Rohini Nayyar Prize
Jury for Rohini Nayyar Prize
Meet our eminent Jury members
Dr. Ashok Khosla
Jury MemberDr. Ashok Khosla is an global environmentalist based in New Delhi. He received his MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and his PhD in experimental physics from Harvard University . He set up and headed India’s (and the global South’s) first government Office of Environment and, then UNEP’s global information system, INFOterra. Subsequently, he founded Development Alternatives, the world’s first social enterprise for innovation and large scale application of appropriate (or “frugal”) technology with direct relevance to eradicating poverty and regenerating the environmental resource base.
He served for a decade as the founding co-chair of the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel (UNEP-IRP) and is internationally known for pioneering and contributing to the concepts and praxis of sustainable development. He was President of IUCN (2008 to 2012) and the Club of Rome (2005 to 2012). Over five decades, he has actively contributed to the environmental policies and programmes of global institutions such as UNDP, UNU, UNESCO, the World Bank, the U.S. Academy of Sciences, WWF, IISD and ICSU/SCOPE.
Ashok Khosla was awarded the OBE, the UK Government’s equivalent to the Padma Bhushan, UN Sasakawa Environment Prize, the Sheikh Zayed International Environment Prize, WWF’s Duke of Edinburgh Medal for Conservation and UNEP’s Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Science-Policy Interface. He was awarded an honorary LLD by Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Dr. Rajesh Tandon
Jury MemberDr. Rajesh Tandon is the Founder-President of Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and the Chairperson of Martha Farrell Foundation. He is also Co-Chair of the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, since 2012.
A Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA and an electronics engineer (IIT, Kanpur) with a graduation in management (IIM, Calcutta), Dr. Tandon is an internationally acclaimed leader and practitioner of participatory research and development. A pioneer of participatory research, he has given new meaning to academic research by redefining the relationship between the researcher and the researched. Dr. Tandon has also served on numerous Expert Committees of Government of India, University Grants Commission, United Nations, Commonwealth and World Bank.
He has authored more than 100 articles, a dozen books and numerous training manuals on themes such as democratic governance, civic engagement, civil society, governance and management of NGOs, participatory research and people-centred development.
Ms. Renana Jhabvala
Jury MemberRenana Jhabvala is a social worker, who has been active for decades in organising women in the informal economy into trade unions, co-operatives and financial institutions in India, and has been extensively
involved in policy issues relating to poor women and the informal economy.
She is best known for her long association with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), India, and for her writings on issues of women in the informal economy. She presently the President of SEWA Bharat, the All-India Federation of SEWAs. In 1990, she was awarded a Padma Shri from the Government of India for her contributions in the field of social work. In April 2012, She was Chancellor Gandhigram Rural University (2012-2017) and was Member of UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment (2016-2017).
Positions in International Organisations
- Member of UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment in 2016-2017.
- Chairperson, WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing)(2009-present)
- Chairperson, HomeNet South Asia (2007 – present)
Professor K. Seeta Prabhu
Jury memberProf. K. Seeta Prabhu, M.A Ph.D, is currently Visiting Professor and Senior Advisor (SDGs) at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and Visiting Faculty at the Indian School of Development Management, New Delhi. Seeta is a member of the Editorial team of the Indian Journal of Human Development, and a member of the Governing Board of the Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow.
Seeta was Tata Chair Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (August 2013 to August 2018) and Programme Director of the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellows Scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India (2015-2017).
She was Head, Human Development Resource Centre and Senior Advisor, United Nations Development Programme, New Delhi (2000-2013). Between 1979 to 2000, Seeta was a faculty member at the Department of Economics, University of Mumbai including as Professor of Development Economics. She has been a member of of the ICSSR Governing Council (2012 to 2017) and member of numerous government committees and consultant to various national and international development organizations.
Seeta’s latest books co-edited with Prof. S. Parasuraman (2021,2020) Making Development Happen: Transformational Change in Rural India Volumes I and II, Orient Blackswan, chronicle the developmental work undertaken in rural areas of India’s conflict affected districts by the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellows. In 2019, she co-authored with Sandhya Iyer Human Development in an Unequal World, Oxford University Press, that provides a comprehensive analysis of the human development approach and its applications in public policy. She has also published numerous papers in national and international journals.
