For more than two decades, Ranjan has been active in the sphere of rural development, working for organizations like Ramakrishna Mission and PRADAN. He also had a stint of two years in Malaysia as an UNV. He holds a degree in Agriculture with post-graduation in Rural Management from IRMA. He is the founder and director of Shristi, the host organization of the project. His present involvements are in the areas of microfinance, livelihood and innovation scouting.

As the project leader, he guides the team, forges external linkages and forms the backbone of crucial think-tank to take the project towards future

Pranab is a development researcher with more than a decade of experience in different aspects of natural and social resource management with industry, NGOs, Government Research Institute and range of national and international donors in different states of India. His present works are on facilitating rights and access to land and natural resources and furthering empowerment initiatives to augment tribal livelihood options. He is passionate in exploring and gaining from trans-disciplinary links among developmental disciplines and in tapping market potential to combat poverty through innovative options

In this project, Pranab coordinates monitors and facilitates the study team and collaborates with advisors, peers and institutions to achieve the project objectives through evolving processes. He also leads the investigations into cross-cutting themes besides taking up integration, refinement and dissemination of project information and outputs.

Sukanta has 4 years of experience of working with agro-based industries and rural development sector in the fields of rural marketing, livelihood development. He holds a degree in agriculture and a master’s in bioinformatics. He had worked on his Master’s thesis at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

He supports cross-thematic initiatives in the project and helps Basin Coordinator in project coordination. He is interesting in analysing farm-based livelihood options in the basin with an aim to augment livelihood of small and marginal tribal farmers.

Dr Rout has got more than 15 years of experience in the field of integrated water resource management, watershed management, hydro geological research, groundwater exploration (geophysical, geochemical & geomorphologic), and interpretation of Remote Sensing & Satellite Imageries. He is a postgraduate in Geology and holds a doctoral degree in hydrogeology. He has worked with organizations like BGVS, AAI, DFID, UNDP, UNFPA, and OXFAM in the context of livelihood restoration, disaster management and micro level planning of integrated rural development programmes in various agro -climatic areas.

Dr Rout is leading the Hydrology Thematic Team in this project. He is also interested in pursuing cross cutting explorations around basin hydrological aspects in particular and in furthering action research initiatives on basin scale in general.

Padma has worked in rural marketing sector with a farm machinery company in UP for about a year. He is a B. Tech in Agricultural Engineering with M. Tech in Water Resources Development and Management from IIT, Kharagpur. In his Master’s theses, he has used GIS tools to develop a software models for study of geo-morphological parameters.

He works as the Research Associate in Hydrology theme. His area of interest includes Application of Remote Sensing in Land and water resource Development, Micro Irrigation and On-Farm water Management.

Mr Satpathy has got more than 10 years of experience in the field of Rural Development. His specialization includes natural resources management, watershed development & environment.

He worked in PRADAN, an NGO in India prior to joining Xavier Institute of Management. He has completed his M Tech in Geology from IIT-Kharagpur. He is presently the Coordinator of Project WATER. He has been working in this project since its inception. Mr Satpathy is leading the NRM Thematic Team in this project.

Prakash has more than 8 years of experience in the fields of Natural Resources Management, Community based Watershed Management, Rural marketing and Capacity Building. He is a graduate in agricultural Science and completed Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from XIMB.

He works as Research Associate (NRM) in BRB Project. He is interested in exploring status of agriculture in the river basin and is trying for its optimization with focus on hill farming and flood-plain situations.

Sisir was working with Shristi as a Livelihood manager for about a year n Keonjhar District before joining this project. He was involved in furthering livelihood options through on and off-farm interventions. He holds a degree in forestry.

He works as a Junior Research Fellow in the NRM team and is primarily involved in providing data analysis and field investigation support.

Rohini has extensive experience in the agri-business private sector companies in various states of India. He has a cross-functional exposure and interest in enterprise, livelihood and small business promotion. In his previous assignments/ consultations with USIAD, GOI, Commonwealth Science Council he tried to match the local resources with local capabilities and Resources (Manpower, Financial, and Capacity).

His current consultation in this project is to link the different zones of the basin through an effective enterprises linkage and surplus cross-over to generate enough employment for the basin benefactors.

He is a B.Tech in Agricultural Engineering with M.Tech in Dairy & Food Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. He worked on master thesis on Isolation & Characterization of Medicinal Tuber Crop Palo.

He works as a Research Associate in Livelihood Theme. His area of interest includes analysing farm based Livelihood options in the Basin with an aim to augment Livelihood of small & marginal tribal farmers.

Two post-graduate rural management students from Institute of Rural Management, Anand viz. Shirish Kumar Panda and Susanta Kumar Naik, have worked in the project as Trainee Research Associate (Livelihood) for two months during June-July as part of their Organizational Training Segment. They had conducted a strategic assessment of livelihood and micro-enterprise options in the Basin.

Mr Rout has got more than 15 years of experience in development sector in Orissa. He was worked on Natural Resources Management especially on watershed development, Micro-enterprises development and Rights based approaches with leading NGOs in Orissa.

He leads the Rights and Governance theme in the project. He is interested to analyze the role of institutions of local self governance in the context of basin resource management and to enhance their role as basin management institution.

Satya has about two years of professional research experience in different study projects. Currently he is pursuing Ph.D. on “Management of Common Property Resources and the Dimensions of Development in a Tribal Villages of Orissa” at Central University, Hyderabad. His M.Phil work was on Socio-cultural Anthropology from the same University on “Natural Resource Management and Development in a tribal village of Orissa: A Study in the Gonasika village of Keonjhar District”.

He is working as a Senior Research Fellow, in the theme of Rights and Governance. His areas of interest are Ecological Anthropology and Tribal Development in India.

Samarjit comes with three years of experience in different sectors of rural development including child health, HIV/AIDS and information collection and analysis etc. He is continuing M Phil in Public Administration and holds a Master’s degree in the same.

As a Junior Research Fellow in R & G team, he carries out secondary and primary data collection, data analysis and also supports the team in other action research processes. He is interested in pursuing research on policies related to resource management with an aim to expedite their democratic governance.

Suresh has been in the development sector for more than two decades. He has worked with Oxfam GB, India HIV/AIDS Alliance and Save the Children UK in India and outside, in the field of finance, Admin, HR, partnership management & also worked as Emergency Programme (Districts) Manager. He has good experience working in emergency relief and rehabilitation programmes and in preparing manuals, guidelines etc. for the organizations. He holds number of degrees including MCA, Dip in PM & IR etc. and is now continuing his MBA. Besides he has received trainings in India and abroad.

As Program Director (Finance and Administration), he looks after the staff welfare, personnel management, finance and logistics of the project.

Lingaraj has been working with Shristi since last two years. He has worked with Paty Sar and Associates Chartered Firm as Account and Audit Assistant for finalisation and audit works of different Organisation. He has Bachlor Degree in Commerce and is now contnuing his MBA and ICWAI. Besides he has computer training from NIIT on computer fundamentals, Ex-NGN account package and Tally from Paty Sar and Associates.

As Accountant, he looks after all the accounts work of the Project and report on weekly and monthly expenditure to the Programme Director Finance and Administration.