Host Institution India: Harvard University

Praveen Gedam

A qualified doctor with an MBBS, Dr. Praveen Gedam joined the Indian Administrative Service in 2002. He has held various important positions in his career. Before coming to the center, he served the State Government of Maharashtra in various capacities. He served as the Transport Commissioner of Maharashtra, where he spearheaded a massive computerization exercise. Dr. Gedam has also served as the Chief Administrator of numerous cities and districts.

At the cutting-edge field level, Dr. Gedam was responsible for critical government interventions concerning socio-economic development, including those in public health. He is known for the turnaround in maternal and child health indicators in Latur, one of the most backward districts in the state, due to targeted interventions, systematic medical check-ups, and massive community mobilization exercises. In 2015, he was entrusted with organizing and managing the mega-event of Kumbhmela in Nashik which is one of the largest human congregations on earth. This has the distinction of having zero missing persons, zero casualties, zero outbreaks.

In his role in the National Health Authority, Dr. Gedam is the Additional Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority, tasked with the policy formulation and implementation of two flagship health schemes of the central government: Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), the world’s largest government-sponsored health insurance scheme, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the mission to develop the digital health ecosystem within India. In the future, Dr Gedam intends to continue working in the field of social development with a particular focus on public health.

Dr. Gedam also pursues his passion for music, hiking, and painting. He has trekked and camped extensively across the Western Ghats and Himalayas and organized numerous cultural festivals.

J. Ganesan

Dr. J. Ganesan is a trained dental surgeon from the Tamil Nadu Government Dental College in Chennai. However, his passion in public service brought him into the government. He was a topper in the extremely competitive civil service examination 2005, acquiring an all-India rank of 4, and was allotted the Indian Administrative Service.

Since then, he has held multiple positions with distinction in the state government of Haryana. His conviction in “Antyodaya”, along with a pragmatic approach to governance, has led to him making substantial changes in service delivery across sectors. He has been a harbinger in introducing information technology and designing robust systems adept in delivery. The digital agricultural crop procurement introduced in 2018 modernized the archaic paper-book processes, jettisoned middlemen and ensured direct benefit transfer to one million farmers in Haryana. He received the award of excellence of the Computer Society of India from the Chief Minister of Odisha in 2020 for this project.

Dr. Ganesan is also widely acknowledged for his contribution in the field of school education. In addition, he is the proud recipient of the ‘Good Governance Award-2021’ from the Chief Minister of Haryana for the innovative “Super-100” program that empowers government school children to pursue higher education in premier institutions of the country. Dr. Ganesan is also credited with fronting a major ed-tech project aimed at providing computing tablets, digital content through personalized and adaptive learning algorithms and internet data to 800,000 government school children.

Dr Ganesan intends to move to the Government of India to take up assignments in the information technology and e-governance sectors which he believes have the potential to transform governance in India. A graduate degree in public administration from Harvard University through the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship would give him a fillip in appreciating public policy and positively impact governance through technology.

V.S. Alagu Varsini

Dr. V.S. Alagu Varsini is a board-certified dental surgeon and a civil servant. As an Indian Administrative Service Officer, she has worked in multiple capacities in the Government of Telangana. As Director, Indian Institute of Health and Family Welfare, she has been working at the forefront of mitigating COVID-19.

Born and brought up in the beautiful rural town of Pollachi, her passion has been inclusive growth. Since her school days, she has worked towards an inclusive society and participatory development. She has organized various camps to educate peers about civil rights and responsibilities enshrined in the Constitution of India. With the guidance of her parents, Dr. Varsini achieved her position in the civil services, eventually earning the distinction of being a gold medalist and TeX Award winner in Public Administration. Her contribution towards challenged children, the inclusion of impoverished women in social sector schemes, girl child education, and natural resource management has created perceived change in societal institutions, thereby encouraging inclusive growth.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, she wishes to acquire academic rigor and understand the utilization of data for a favorable policy outcome. She looks forward to imbibing a more significant global picture to poise herself at the crucial juncture of transformation from policy implementor to policy framer. On her return to India, she looks forward to working with the Government of India in policy formulation capacities for achieving the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Harssh A. Poddar

Mr. Harssh A Poddar is an officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) borne on the Maharashtra cadre. He is an Oxford-educated lawyer and a Chevening scholar who has worked in corporate law with a magic circle law firm in London, before returning to India to pursue a career in law enforcement. He is presently posted as the Commanding Officer of the Maharashtra armed police in Amravati.

