solutions for a cleaner and greener future. His present research interests include but are not limited to the fields of FlexRAN, wireless-optical access networks, and cost-energy-efficient optical network design and operation.
Sibasish Basu retired as General Manager (Technical Services), NTPC, Farakka. An electrical engineer by education, he is keenly interested in conservation work with special focus on sustainable utilisation of fly ash, bio-engineering, converting waste plastic into wealth and several other issues contributing towards a sustainable ecosystem.
A Natural Resource Management specialist, Sujit has created a niche in integrated river basin management and development initiatives. He has vast action based consulting experience in this sector and provided consultancy support to various governments, Multilateral Funding Institutions like the World Bank, ADB, DFID, JBIC, non-government organizations, and various corporate led development projects. He brings with him over 30 years of experience as a researcher and expertise in GIS based spatial and Geo-hydrology modeling. He is/was associated with various research projects of different academic institutions like University of Calcutta, London School of Economics, University of California, Riverside; XLRI, Jamshedpur, IIM, Kashipur, IIM, Indore etc. and is also associated with a number of River Rejuvenation programs. Having a number of publications in various journals, he is a contributor to the West Bengal State of Environment Report, 2016 brought out by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board, Government of West Bengal.
Society for Creative Opportunities and Participatory Ecosystems (SCOPE) is a non-profit focused solely on the idea of conserving wetland ecosystems. They currently work in the East Kolkata Wetlands, the largest ensemble of wastewater wetlands in the world. The team includes members with a background in wetland ecology and livelihoods, natural resource management, rural development and conflict management. The members of the team believe in working with a problem solving approach and remember that wetland resources are maximally used by the poorest.
Founded in 1994, Calcutta Society for Professional Action in Development (SPADE) comprises a group of development professionals from diverse fields including IIT Alumnus, Management Graduates, Corporate Professionals and Community Representatives. The organization seeks to provide various techno-managerial support services to the Government, UN, International and National Agencies. Over the last 25 years, SPADE has acquired experience in building strong Community Based Institutions through promoting Women Self Help Groups, Climate-friendly know-how for farm and non-farm based livelihoods, Community Based Disaster and Health Management and several other community driven activities. SPADE is presently active in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam and Tripura, covering 1789 villages in 53 Blocks of 17 districts and improving the quality of life of over a million people.
The CSO seeks to create ‘Local Future’ through a community-based creative learning process. It is also committed to advancement of learning through interactions and a model field lab where the practitioners are given space to experiment with development alternatives. Internship opportunities are provided to the students of development and the experienced professionals are encouraged to volunteer.
