Solar Irrigation for Agricultural Resilience (SoLAR) – Webinar Week

Ms. Corinne Demenge joined the Swiss Agency for Development andCooperation of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland in 2008. In August 2020, she took up the position of Head of International Cooperation at the Swiss Embassy in New Delhi. SDC’s work in India focuses on addressing the global challenge of climate change, be it by finding innovative solutions for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emission or exchanging knowledge and skills to adapt to the consequences of climate change.

Dr. Rahul Tongia is a Senior Fellow with Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) in New Delhi, where he leads the Energy, Natural Resources, and Sustainability group. His work spans the entire gamut of energy and electricity, and includes renewable energy; smart grids; issues of access and quality; and broader issues of reforms and regulations. He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was the founding Technical Advisor for the Government of India’s Smart Grid Task Force.

Dr. Stuti Rawat is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Asian and Policy Studies Department of The Education University of Hong Kong. She earned her PhD from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. In the past Stuti has worked with the World Bank, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, International Water Management Institute, Institute of Water Policy, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the ASEAN Secretariat. Most of her research has been on the water sector.

Mr. Dipal Chandra Barua is the Founder & Chairman of Bright Green Energy Foundation (BGEF). In 1996, Mr. Dipal Chandra Barua successfully started expanding renewable energy technology in rural Bangladesh as the Founding Managing Director of Grameen Shakti. For his innovation and commitment to alternative energy Mr. Barua was awarded the First Zayed Future Energy Prize 2009 from Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is the President of Bangladesh Solar and Renewable Energy Association (BSREA) and a member of Sustainable Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) of Bangladesh.

Ms. Maha Qasim is an Environment & Sustainability Consultant with 10+ years of experience in the fields of environment, energy and corporate social responsibility. She specializes in environmental assessment and management, climate finance, energy policy and planning and social impact program development. She has written extensively about the impacts of climate change and Pakistan’s renewable energy potential. She holds a master’s degree in environmental management (M.E.M.) from the Yale School of Environment.

Dr. Aditi Mukherji is a Principal Researcher and and Regional Project Leader for the SDC supported SoLAR project. She works on climate change adaptation and water-energy-food nexus. She has published over 60 peer reviewed research papers. She is currently a coordinating lead author of water chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment.

Dr. Mark Smith is the Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has a Ph.D. in Ecology & Resource Management from Edinburgh University, UK and over 25 years of research and programme management experience in water resources, agriculture, climate and sustainability. Dr. Smith is a scientist with areas of specialization in agriculture, forestry and hydrology and a focus on how to make systems change for sustainable development more effective, practical and scalable. Prior to joining IWMI in April 2018, Dr. Smith spent 10 years as Director of the Global Water Program at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Dr. Rohit Chandra is political scientist and economic historian working primarily on energy, infrastructure and state capitalism in India. Over the last decade, he has worked in the policy space on coal sector reforms, the politics of state DISCOMS, and public finance decisions behind large infrastructure projects. He completed his PhD on India’s coal industry from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 2018 and is now an Assistant Professor at IIT-Delhi’s School of Public Policy and a Visiting Fellow at Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.

Mr. Anas Rahman, a member of the CEEW’s Energy Access team, works on sustainable agriculture with special focus on solar-based irrigation. For the past one and a half years, he has been working closely with the Chhattisgarh government, supporting the state nodal agency and the DISCOM in trying out different deployment models of solar pumps. Rahman completed B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras and a post-graduation in Development Practice from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Dr. Ram Prasad Dhital is one of the members of the Electricity Regulatory Commission of Nepal. Earlier, he has served as the Executive Director of Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) under the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. Dr. Dhital also worked as the Energy Advisor in Afghanistan and Vanuatu in the South Pacific for a year. Dr Dhital holds a master’s and PhD degree in Renewable Energy Engineering. He has more than 15 research publications and conference papers to his credit.

Dr. Tushaar Shah, an economist and public policy specialist, is an Emeritus Scientist of the International Water Management Institute, Colombo and Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Rural Management Anand. Over the past 35 years, Shah’s main research interests have been in two fields: farmer organizations and water institutions and policies. In both these fields, he has published extensively, and his writings have helped shape national debates and public policies, including grid connected solar irrigation policies under India’s KUSUM scheme.

