Team Takshashila

Dr. M. Govinda Rao is the Councillor of Takshashila Institution. He is an economist and was a member of the 14th Finance Commission.

Dr. Rao has previously served as the Director of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and as the Director of Institute for Social and Economic Change.

Hema Hattangady is a B Com from Karnataka University Dharwad and an MBA from IIM Kolkata. She joined the business established by her late father-in-law, Shri H. Vasanth Rao, a renowned innovator and entrepreneur.

Aditya is an Associate Fellow with the Takshashila Institution. A journalist by training, he has previously worked at Mint and as a freelancer. He has also researched and written on colonial-era Indian military history.

Dr. Kajari Kamal is a PhD in Political Science from the University of Hyderabad. Her dissertation assesses the salience of Kautilyan ideas to better understand the drivers of India’s foreign policy. She teaches a course on the relevance of Arthashastra in India’s strategic discourse in Takshashila’s GCPP (DFA) programme.

Sachin Kalbag is a Senior Fellow (Information Policy and Governance) at the Takshashila Institution. After spending nearly three decades in some of India's most influential newsrooms in Delhi, Mumbai and Washington, DC, Sachin decided to switch over to the policy space. He has appeared on BBC Mastermind and is currently learning music in the hope of being inducted into a band before he turns 60.

KPM Das is an Adjunct Fellow with the Takshashila Institution and the National Cybersecurity and Trust Officer for Cisco driving the emerging cyber security initiatives in India and Asia Pacific. Formerly with the Indian Army until 2003, he graduated from the National Defence Academy and Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. KPM set up the Information/Cyber Warfare Cell in the Military Operations Directorate at Army HQ during Operation Vijay.

A mechanical engineer by qualification and a businessman by profession, Yusuf is an Adjunct Scholar at Takshashila. He has a keen interest in defence and geopolitics and runs India's largest online discussion forum on defence and strategic affairs.

Sridhar Krishna is a Senior Scholar at the Takshashila Institution where he led the 20 million jobs project before joining the group researching on AI Governance. He graduated from BITS, Pilani and has an MBA from SP Jain, Mumbai. He also works with ambitious young IT firms helping them scale and with a civil society organisation on judicial reform. Till recently, he was a Managing Director at Accenture where he worked on analytics and AI.

Ameya Naik is an Associate Fellow (non-resident) with the geostrategy programme at the Takshashila Institution. He teaches courses on public policy analysis to the students of our public policy programmes.

Rijesh is a Fellow with the High-Tech Geopolitics programme at the Takshashila Institution. He works on issues related to the evolution of and geopolitics surrounding quantum technologies.

Dr Y. Nithiyanandam is a professor and the head of the Takshashila Institution's Geospatial Program. He is working on several themes in defense and national security.

Sowmya is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the Takshashila Institution. She has 20 years of diverse experience, combining both the corporate and social sectors. At Takshashila, she leads all the efforts towards HR, corporate engagement, outreach and partnerships.

Malathi Renati is enjoying her role as the Associate Dean of The Takshashila Institution.

Mubeena works with the Takshashila Institution as an Assistant Programme Manager.

Leah is an Assistant Programme Manager for the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (Defence & Foreign Affairs) programme at Takshashila Institution.

Bharath Reddy is the Programme Manager for the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy, focusing on Technology and Policy. His research interests are at the intersections of technology, geopolitics, and India's national interests, focusing on AI governance, open-source technologies, and telecommunications.

Suman is the programme manager for the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (Advanced Public Policy) programme at Takshashila. She has over twelve years of experience in the corporate sector across recruitment, communications and process & quality management.

Shreya is a Programme Manager of the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (Advanced Public Policy) program at Takshashila. Before this, she worked in the sustainability, education, and consumer goods sectors in roles involving communications, stakeholder engagement, and key account management.

Kripa Koshy is a Programme Manager (for the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy) at the Takshashila Institution. She has previously worked with the public and third sector. She holds a Bachelors in International Development Studies from McGill University and a Masters in Public Administration from Queen’s University.

Rohan is the Assistant Programme Manager of the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (Technology and Policy) programme at Takshashila. He graduated cum laude from Ashoka University with a BA (Hons) in History & International Relations interdisciplinary major and a Media Studies concentration.

Ananya Desai is Assistant Programme Manager for the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (Defence & Foreign Affairs) at The Takshashila Institution. She has a degree in Liberal Arts with a specialisation in International Relations and Political Science from Christ University, Bangalore.

Shrikrishna works as the Knowledge Manager at The Takshashila Institution. His role involves building knowledge management capacities for research and policy verticals to enable effective conservation, discovery and growth of knowledge, and also managing public engagement on policy output.

Wini is a Communications Manager at the Takshashila Institution. She graduated with a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She holds a Bachelor’s degree (with Honours) in Political Science from Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi. Prior to joining Takshashila, she worked as a Research Analyst with the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.

Carl Jaison is Manager (Programme Development) at Takshashila Institution where he leads the planning and execution of Takshashila's events and corporate engagement programmes.

Bharat is a Research Analyst working with the Indo-Pacific Studies Programme at The Takshashila Institution, where he studies the role of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) and its place within the international system.

Rakshith Shetty is a Research Analyst with the Indo-Pacific Studies Programme at the Takshashila Institution. His long-term project at Takshashila is working on China's Domestic Policies on Green Energy Capacities and Technologies, with a particular emphasis on their implications for India. His research interests span across Chinese politics, green technology, and the intricate dynamics of India-China relations.

Saurabh is a Research Analyst working with the High-Tech Geopolitics Programme at the Takshashila Institution. He tracks geopolitics of emerging technologies, especially in the field of biotechnology. His research interests also include export controls, WMD issues and the geostrategic dynamic between India, China, and the United States.

Satya is a research analyst working with the High-tech Geopolitics programme at Takshahsila. His research interests span a broad range of topics including Semiconductor Geo-Politics, Artificial Intelligence Regulation, and India's Technology Law and Policy landscape.

Ashwin is a Research Analyst working with the High-Tech Geopolitics Programme at the Takshashila Institution. He monitors the evolution of India as a space power by undertaking policy research on the commercial, legal, and strategic aspects of outer space affairs from an Indian national interest perspective.

Amit Kumar is a Research Analyst with the Indo-Pacific Studies Programme at the Takshashila Institution. His research interests include China’s domestic policy and China’s Foreign policy, India-China relations. His long-term project at the Takshashila focuses on the Chinese economy and India-China trade relations.

Anushka Saxena is a Research Analyst with Takshashila’s Indo-Pacific Studies Programme. Her long-term project at Takshashila entails working on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and its reforms. She is also co-curating the weekly Newsletter, ‘Eye on China’. She tweets @SaxenaAnushka_.

Arindam Goswami is a Research Scholar at Takshashila Institution, working on the Multi-Contributor Social Security System project. Arindam has completed a B. Tech. in Computer Engineering, an MBA in Marketing and Takshashila's GCPP course in Advanced Public Policy. He has worked extensively in the fintech industry. Until recently, he was heading the backend engineering at SonyLIV.