Dr Ananth Padmanabhan
Ananth Padmanabhan is the Dean, Academic Affairs at Sai University. He is also a visiting fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. His research interests are in the fields of technology policy, intellectual property rights, and innovation scholarship. He has authored a leading treatise, Intellectual Property Rights: Infringement and Remedies (LexisNexis, 2012), and co-edited an important volume, India as a Pioneer of Innovation (OUP, 2017). Previously, Ananth worked with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New Delhi, starting their technology policy research initiatives in India and the Global Technology Summit in Bengaluru, an annual forum for stakeholder conversations on technology policy. He has practiced law in the Madras High Court and taught at several institutions including the National Law University, Jodhpur, and the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. He holds doctoral and master’s degrees in law from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Dr Pramath Raj Sinha
Pramath is a pioneering force in Indian higher education. He is the Founder & Chairman of Harappa Education, which strives to become India’s largest online institution focused on teaching habits and skills critical to workplace success in the 21st century. He is the Founding Dean and a member of the Executive Board of ISB which rapidly became one of the top-20 business schools in the world. He is also a Founder & Trustee of the acclaimed Ashoka University, a liberal arts university which launched the popular Young India Fellowship.
Pramath has been instrumental in setting up a wide spectrum of change-based higher education initiatives, including a management program for career-oriented women, an entrepreneurship fellowship for the Himalayan region, and a solution-focused design university for the built environment. He has also been a media entrepreneur, education consultant and management advisor at the 9.9 Group, which he founded, the CEO of the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group, and a Partner at McKinsey & Company.
Dr MV Shiju
Shiju Mazhuvanchery V. worked previously with the Christ Academy Institute of Law. He has also served as associate professor and head of the Centre for Postgraduate Legal Studies, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi where he taught environmental law & policy and competition law.
Prof Shiju has also worked with the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata. He has published widely on environmental law and policy and competition law. He was one of the rapporteurs of the high level segment of CoP-11 of the convention on biological diversity.
Sayyantana Dutta
Sayyantana (called Shanton by his friends and colleagues alike) leads Academic Affairs and Operations, and will be your go-to guy for all things academic.
He specialises in early-stage corporate strategy and building institutions from scratch. He has previously worked in leadership positions with HT Media Ltd., building India’s largest repository of on-demand audio content, HT Smartcast and ed-tech startup UpGrad, leading two of its three major verticals in the Academics and Research function. His research interests are in comparative media, media tech and the economics of content.
Sheetal Mary
Sheetal has been closely engaged in the education space for the past three years. Previously, she worked on projects with focus areas on pre-service teacher education and foundational literacy for public schools. At Daksha Fellowship, she has worked in crafting and operationalising the admissions process end-to-end and setting up the Academic Affairs office. Sheetal is a Young India Fellow from Ashoka University.
Nivedita Louis
Nivedita Louis is the author of Muthal Pengal, a book on pioneering women of Madras Presidency. She has served as a content curator for several museum exhibitions. Her heritage walks and talks replete with a unique blend of history and storytelling have become increasingly popular in and around Chennai. She has also authored two books on archaeology – on the story of the discovery of Indus Valley Civilization and the Keeladi excavations.
