Board Members

Guiding with vision and integrity

Prof. Sanghmitra S. Acharya, Chairperson, Prajna Research foundation

Sanghmitra S. Acharya is a Professor and Chairperson at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, School of Social Sciences JNU. She has been served as Director, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi. She has been a Visiting Fellow at CASS, China, Ball State University, USA and UPPI, Manila, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii and the University of Botswana.

She was awarded the Asian Scholarship Foundation fellowship in 2005. She has delivered lectures, chaired sessions and contributed to national and international conferences in various Institutions within the country and abroad. Her research includes health and discrimination; vulnerability among youth; gender in urban spaces; and caste gender intersectionality. She has published in national and international journals and has three books to her credit.

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Dr. Abhilash G Nath

Dr. Abhilash G. Nath is an assistant professor at the School of Gandhian Thoughts at Mahatma Gandhi University Kerala. Dr. Abhilash G Nath has an interdisciplinary upbringing, a PhD in philosophy, an MPhil in Chinese studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and an MA in politics and international relations from MG University Kottayam. He was the recipient of the prestigious Chinese Government Scholarship (2006-2010) and had studied political science at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.

His academic interests include Continental philosophy, Indian philosophy, Chinese Philosophy, Gandhian thought, and cultural studies. He has more than four years of teaching experience in various universities in India. Abhilash has taught courses, like Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Research Methodology, Theories of Globalization, International Relations Theory, etc.

He has published journal articles and book chapters on Continental Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, and Education. His published works address questions concerning metaphysics, the self and ethics, and the problem of truth.

Biby Dominic Aykara, secretary, Prajna research foundation

Mrs. Biby Dominic Aykara is a professionally qualified psychologist who has immense experience in the realm of psychological interventions, especially in geriatric settings. Mrs. Biby Dominic is a leading psychologist in Kochi and has more than 7 years of experience in family counselling and adolescent counselling. She has enormous experience as a counsellor at various government as well as nongovernmental organisations.

Mrs. Biby served as the first manager of the Udbodh Dementia Care Home, which is one of the first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model dementia care homes in India. She was the master trainer for Bodhi & Udbodh, one of the prestigious projects of Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT) that aimed to build community-based dementia care systems at the grassroots level.

Mrs. Biby has a master's degree in social work, and she is also the founding secretary of Prajna Research Foundation, a think tank organisation working for public health research in Kerala. Mrs. Biby served as the consultant psychologist at Kancare Senior Care in Ernakulam, where she was in charge of the department of dementia care. Besides, Mrs. Biby also served as a student counsellor at Government Engineering College, Kakkanad.

Areas of intervention: Geriatric Counselling, dementia care, family therapy and Cognitive Behaviour therapy (CBT) and Counselling.

Dr. Prasad M Gopal

Dr. Prasad M. Gopal has more than 20 years of experience in the social development sector and has worked at various government and non-governmental organizations at various levels. He was instrumental in providing leadership and development of the first dementia-friendly city project in India. Dr. Prasad developed various health intervention projects, statewide research projects, and action projects, especially in dementia care. As an employe earlier at centre for Neuroscience at Cochin university of science and technology (CUSAT), Dr. Prasad developed and successfully implemented some prestigious projects that are listed below.

  • Udbodh - The first dementia-friendly city project in India.
  • Udbodh Free Dementia Daycare Home for people living with Dementia.
  • First Memory Clinic in Ernakulam district at government sector at General Hospital, Ernakulam.
  • The first Memory café in Kerala state.
  • Prajñā Mobile App: The first mobile based application for dementia care in India.
  • Udbodh preliminary research survey across Kerala for understanding the effects of COVID-19 and dementia. (State-wide with the respondents of 1.75 lakhs).
  • Bodhi - Dementia Friendly Ernakulam district project.

Dr. Prasad completed his Ph.D. from the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health (CSMCH) at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He also did an M.Phil. in public health from the same institution. He incorporates social science theories and methods well into social development without losing its fundamental idea. His hard work and academic vision helped the Center for Neuroscience of Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT) to get the most prestigious award from the Government of Kerala, receiving a research institute known as the Centre of Excellence in Neurodegeneration and Brain Health (CENBH).