A recipient of the Best Officer Award and the Home Minister’s Award for National Integration during the IPS training, Mr. Poddar has strived to change the perception of citizens towards the police. His work has focused on youth empowerment and deradicalization. The Maharashtra Police Youth Parliament Project, conceptualized by him, created an outreach of over 200,000 youth for the Maharashtra Police. He is also credited with the launch of an innovative project, Udaan, that provided free career guidance to thousands of students in communally sensitive regions of the state.

In 2018, Mr. Poddar undertook an extensive campaign against mob violence prompted by misinformation in Malegaon. He also led an operation in which a family was successfully rescued from a violent mob in the city. As part of the SMART police initiative, he has been recreating rural police stations with a view towards providing urban standards of police service-delivery in interior Maharashtra. He has successfully headed the investigation of several organized crimes and has also authored a book on the law relating to investment frauds.

In recent years his work on pandemic law enforcement has become a case study in COVID policing. As the Superintendent of Police of Beed district, the effective implementation by his team of the national lockdown ensured that not a single case of infection was reported in the district during the lockdown. During the devastating second wave, the scientific measures he undertook in the armed police have become a template for protecting frontline workers in the face of a pandemic.

Pursuing a master’s in public administration as a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School will help Mr. Poddar to complement the fundamentals of law enforcement policy and global security with his experience in field policing and handling law and order. After completing the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s program, he intends to work at the federal and state level in areas relating to security and law enforcement.

Sayed Zeeshan Ali

Mr. Sayed Zeeshan Ali holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from West Bengal University of Technology, a PG diploma in Management from All India Management Association, Delhi and a Master of Leadership in Sustainable Finance from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Germany. He is a certified expert in climate and renewable energy finance; ESG and impact investing; risk, governance and compliance from FS-UNEP Centre for Climate and Sustainable Energy Finance.

Mr. Ali has worked in the areas of clean energy, climate change, sustainable finance, and international relations for more than 16 years in the South Asia region. In his professional career, he has worked as Energy Analyst with the Asian Development Bank, as Assistant Director with SAARC Development Fund, and as Chief of Sustainable Finance and International Affairs with International Financial Services Centres Authority, Gujarat.

Mr. Ali administered a cumulative clean energy portfolio of more than USD two billion. He implemented sustainable energy projects in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He has experience of advising the Government of SAARC member countries in macroeconomic policies, public finance, climate change, and sustainable development.

During the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Mr. Ali is studying public administration at Harvard Kennedy School. He believes this prestigious program will prepare him to take up leadership roles in the public sector with a focus on energy transition, climate change, climate risk and resilience, greening of the financial systems, and strategies to mobilize capital for climate actions in India.

Anupama Thekkinkat Vadukoot

Ms. Anupama Thekkinkat Vadukoot is Commissioner, Land Revenue and Disaster Management, Government of Kerala. She joined Indian Administrative Service in 2010 after completing B.E. in electrical and electronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani-Goa.

She was a co-founder of a social service society in her college and the first president of the Goa chapter of the NGO Nirmaan, leading to a strong foundation for her work in the social sector later in her career.

Ms. Vadukoot secured fourth rank in the country in the all-India Civil Services Examination (CSE) and joined Kerala cadre. There, she served in various positions: Sub Collector, District Collector, and Head of the Department in Government of Kerala. The sectors she worked in includes food safety, social justice, women and child, Scheduled Tribes development, tourism, disaster management, and land revenue. She is passionate about working on issues in the social sector, particularly child protection and gender.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Ms. Vadukoot is studying public administration at Harvard Kennedy School. She believes that this program will enable her to smoothly transition from her current implementation roles to policy-making roles in the government. Furthermore, she aims to learn skills necessary for developing an interdisciplinary approach in designing people-friendly policies for the state.

Anugraha P

Ms. Anugraha P completed her bachelor’s degree in engineering from PSG College of Technology and worked as Business Analyst. She joined the Indian Administrative Service in 2011 to pursue her passion for developing an equitable and inclusive society.

Ms. Anugraha P has held various leadership positions in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Her initiatives were aimed at improving the socioeconomic parameters of weaker sections of the society and at women empowerment through education and skill development programs. As District Collector in Shivpuri and Khargone, she has improved education standards in remote rural areas by upgrading school infrastructure and manpower training, by introducing innovative pedagogy, and by addressing issues of child labor, malnutrition, and migration. She is keen on implementing STEAM based learning models and advancing digital literacy in schools.

Ms. Anugraha P has promoted financial independence in women by providing entrepreneurial opportunities through convergence of government schemes and positive engagement with NGOs. She has collaborated on various projects with international agencies like ILO and UNICEF. She is also a proud recipient of Platinum Award for Excellence in Digital Governance, conferred by the President of India for her excellent initiatives in providing digital services in rural India.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Ms. Anugraha P is pursuing a master’s in public administration at Harvard Kennedy School. She aspires to use data analytics in designing effective public policy and to leverage technology to make education more accessible and equitable. Along with the enriching academic curriculum, she looks forward to being a part of the global peer network.