Ms. Neha Durga is a Researcher – Water and Energy at IWMI. She has over 8 years of experience in International Development, especially in strategy design and policy analysis. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in rural management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), Gujarat, India.

Dr. A.V. Manjunatha served as Assistant Professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru from July 2012 till August 2019 and from September 2019, he is serving as the Director (Evaluation) at Karnataka Evaluation Authority, Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics Department, Government of Karnataka. He obtained his M Sc degree in Agricultural Economics from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, and an International M Sc degree in Rural Development (Erasmus Mundus Fellow) from the University of Ghent, Belgium.  He holds a Doctoral degree in Agricultural Economics (DAAD Fellow) from Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.

Mr. Anas Rahman, a member of the CEEW’s Energy Access team, works on sustainable agriculture with special focus on solar-based irrigation. For the past one and a half years, he has been working closely with the Chhattisgarh government, supporting the state nodal agency and the DISCOM in trying out different deployment models of solar pumps. Rahman completed B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras and a post-graduation in Development Practice from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Ms. Mandvi Singh is a Technical Expert, at the Indo-German Energy Programme-Promotion of Solar Water Pumps (IGEN-PSWP). She has been working in electricity sector research, analysis and advocacy for over a decade. As Technical expert with GIZ’s PSWP Programme, she is currently supporting energy transitions in the agriculture sector through sustainable deployment of solar water pumps. Prior to joining GIZ, she was managing Centre for Science and Environment’s Renewable Energy Programme and the Global Programme for Emission Control from Coal-based Plants. She is an economist by training.

Dr. Tushaar Shah, an economist and public policy specialist, is an Emeritus Scientist of the International Water Management Institute, Colombo and Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Rural Management Anand. Over the past 35 years, Shah’s main research interests have been in two fields: farmer organizations and water institutions and policies. In both these fields, he has published extensively, and his writings have helped shape national debates and public policies, including grid connected solar irrigation policies under India’s KUSUM scheme.

Mr. Ganesh Neelam works at the Tata Trusts since 2004 and handles the flagship initiative named Central India Initiative focusing on enhancing livelihoods of tribal communities in central India. He presently is the Executive Director of Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI). The “Lakhpati Kisan – Smart Village” programme focusing on meeting the aspirations of more than 100,000 small and marginal farmers in Central India is being implemented by CInI under his leadership.
He also leads the Renewable Energy theme at the Trusts. Apart from his role at the Trusts, he is a Director at the Foundation for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (FISE).

Ms. Divya Kashyap is working as the Senior Advisor with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Embassy of Switzerland in India. SDCs work in India focuses on offering Swiss expertise in Climate Change and Environment for innovative actions in rural, urban and mountains landscapes. Divya has more than 20 years of development cooperation experience. Divya holds a Master’s degree in environmental management from University of Oxford and Masters in Regional Planning and Rural Development from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

Mr. Shilp Verma is a Researcher at IWMI-Anand office and works on water-energy-food policies. He leads the the GIZ-supported project on ‘Solar Irrigation Expansion in India’. He has a post graduate diploma program in Rural Management in 2001 at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) and a MSc in Water Resources Management at UNESCO-IHE, Delft. Between 2009 and 2019, Shilp worked as an independent, Consulting Researcher with several clients including IWMI, FAO, World Bank, GGGI, GIZ and Tata Trusts in the broad domain of water, energy and rural livelihoods.

Mr. Ashwin Gambhir is a Fellow at the Prayas (Energy Group), where he coordinates the work on renewable energy policy and regulatory research and advocacy. He is also working on power sector modelling, looking at long term capacity expansion planning with associated production cost simulations. He has been closely involved with various renewable energy policy and regulatory processes with some state Governments, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Niti Aayog. He has a Master’s in mechanical engineering from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Mr. Siddharth Goel is an Associate and Senior Consultant at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. His experience and expertise lie in the fields of environment, energy and sustainable transport, with a focus on policy analysis, project management and communications. He holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University with a specialisation in Global Energy Management and Policy. His recent work focuses on decentralised renewable energy, electric vehicles and the role of SOEs in energy transition.

