K Gireesan is the Director, MIT School of Government, Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU), Pune. Previously, he performed in various capacities such as Head, Dept. of Local Governance; Head, Centre for Policy and Action Research, and Faculty Head, Panchayati Raj Institutions and Youth Affairs at Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD), Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Govt. of India, Sriperumbudur. He obtained Post Graduate and Doctoral degrees in Public Administration from Panjab University, Chandigarh. He carried out number of research studies for the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. As a national evaluator, he was involved in carrying out monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment studies for the Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Govt. of India in different parts of the country. His areas of interests are: Empowerment of Local Governments and Community BasedOrganisations, Mainstreaming Youth in Governance; Youth in Agriculture; and, Empowerment of Political Leadership. He is engaged in formulation of a Constituency Management System´, an ICT-enabled Spatial Decision Support System, as a Tool and Strategy to support the political leadership. He is a member of Board of Examiners/ Doctoral Committees in various academic institutions in the country. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Indian Journal of Sustainable Development, Central University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. He has published/ edited ten books, research reports and micro-level studies. In addition, he has published several research papers in national/ international journals and edited books.
Jos Chathukulam is the former Professor of Sri. Ramakrishna Hegde Chair on Decentralization & Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) Bengaluru & currently, Director, Centre for Rural Management, Kottayam, Kerala, India, anda national-level expert on Decentralized Governance and Rural Development. He has wide fieldwork experience throughout the country. He is associated with several consultative committees of the National Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change. He also has an equally good record of publications. His publications have appeared in World Development, UNU- WIDER, International Journal of Rural Management, Public Administration and Development, Journal of Health Management, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, EPW, Gandhi Marg, Mainstream Weekly, Journal of Rural Development, Man and Development, and several others. He was one of the key organizers of the People´s Plan Campaign in Kerala and Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) in other states in India. He had administered and evaluated 176 projects covering different parts of the world, including Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, Sudan. He has done extensive research ondecentralization and local governance across Indian states, Latin America, and Africa. He is an expert of Devolution Index which is used to compare the rate of decentralization across the Indian states. He is a well-published author.