Avny Lavasa

Ms. Avny Lavasa is a civil servant from the Indian Administrative Service working in Jammu and Kashmir. She has ten years’ of experience serving in various roles in the Indian government across the challenging regions of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. She is known for her participative approach in public service as she successfully implemented infrastructural as well as community-led projects. She is an economics graduate from the University of Delhi and has a sports management diploma from Australia. Before joining the government, she worked as a professional in the sports industry.

As Deputy Commissioner (district head) of Leh district, Ms. Lavasa worked in the Ladakh region, where she set up a widely acclaimed solid waste management system with facilities spread across the region. Her other initiatives towards mitigating major urban problems and sustainable development of the ecologically fragile region include reviving public transport system, promoting eco-friendly modes of mobility, and enforcing waste management regulations at tourism destinations.

In her role as Municipal Commissioner, Jammu city, and CEO of the Smart City Mission, Ms. Lavasa led major urban infrastructure projects, like the iconic Riverfront project and Asian Development Bank funded urban water supply and urban mobility projects, among others. She played an instrumental role in procuring, designing, and managing several urban projects in Jammu.

Ms. Lavasa is a sports enthusiast and regularly participates in half marathons. She pioneered the organization of school games in Leh. She is a keen traveler and believes that both sports and travelling have enriched her life. Sports taught her the values of team spirit, discipline, and fair play.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Ms. Lavasa is pursuing urban planning to learn new aspects of urban policy, regulation, and environmental sustainability that will add to her administrative experience. She hopes to gain academic and practical insights into the area of urban reforms that will enable her to understand present and future challenges of urbanization in the world and to contribute towards better governance in her country.

Aman Gupta

Dr. Aman Gupta obtained a bachelor’s in engineering from the University of Delhi in 2005. Thereafter, he went to business school at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, completing his MBA in 2007. He spent a term at the University of Lyon, France, as part of this course. Dr. Gupta worked as a credit rating analyst, from 2008 to 2010, with CRISIL Limited (a Standard and Poor’s Enterprise) and spent a few years as a co-founder of a start-up until late 2011. In December 2011, he joined the Indian Corporate Law Service of the Government of India, which regulates the functioning of companies in India.

Dr. Gupta joined the premier Indian Administrative Service in 2013 and has undertaken several assignments in the Government of NCT of Delhi and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Along with his work in the civil service, he has also completed a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Delhi and a Ph.D. in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.

Dr. Gupta is a visually impaired person and is legally blind. He has a keen interest in reading, writing, and travelling.

As part of the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Dr. Gupta is pursuing an LLM at Harvard University. He is studying areas of constitutional and administrative law relating to the balance of powers, balance between regulation and freedom, and trust-based governance. He hopes to be able to apply this knowledge while formulating law and policy in India and to better appreciate the nuances during their implementation. He believes this would enable him to do justice to his profession as an IAS officer in improving the lives of his fellow citizens.

Prince Dhawan

Mr. Prince Dhawan, an IAS officer by profession and a development practitioner at heart, is committed to improving the living conditions of people in his country and to nation-building. Hailing from Chandigarh, he completed his dual degree (B.Tech. and M.Tech.) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in electrical engineering and ICT. He was the topper and the best all round-student of his class of 2011 and was awarded the Director’s Gold Medal as well as the Director’s Silver Medal. In 2012, he secured the third rank in the all-India civil services exam and is currently placed as the topper of his batch.

Over the last decade, Mr. Dhawan has served in three state and union territory governments, including the tribal areas of Arunachal Pradesh, where he was awarded the National e-governance Award, 2017-18, and the state gold medal for outstanding contribution to public service and use of technology. Under his leadership, the state IT Department was recognized as the best performing department in the state in 2018. Currently stationed in Delhi, Mr. Dhawan is using emerging technologies for proactive governance. As District Magistrate, West Delhi, he is also actively involved in rehabilitation of street children and in upskilling of youth. To be able to better discharge his responsibilities as a public servant in the years ahead, Mr. Dhawan would like to study the key ingredients of an effective policy for different problems and environments.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Mr. Dhawan is studying public administration and international development at Harvard university, which helps him gain a deeper understanding of complex developmental problems and acquire the right analytical tools to design and implement solutions for them. After completing his fellowship, he aims to contribute more meaningfully to his life’s mission: empowerment of underprivileged communities and transformation of public service institutions.