Mr. Ayan Deb works for the CInI-Tata Trusts since 2009, working in the flagship initiative named Central India Initiative focusing on enhancing livelihoods of tribal communities in central India. He leads the development and implementation of multi sectoral Initiatives on livelihoods, sports and education across geographies in Jharkhand. Earlier, he had worked at BAIF. He currently anchors the Renewable Energy theme across central and west India under the Sustain plus initiative. He has a post graduate degree on rural development from XISS, Ranchi.

Mr. Abhishek Jain leads CEEW’s practice on energy access, rural livelihoods, and sustainable food systems. He is directing ‘Powering Livelihoods’, a $3 million initiative to transform India’s rural economy with clean energy solutions. He also co-conceptualized and leads CEEW’s flagship research effort, Access to Clean Cooking Energy and Electricity – Survey of States (ACCESS), the largest panel survey on multidimensional energy access in India. Abhishek has published in leading international journals including Nature Energy and has written book chapters for Springer and other publishers.

He is a Chevening Fellow and an alumnus of the University of Cambridge and IIT Roorkee.

Dr. Priya Jadhav is a faculty member at the  Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas , IIT Bombay, with research interests in the area of energy for irrigation and rural electrification. Educational background: BE Electrical Engineering and MSc Physics from BITS Pilani; MS, Electrical Engg.. Boston University; PhD, Electrical Engg.( in the field of Organic Semiconductor Solar Photovoltaics), MIT, Cambridge, MA. Priya Jadhav co-founded and ran a software compan, Nagarro Inc. from 1998 to 2007.

Mr. Nilanjan Ghosh is a development practitioner. He has worked in the areas of energy access, renewable energy for agriculture and water governance. He has been with GIZ since 2011. Nilanjan is, at present, responsible for managing a bilateral programme titled “Promotion of Solar Water Pumps” in GIZ. He has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Mr. Mohinder Gulati has worked with the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All as Chief Operating Officer from its inception until 2015 and before that with the World Bank for twenty years, his latest assignment was as Adviser (Energy). In South Asia he led World Bank-funded power sector restructuring and reform program in several Indian states. Since 2008, he has been closely involved in design and implementation of a pilot in Punjab titled “Pani Bachao, Paisa Kamao”. He is a graduate in Management (Harvard and Delhi University), Physics (Delhi University), and Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers.

Mr. Anthony J. Jude is presently Senior Energy Adviser (as Consultant) to Energy Divisions in Southeast Asia Regional Department (SERD) and Energy Division, South Asia Regional Department (SARD) of Asian Development Bank. Over 31 years of development work experience of which over 28 years has been with ADB in various positions, including Deputy Country Director, Cambodia; Director, Energy and Transport Division and Director, Energy and Water Divisions in SERD; Director, Energy Division, SARD; and Sr. Adviser and Chair of ADB’s of Energy Practitioners, Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SDCC).

Dr. Marie-Charlotte Buisson leads the impact assessment component of the SoLAR project in Bangladesh. She is a Researcher at the International Water Management Institute, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She conducts research in Development Economics and Agricultural Economics with a specialization in impact evaluation. Her work is anchored on more than ten years of extensive field research in Africa, South East Asia, and Central Asia. She obtained her PhD from the CERDI in France in 2012.

Mr. Mohammad Sarwar Hossain has been serving as a Deputy Chief Engineer in Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC). Now he is acting as a Project Director (Minor Irrigation Development Project By Using Solar Energy). He obtained his bachelor degree in Agricultural Engineering & Technology in 1999 and MS in Food Technology in 2004 from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. He is a member of Bangladesh Society of Agriculture Engineers (BSAE) and Institute of Engineers of Bangladesh (IEB).

Md. Shamsul Huda has been serving as a Superintending Engineer at Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) under Ministry of Agriculture since 2011. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering (major in Irrigation & Water Management) from Bangladesh Agricultural University in 1991 and also completed Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering from Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. He is a member of Krishibid Institution (KIB), Bangladesh Society of Agriculture Engineers (BSAE) and Fellow of Institute of Engineers of Bangladesh.

