Education in India 2047

Universities in India 2047

Nandini Sundar, Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics

Nandini Sundar is a scholar of constitutionalism, academic freedom, democracy, law, inequality, and agrarian ecologies. Her recent book, The Burning Forest: India's War against Maoists (2019) has been translated into Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu. Trained at Columbia University (PhD), other recent publications include journal articles on democracy, authoritarianism and academic freedom as well as edited volumes such as The Scheduled Tribes and their India (2016), and Civil Wars in South Asia: State, Sovereignty, Development (2014). Sundar has been widely recognized for her scholarship: M.N. Srinivas Memorial Prize (2003); Infosys Prize for Social Sciences (2010); Ester Boserup Prize for Development Research (2016); and Malcolm Adiseshiah Prize for Distinguished Contributions to Development Studies (2017). Read Sundar's media articles.

India 2047: Gender Equality at Work and at Home

Ashwini Deshpande, Professor of Economics, Ashoka University

Ashwini Deshpande works on economics of discrimination and affirmative action with a focus on caste and gender in India. She is the founder Director of the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (CEDA) at Ashoka University. She is extensively published, including books such as The Grammar of Caste: Economic Discrimination in Contemporary India (2011), and Affirmative Action in India. Trained at the Delhi School of Economics (PhD, 1994), Deshpande has been teaching economics since 1990. She was awarded the EXIM Bank award for outstanding dissertation (1994), and the VKRV Rao Award for Indian economists under 45 (2007).

Every child in school and learning well: From vision to reality by 2047

Rukmini Banerji, CEO, PRATHAM

Rukmini Banerji has spent the last 25 years in India working in the education sector. In a 2019 TEDx talk Banerji said that the biggest development challenge that India faces is "preparing young people for the future." Trained at the University of Chicago (PhD, 1991), she has worked closely with federal and state governments in India on interventions to improve children’s learning. She also led Pratham's Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) from 2005 to 2014. Banerji was the first recipient of Maulana Abul Kalam Shiksha Puraskar award by the Government of Bihar in 2008, and the Yidan Prize for Education Development (2021).

Moderator: Franco Vaccarino, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and former President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Guelph

Franco Vaccarino is an internationally recognized and widely published psychologist and neuroscientist. As president (2014-2020) of the University of Guelph, Vaccarino created a new strategic framework which led to a renewed commitment and leadership role in sustainability and internationalization for the University. Trained at McGill University (PhD), his research focuses on the neuroscience of motivation, addiction and affective disorders. He has been highly recognized for his scientific contributions, including major awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Vaccarino is a recipient of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and is currently a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (FCAHS).