Areas of research interest: public health dimensions of Disaster and Dementia

Dr. Abhilash Babu, Treasurer, Prajna research foundation

Dr. Abhilash Babu is an associate professor at the School of Social Science at Mahatma Gandhi University (MG University), Kottayam, Kerala. He is currently the director of the School of Social Science at M G University. He has been serving as a faculty of social science since 2011. Dr. Abhilash Babu has several years of research experience, and his area of research is social theory, water governance, development studies, political ecology & education.

Despite this, he holds several positions at various institutions. Dr. Abhilash Babu has been the joint director of the Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension (IUCSSRE) since 2020. He also serves as a senate member of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi, Kerala, India.

Some of the positions he held at academic as well as government levels

  • 2022 Member, Screening committee, Faculty selection board, MG university
  • 2021 Chairperson: Board of Studies, Sociology (UG&PG), Mahatma Gandhi University
  • 2021: Member: CSS Academic Advisory Committee, MG University
  • 2021Member University Research Committee, Mahatma Gandhi University
  • 2021: Social Scientist: Institutional Committee for STEM CELL Research (IC-SCR), Albot Technologies, Pvt.LtD. Cochin, Kerala
  • 2019 Member Board of Studies: Local Development. Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University. Malappuram, Kerala
  • 2020 Member Academic Council: Assumption College, Changanacherry, Kottayam
  • 2020, IQAC Coordinator, School of Social Sciences, MG University, Kottayam, Kerala
  • 2017-2019 Member, Department Research Committee, Department of Rural Management, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow
  • 2015-2018 Member, Board of Post Graduate Studies, Department of Rural Management, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow
  • 2022: 2021: Member: District Resource centre, District planning office, Kottayam
  • 2021: Member: Working Group on 'Drinking Water and Sewerage' Kerala State Planning Board, India
  • Member: Working Group on Improving Service Delivery by LSGIs, Kerala State Planning Board, India
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Dr. G. Retheesh Babu

Dr. Retheesh babu is a senior scientist at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). He currently serves as the Deputy Director of National Institute of Virology (NIV) Alappuzha. He has secured a doctorate in Public Health from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and also has a Master of philosophy (MPhil) in public health. His area of research is public health impact of non- communicable diseases especially on TB in the community. He has several publications in the realm of public health.

Mrs. Aruna Sundararajan IAS

Mrs. Aruna Sundararajan IAS is a former secretary to the Government of India in the Ministries of Steel, IT, and Telecom and retired as chairperson of the Digital Communications Commission in July 2019. She currently serves as the chairperson of the Broadband India Forum.

Ms. Aruna is a retired IAS officer from the Kerala Cadre of the 1982 batch, and Ms. Sundararajan is one of the most senior civil servants of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the country. Ms. Sundararajan has over three decades of experience in a variety of leadership roles in the Central and State Governments, especially in economic and development administration, investment promotion, and IT/telecom domains.

MS Aruna is the founding IT Secretary of the government of Kerala, and she conceived and spearheaded the Akshaya project. Akshaya was the largest e-literacy project of its kind, where over 1 million people were trained in basic digital skills in campaign mode. Akshaya also catalyzed one of the largest known Internet Protocol (IP)-based rural wireless networks in the world.

Ms. Sundararajan was honoured as one of the top professional women achievers by India Today in 2009 and by Forbes Business Magazine in Aug 2012. She was also honoured with the USIBC Transformative Leadership Award 2017 for distinguished public service and her commitment to advancing U.S.-India cooperation and Digital India, constituted by the US-India Business Council.

Ms. Sundararajan serves on the boards of leading companies, including Delhivery, Info Edge, India's National Bank of Infra Financing and Development (NabFID), and Cochin International Airport. She is also an active member of a couple of tech mentoring and angel financing initiatives.