Mr. S. M. Monirul Islam is Deputy CEO of IDCOL where he has worked since its inception. Mr. Islam has experience in financial management and is an expert in negotiating and managing funds from the government and various development partners. He has been managing about USD 1 billion of development funds, in the forms of credit and grant, raised from development partners like The World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), UK Department for International Development (DFID), German Development Bank (KFW), German Development Cooperation (GIZ), SNV, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF).

Mr. Mohammad Golam Sarware Kainat is currently working as Director (Jointsecretary), Renewable Energy, Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) of Power Division under Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. He obtained his B.Sc. in EEE from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET), Dhaka in 1988 and Executive MBA from Ahsanullah University, Dhaka in 2007. He joined in Bangladesh Civil Service in 1991 in Telecom Sector. He worked in BTTB, BTCL, Teletalk BD. Ltd, MoPME, ICT Division and finally joined at SREDA on June 01, 2019, as Director Renewable Energy. He is now involved in developing and expanding of Renewable Energy in Bangladesh.

Mr. Jeevan Kumar Jethani is Director/Scientist-E in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Executive Director, AREAS. He has been associated with power/renewable energy sector for over 28 years. At MNRE, he was a part of the core team for formulation and implementing National Solar Mission and also renewable policy and regulatory framework in the country. Presently he is heading Rooftop Solar and Off-grid Solar Division of MNRE responsible for formulation of PM-KUSUM Scheme Rooftop solar Ph-II Programme and its implementation framework among various other MNRE schemes.

Ms. Salima Jahan, a civil service bureaucrat of the Government of Bangladesh, is an academician by heart. She has been working for SREDA as Member (Joint Secretary), Renewable Energy since March 2016. Apart from her main responsibility, she is the Project Director of a project under SREDA which aims to create an enabling environment to provide ‘Clean Cooking for all by 2030’.

Mr. Anwar Hossain is a Deputy Executive Director of Wave Foundation, Bangladesh. Wave Foundation is one of the IDCOL sponsors and implements its solar irrigation program. Anwar works leads the program design, and policy formulation for institutional capacity building and sustainability. He specializes in Participatory Rural Appraisal, Organizational Change Management and Gender Auditing.

Dr. Aditi Mukherji is a Principal Researcher and and Regional Project Leader for the SDC supported SoLAR project. She works on climate change adaptation and water-energy-food nexus. She has published over 60 peer reviewed research papers. She is currently a coordinating lead author of water chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment.

Dr. Fishman is an Assistant Professor of public policy at Tel Aviv University. He holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University. He directs a research group that runs multiple empirical field projects in Israel, South Asia and Africa. Ram also directs the Nitsan Lab (nitsanlab.org) which helps Israeli technologies in precision agriculture and water treatments to be technically and economically adapted to the requirements of low income populations in developing countries.

Mr. Madhusudhan Adhikari (BE-Mech, MBA, MPhil) is Executive Director at Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC), which is under the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation is an Apex government body to promote renewable energy technologies in Nepal. Mr. Adhikari has over 26 years of management experience in renewable energy technologies in government, private, INGOs, Donor and Government institutions.

Ms. Resha Piya is Renewable Energy Adviser at the British Embassy Kathmandu. Currently, she oversees the Nepal Renewable Energy Programme and leads the UK aid work in the energy sector in Nepal. Piya is an Electrical and Electronic Engineer with a Master’s degree in Renewable Energy and a Master’s of Engineering in Energy and Environmental Management.

Mr. Anjal Niruala is the CEO of Gham Power, where he oversees company’s R&D and product strategy – including business development, design and engineering. He has helped develop and install over 3 MW of solar across 3000+ projects. Anjal was a Chevening scholar at University of Edinburgh where he studied Energy Systems. He is an alumni of the Future Energy Leader’s group with the World Energy Council and was also featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his endeavors in 2018.

Dr. Aditi Mukherji is a Principal Researcher and and Regional Project Leader for the SDC supported SoLAR project. She works on climate change adaptation and water-energy-food nexus. She has published over 60 peer reviewed research papers. She is currently a coordinating lead author of water chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment.

