Member and Adviser to Different committees of National and State levels and Governing Body member in well-known development organisations. With more than 25 Years of experience in the development sector, Dr. Yogesh Kumar is a professional with an international reputation on the issue of “participatory governance and development”. A well-known development economist and thought leader on the subject of participatory governance he served in advisory positions to many National and International forums and well-known CSOs. Dr Kumar has PhD in Development Studies and has also been an ICSSR Doctoral Fellow in Development Economics. He is a founder member and Executive Director of “Samarthan – Centre for Development Support” working in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. He has written many articles, and papers on Governance, Transparency, and Social Security and provided far-sighted scenarios for the strengthening of ‘governance and participatory planning’ in the country. Dr Kumar has active engagement in local governance, and accountability discourses with expertise in participatory planning, and social audits, and has also facilitated the emergence of a network of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Madhya Pradesh. His contribution to strengthening capacities and institutional mechanisms of voluntary development organisations has been widely recognised.

Mr. Tyagi has a very unusual combination of experience in forest management, data and participatory planning, digital governance and leading various national/international developmental initiatives. He also served as Commissioner, Economics and Statistics in Govt of Madhya Pradesh and has also led Zila Panchayat for many years. He served forest department in various capacities and known for his efforts for mainstreaming community participation in management of forest, initiation of landscape approach in conservation of biodiversity and development of new age IT solutions in forest management.

He also led many developmental initiatives of DFID and the World Bank and help experts designing of structures and processes for participatory planning, and governance. In his able leadership, the pilots got scaled up by the government and processes have been protocolised and budgets have been earmarked for the same by the government. He led the monitoring and evaluation of several welfare programmes of the Government of MP and Played a significant role in development of policy for Voluntary Organizations in MP.

Dr. Indrani Barpujari, a social anthropologist and lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights, is the head of the Centre for Social Sector Development at AIGGPA. With over eighteen years of experience, she has conducted extensive research on governance, public policy, equity, sustainable development, nanotechnology, and biodiversity conservation. Her impactful projects include developing an IPR roadmap for Asia, protecting traditional knowledge of medicinal plants, and drafting e-waste regulations. She has published in prestigious journals and presented her work globally.

Mr. Lalit Mohan Belwal is currently CEO of M.P. State Rural Livelihood Mission. He is a retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer. He hails from Almora district of Uttarakhand. He has studied M. Sc. in Botany. In the past, he has held the position of PCCF / Project Co-ordinator, Rural Livelihood Project, Bhopal.

Source- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/ias-officer-shifted-soon-after-investigating-ex-ifs-officer/articleshow/93224422.cms

Source- https://mpforest.gov.in/img/files/Govt_IFS_2017_Padkram.pdf

A Social Development Professional having keen interest on issues of local governance, Gender, citizen rights and policy making. Currently working with civil society organisations on enabling Gram Sabhas and strengthening Gram Panchayats for participatory and active local democracy. Ms. Aakriti Gupta holds a Master of Arts (M.A) degree in Social Work, specializing in Dalit and Tribal Studies, which she obtained from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Presently holds the position of Programme Manager at Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI), a unit of Azim Premji Foundation. She also worked at Kudumbashree NRO, During her tenure, she served as the State Project Coordinator in Rajasthan, based in Udaipur. Her responsibilities included coordinating and overseeing project activities, likely related to empowering communities and fostering socio-economic development. Furthermore, Aakriti served as a State Project Coordinator in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh During this period, she provided support to the State Rural Livelihood Missions of both states, contributing to the implementation of projects like Start-up Village Entrepreneurship and Convergence of Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Leading many project around Rural Area Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (RADFI) around developing Spatial GPDPs. Dr. Rama is an architect and environmental planner by training. Her Doctoral research is on ‘Framework for Evaluating Livability Performance of Residential Built Environment’. Currently, Associate Professor and Head of Landscape department of School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal. She is also heading the National Centre for Spatial Development spatial Rural Development Planning (NCSRDP). She has experience of working in academics and industry in the field of Architecture and Planning for over two and a half decades. Industry experience includes both commercials as well as large-scale residential projects. In academics, research interest is primarily focused on: Climate informed settlement planning; Mainstreaming ecosystem services in planning; Socio-ecological and climate change resilience; and Livability of the residential built environment. She has contributed as an environmental planner in SPA Bhopal’s Multinational and National projects in Climate resilience, Regional Planning, and Rural Spatial Planning.