Annual Report  

Annual Report Annual Report 2008 - 2009 Please Click here to download Annual Report Bio-Data of Council Members Dr. A.K. Basu (Chairman): Trained as an Electrical Engineering and after a long experience of teaching and research at IIT-Kharagpur and BIT-Mesra, Dr. Basu built SRI to provide new technical opportunity for village youth and established India’s first Regional Resource Centre of Rural Technology. Acclaimed universally for his spirit of innovation, enterprise and humanism, he helped National development initiatives as member of Scientific Advisory Committee to the cabinet, Joint Council of Vocational Education, Steering Committees in Planning Commission and others. Dr. Basu has received both Jamnalal Bajaj Award and Rathindranath Puraskar for his contribution. He has helped PACS programme of DFID, to set up Functional Vocational Training Forum for MISEREOR, Andheri Trust for Andheri Hilfe Bonn, besides acting as Chairman of VANI, India’s leading Network of Voluntary Organisations. ******************************************** Fr. Marc De Brouwer (Vice Chairman): Fr. De Brouwer is a Jesuit trained in Mechanical Engineering. He left Belgium at a young age and at 85, he knows more about tribals than many. He lives in the tribal district of Gumla, runs an organisation, Gram Uthan Kendra which has created more than 300 Village knowledge centres. Revered by all, Fr. De Brouwer is a fearless, liberal and kind person who believes in the godliness within each human being. ******************************************* A.K. Sahay (Secretary): Mr. Sahay was trained as a Social Scientist for Rural Development. He is associated with SRI since its inception. He steered the first Rural Technology Park in India, located at Angara block and demonstrated the power of planning by the people. Mr. Sahay is an extremely soft spoken person with simple habits that win many friends in the administration, NGOs and villagers. ******************************************** Mr. Deepankar Sengupta (CEO): An electrical engineer by qualification started his carrier as a research engineer with Department of Industrial Research, BIT Mesra. Instrumental in establishing country’s first “Techno-entrepreneurs Industrial Estate” attached to BIT. Moved on to industry. Worked with “Research and Development Centre for Iron & Steel” the Corporate R&D centre of Steel Authority of Inida for 27 years. After superannuation from SAIL joined SRI as CEO in 2008. ********************************************** Dr. B. Kanta Rao (Member): Dr. Rao was one of the Founders of SRI. Brilliant in the field of electronic hardware, he was the Vice Chancellor of BIT-Mesra. He is a fine academic and a purist who is always searching for improvement and perfection. ******************************************** G.S. Kang (Member): An able administrator who recently retired as the Chief Secretary of Bihar, Mr. Kang is a rationalist and was one of the founders of SRI. His soft voice and quick decision making ability has been respected by all. Mr. Kang does not believe that something needed cannot be done. *********************************************** Prof. R.L. Muni Chakravorty (Member): Prof. Chakravory is an Architect and is well known for his cost effective and space-utilising designs. He is leading the Low Income Group Housing Project in West Bengal. Prof. Chakravorty was professor in the Department of Architecture and Town Planning at IIT-Kharagpur. He is a good classical music singer and has donated everything to a Trust to help mentally retarted children. His creativity is reflected through the organisation, Society for Holistic Approach for Planning Environment (SHAPE), he established in Kolkata. ********************************************** Dr. C.C. Sarkar (Member): He resigned from Agriculture Department, Bihar, because as he said, he wanted to train gardeners. He joined SRI and build Food and Agro Processing Section. Productivity Council award to SRI for Rural Food Processing was his achievement. Dr. Sarkar is a familiar happy face in all parts of India in the NGO circle, who work on food processing sector. Academically brilliant, Dr. Sarkar is constantly innovating products for rural level production. His kitchen is his laboratory where incidentally food is cooked. ********************************************* Dr. A.P. Gupta (Member): Dr. Gupta is a serious structural designer well known for his restoration of Puri Temple, building the roof for the largest open-air stadium in Kolkata. He was Professor in Civil Engineering at IIT-Kharagpur and later acted as Director of Kolkata Centre of IIT. The research mind of Dr. Gupta covers a wide range of activities, social and engineering. ******************************************** C.K. Basu (Member): Mr. Basu had an unusual career. As a Civil Engineer, he taught at BIT-Sindri and then joind Armey Engineering Corps. He completed and got selected in the IAS Cadre. He served to Bihar for industrialisation and health, and was selected to establish the Department of Food Processing Industry in Delhi. Extremely jovial with unusually depth of knowledge, Mr. Basu gets work done and makes friends. *********************************************** Mr. Ravi Sinha (Member): Mr. Sinha had both engineering and Master’s degree on Management from USA. After working for several years in the USAID Project during 1960’s Bihar famine, he joined industry, but soon shifted out to establish his own Steel based industry. His search took him out of his own creation and he is now Secretary of Jogoda Education Trust. His manner and culture has helped him to build friendship at all strata of society. ********************************************* Prof. Ramesh Sharan (Member): Prof. Sharan is in the Department of Economics, Ranchi University and has extensively worked on “Poverty & Hunger”. He is the Advisor to Supreme Court Commissioners in PUCL related to Food Security Programmes of the Government. He is a member in the Advisory Boards for Industry, Food Processing, Education and Food Security. He works closely with several grass-root initiatives in the difficult areas in the State. His balancing economics with social values & ethos is a valuable input for strategy planning of SRI. ********************************************* Mr. B. N. Roy (Member): Mr. Roy is a famous advocate with deep social commitment. He has been an anchor during the formation period of SRI when multiple legal problems had to be tackled. ******************************************* Ms. Purbi Paul (Member): Hailing from a remote village in Purulia, Ms. Purbi has created a space for herself in Jharkhand. Shramajivi Mahila Samiti, which she established at Jamshedpur is leading the women’s empowerment movement in whole of Singhbhum. She focuses on the unorganised working women engaged in various activities for livelihood and makes them aware of their rights and duties. ********************************************* Ms. Nandini Sen (Member): Ms. Nandini had her under graduation from Forguson College, Puna, Master’s Degree in Social work from Tata Institute for Social science and then studied at Manchester University for Master’s Degree in Economics. She worked with Lokshiksha Parisad under RKM on Indo German Project for rural water supply and later with PRIYA, New Delhi. She is the co-auther of the book entitled “Meanings and Identities of Citizenship: Study on Santhal Tribals of Jharkhand”. Ms. Sen was a member in a multinational study team on governance in South Asia and published a report entitled “Poverty Eradication and Democratic Governance in South Asia”. She is now working as an Adjunct Faculty at the School of Rural Management under KIIT University, Bhubaneswar.