Dr. Vishnu Pandey has background in civil engineering and specializes in the areas of water resources and climate change. He is a Professor of Civil Engineering (Water Resources), Institute of Engineering (IOE), Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal. He is also serving as a Governing Board Member of Nepal Engineering Council (NEC). Prof. Pandey completed his PhD in Integrated River Basin Management from University of Yamanashi in Japan in 2010. Till recently, he worked at IWMI, Nepal office, where he led the Nepal component of the SoLAR project.

Ms. Ranju Pandey holds a Master of Engineering degree in ‘Energy and Environment Management’ from the University of Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Institute of Engineering (IOE), Pulchowk Campus, Lalitpur, Nepal. Currently, she is working in Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) as a Manager. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is a government owned vertically integrated power utility. It generates approximately 60 percent of the total electricity output in Nepal, owns the transmission grid and most of distribution network in Nepal and is responsible for system operation.

Mrs. Thakur is Deputy Mayor for Gaur Municipality in Rautahat district, Province 2. She holds Bachelor Degree in Education and brings extensive experiences of local development. She is also Coordinator of the Agriculture Development Committee of the municipality. Besides political functions, Mrs. Kiran has been also actively engaged in community development and she is leading various community institutions. She is the Vice-president of District Cooperative Association, Rautahat, Chairpersons of the Human Service Centre, Rautahat, Rural Development Foundation and Women Cooperative. She is a member for over 10 other community institutions.

Dr. Manohara Khadka is Country Representative, IWMI-Nepal. She has been engaged in program management and social science applied research in the field of water resources management, rural livelihoods, policies, forestry and agriculture development from inclusive governance, gender and social inclusion perspectives in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, including Nepal. Prior to IWMI, she was the Natural Resource Management (NRM) Portfolio Manager and Senior Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Advisor, Embassy of Switzerland, SDC Nepal.

Dr. Imran heads the Environment and Climate Change Program at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), a think tank, based in Islamabad, Pakistan.  Imran’s work focuses on identifying institutional vulnerabilities and analyzing the political economy of regions and communities most vulnerable to environmental degradation and climate change.

Dr. Sardar Mohazzam is the Managing Director of the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. He holds Ph.D. in Public Policy and specializes in the area of Energy and Environmental Policy. He worked with ADB as Energy Expert for Economic Corridor Development. He has provided Strategic Support for Energy Efficiency in Pakistan as World Bank consultant. He has led Sustainable Energy for All (SDGs #7) Initiative as a consultant with UNDP.

Mr. Shoaib Ahmad is the Deputy Director (Coordination) of the SAARC Energy Centre in Islamabad. He has a PhD degree in the field of Renewable Energy and has vast experience in management of engineering and renewable energy projects. His professional strengths are in policy making, organizational development, engineering design and systems engineering. He has also taught in universities and has three internationally published research papers to his credit.

Dr. Mohsin Hafeez is a Country Representative and Principal Researcher (Water Resources Management) at the IWMI Pakistan office. Mohsin is an accomplished water resources specialist and has more than 25 years of management experience in more than 14 countries. He has a PhD Engineering in Water Resources Management from Rheinischen Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat of Bonn, Bonn, Germany and Master of Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.

Ms. Sara is a lawyer and consultant specializing in climate change law and policy and works with the government and international organizations. She is currently advising the government on preparing Pakistan’s second nationally determined contributions to share with the UNFCCC. She has worked on climate change induced displacement in Sindh and recommended amendments to the pending Sindh Climate Change Policy. Alongside having designed Pakistan’s first climate change narrative, including a localised vocabulary on climate change, in both Urdu and English for Amnesty International, Sara is also working on highlighting the nexus between climate change and human rights in the country.

Mr. Tahir Anwar is National Project Coordinator and Director General of the Federal Water Management Cell (FWMC) of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR) Islamabad. He has over 30 years of experience in the field of agriculture and food security.

Dr. Azeem Shah works at International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Pakistan office as a Senior Regional Researcher: Water Governance. He is a water governance professional with over 15 years of experience and keen interest in the institutional and policy issues, renewables, transboundary water issues and flow measurement instrumentation at various levels in the large-scale irrigation systems.

Dr. Veena Srinivasan is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation (CSEI) at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). Veena has won several awards for her research including the 2015 Jim Dooge Award for best paper in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Science from the European Geophysical Union. She has been the Chair holder of the prestigious Prins Claus Chair in Netherlands from 2018-2020. Veena serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Hydrology and Ecology, Economy and Society. She has served as a resource person for National Water Mission, India and on the drafting committee for the thematic group on Agriculture, Water, and Food Security of the Science, Technology and Information Policy (STIP) 2020. Veena received her PhD from Stanford University.

Dr. Wolfgang Kinzelbach is heading the China Groundwater Project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation since 2014. Before that, he was a Full Professor of Hydromechanics and Groundwater at ETH Zurich, at the University of Kassel and the University of Heidelberg at different points in his career. His current main interest is sustainable water resources management in arid and semi-arid regions, mainly in Africa and China. His current main interest is sustainable water resources management in arid and semi-arid regions, mainly in Africa and China. He has published 5 books and more than 200 articles. He has a PhD in environmental engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 1978.

Dr. Anwar Zahir is a Director, Ground Water Hydrology, Bangladesh Water Development Board and also a part-time teacher/ adjunct faculty at the University of Dhaka. He is a groundwater specialist with doctorate in hydrogeology and environmental geology. He specializes in groundwater hydrology, environmental and disaster science and management, water supply and groundwater model. He has written five books and 80 research papers. He is currently involve in study projects with University College London, UK, Technical University of Darmstadt and University of Bremen, Germany, University of Delaware, USA.

Dr. Tushaar Shah, an economist and public policy specialist, is an Emeritus Scientist of the International Water Management Institute, Colombo and Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Rural Management Anand. Over the past 35 years, Shah’s main research interests have been in two fields: farmer organizations and water institutions and policies. In both these fields, he has published extensively, and his writings have helped shape national debates and public policies, including grid connected solar irrigation policies under India’s KUSUM scheme.

Ms. Divya Kashyap is working as the Senior Advisor with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Embassy of Switzerland in India. SDCs work in India focuses on offering Swiss expertise in Climate Change and Environment for innovative actions in rural, urban and mountains.

Dr. Meha Jain is an Assistant Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Her research examines how we can sustainably increase agricultural production to feed the world’s growing population in the face of environmental change. She does this by combining remote sensing and geospatial analyses with household-level and census datasets to examine farmer decision-making and behavior across large spatial and temporal scales. She has a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology from Columbia University, and postdoctoral experience in the Department of Earth System Science from Stanford University.

Dr. Mohammed Mainuddin is a Principal Research Scientist with the Water Security Program of CSIRO Land and Water based in Canberra, Australia. He has about 30 years of research experience in integrated water resources management and modelling for river basins, coastal water and salinity management, irrigation systems performance analysis, agricultural productivity and food security analysis, socio-economic and livelihood issues related to water use, and impact of climate change on water availability, agricultural productivity and food security. He is currently leading projects in Bangladesh and India dealing with cropping system intensification in the coastal zone, sustainable groundwater management for food security and, improving agricultural productivity.

Educated at the University of Cambridge, Simi Kamal has 40 years of experience as a geographer, a water professional, a poverty alleviation specialist and a women’s rights activist. She also has extensive experience in climate change, environment and green energy sectors. She has traveled to 50 countries and has global recognition in policy, strategy, programming and delivery. She is the Founder and Chairperson of Hisaar Foundation, is on the Board of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and served for nine years on the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership (GWP). She is a prolific writer and has published over 400 articles and papers. She is the recipient of international and national awards.

Dr. Alok K. Sikka is with International Water Management Institute, Delhi Office as IWMI Representative-India since April, 2016. Prior to joining IWMI, he served as Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Technical Expert (Watershed Development) (in the rank of Additional Secretary to Govt. of India), National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi. He was Director of ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna and Basin Coordinator for Indo-Gangetic Basin under the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food from 2002-2007. He is Ph. D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with specialization in Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering from Utah State University, Logan, Utah.

Dr. Aditi Mukherji is a Principal Researcher and and Regional Project Leader for the SDC supported SoLAR project. She works on climate change adaptation and water-energy-food nexus. She has published over 60 peer reviewed research papers. She is currently a coordinating lead author of water chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment.