Core Team
Mr. Vijay Mahajan (Dean)
BASIX Group CEO and Chairman , was educated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (1970-75); the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (1979-81); and at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, USA (1988-89). He co-founded PRADAN in 1983, Sa-dhan in 1998 and APMAS in 2000. He has co-authored a book “The Forgotten Sector” on the rural non-farm sector and written over 50 articles on rural livelihoods, development and micro-finance. He is a member of the Committee on Financial Inclusion, the Microfinance Equity and Development Fund and is also on the Board of CGAP, the global microfinance apex. He was selected as “Outstanding Social Entrepreneur” by the Schwab Foundation of the World Economic Forum, Davos, 2003
Dr. S S Tabrez Nasar (Vice Dean)
S S Tabrez Nasar has over two decades of experience in international development. He has a Ph.D in Life Sciences and having spent his initial years in teaching, he moved on to an international NGO, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) with headquarters in the Philippines. There he was involved in a variety of projects and programs ranging from Aquaculture to Agriculture and Natural Resources Management to developing and implementing international, national and grassroots training courses and managing ‘communications and publications’. After serving IIRR for 12 years, he joined an Inter-Governmental Organization – the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO) where he served or over two years. He then moved on as an Advisor to the Ministry of Planning and Finance, Government of Timor Leste. Tabrez came back to India and extended support to development organizations as a consultant before moving on to BASIX as the Head of Operations and HR (Eastern India) for Bhartiya Samruddhi Finace Ltd. He later moved on to BASIX Consulting and Training Services Ltd. where he developed and facilitated 16 International Study Programs benefitting more than 200 senior professionals from across the globe.
Tabrez has been engaged with programs in India, the Philippines, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh and Thailand other than being exposed to several short-term activities (including consultancies) in over a dozen countries across the globe. He serves as the Vice Dean of The Livelihood School. Tabrez is presently the Vice Dean at The Livelihood School.
He can be contacted at tabrez.nasar@thelivelihoodschool.org.
Dr. K.V. Gouri (Deputy Dean)
A Post Graduate in Zoology, Postgraduate Diploma in Rural Management (PGDRM) from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), and PhD in Management from Golden State University of USA. She has about 25 years of industry experience in the varied sectors of Public sector units, media and education. She served for 14 years with Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Oil Seeds Growers Federation (AP Oil fed) where she was involved in Project planning, Training, Marketing, Finance, Personnel & Administration. She was also involved in promoting and training primary cooperatives of oilseeds growers in AP. She moved on to Internet Department of Vaartha, the popular daily newspaper where she headed a team of web designer and content developers and was responsible for timely publication of internet edition of the newspaper. Following this she had joined the ICFAI, where she rose to the position of an Associate Dean, and had some very interesting experiences in promoting ICFAI Universities in several states. She brings in a unique understanding of academic administration in addition to her rich experience of working at the grassroots. She is serving as Deputy Dean for The Livelihood School.
She can be contacted at gouri@thelivelihoodschool.org.
Mr.Rajendra Singh Gautam
Rajendra Singh Gautam has experience of over one decade in both academics and development sector. He has done M. Phil on Environmental Politics and Ph D on Participatory Watershed Development and Management under social science discipline from Madhya Pradesh Institute of Social Science Research (MPISSR), Ujjain, an autonomous institute of Indian Council of Social Science Research, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. His areas of interest are democratic decentralization, community based natural resource management, sustainable livelihood promotion, environmental politics, groundwater governance, micro-finance, NTFPs, etc. In early phase of carrier, he was associated with MPISSR as Research Officer for 5 years and involved in research studies on Democratic Decentralisation and Grass-root Democracy in Madhya Pradesh, Emerging Gram Panchayat Leadership in Madhya Pradesh, Chronic Poverty in Central India, Watershed Management in Madhya Pradesh, etc. Later on, he associated with International Water Management Institute, Colombo as Research Fellow and involved in an International Research and Training Programme on Groundwater Governance in Asia: Theory and Practice under CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food. Presently, he is associated with The Livelihood School as Faculty in its Western and Central India Regional Centre, Bhopal and involved in research, training and consultancy on livelihood and related issues for last 5 years.
He can be contacted at rajendra@thelivelihoodschool.org
Mr.Avinash Kumar
Avinash Kumar has around 12 years of experience in the development sector. He has done Post Graduate Diploma in Forestry Management from Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal and Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication from Ranchi University. He has worked with International NGOs such as CARE India. Avinash has worked for three years with Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Limited (BSFL-An NBFC of BASIX group) as Senior Manager- Operations &HR in Jharkhand and Maharashtra,. He has experience of implementing a state watershed project of Madhya Pradesh. He has worked significantly on NGO partnership management and with government in different capacities. He has keen interest in training and documentation and has been associated with process documentation, newsletter publication, writing blogs and providing training to different cadre of government functionaries, rural community and NGO staff. Avinash has worked in Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and is fluent in Hindi and English besides having working knowledge of Bangla and Marathi.He is presently associated as Project Manager with an action research project-“Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest” of Grameen Foundation USA and The Livelihood School (TLS-BASIX).
He can be contacted at avinash@thelivelihoodschool.org.
Mr.T. Navin
Navin is a Post Graduate and M.Phil in Political Science from Hyderabad central university (HCU) and Jawaharlal nehru university (JNU) respectively besides a Post graduate diploma in management of Nongovernmental organizations (PGDMN) from Entrepreneurship development institute of India (EDII). Navin started his career in Don bosco development society (DBDS) and served for three and half years where he extensively reported, researched the areas and designed projects for building employability among unemployed youth, linkage of school dropouts with open schooling system, building technical school with community college concepts, Agricultural Training Resource Centre for building the concept of Agricultural Entrepreneurship, Mobile School for Street Children, Watershed etc., He served in BASIX in research and social performance management functions and was associated with Microfinance and SPM related researches such as Social Indicators Project (SIP), Social Performance assessment study, A livelihood intervention in Women’s Enterprise (ALIWE), Social Rating, Microfinance for Decent Work, Impact Assessment study (2010), etc., He has also been part of external research assignments on Tribal issues, Suicide & Debt studies, Employment & Unemployment studies, Consumer Expenditure studies, livelihoods in Left wing extremism affected areas etc., His key skills are in the area of Research & Analytics, Project conceptualization, Knowledge building, Process Documentation and Donor Reporting.
He has recently joined as Faculty and can be contacted at navin.t@thelivelihoodschool.org.
Ms. Anamika
Ms. Anamika Prasad has 11 years of experience in the development sector. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development with specialization on women and child from Xavier institute of social service (XISS), Ranchi, Jharkhand. She started her career in Uttar Pradesh and thereafter moved to Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Her work initially in the education sector was aimed at improving access to education for the unreached. Later she joined as a resource person in Poorest Area Civil Society programme (PACS) for DFID in Patna, Bihar wherein she extended her expertise to 10 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) where she was involved in monitoring, training, trouble shooting, documentation and communication. She also did evaluation studies for Save the Children, RCDSSS, Gramin Chetna Kendra as a freelancer. Her assignments also include study on urban cash flows for Centre for Microfinance (CMF), baseline study for IFAD funded M-Power Project of 6 districts of western Rajasthan for CMF, District agriculture planning under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for ARAVALI. Currently she is with The Livelihood School, an initiative of Basix as Senior Faculty Associate.
She can be contacted at anamika@thelivelihoodschool.org
Mr. G.A. Swamy
G.A. Swamy is a post graduate and pursuant of Ph. D in social work from Andhra University. With experience spanning 13 years he worked in sectors related to tribal development, micro finance, disaster management, institution building and livelihood promotion. Starting his career as a community development coordinator with integrated tribal development agency Paderu, Visakhapatnam, he moved to LAYA, Visakhapatnam where he was involved in federation building and rights protection and promotion initiatives among tribal communities. He moved to APMAS as a capacity building coordinator whereby he trained APRLP staff, NGOs in promotion of SHG and SHG federations. Working with Population Services International (PSI) he promoted key clinic network for prevention of HIV. At Aide et Action based at Hyderabad he promoted vocational training centers in Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari districts. As additional project director at SARDS he implemented Tsunami response projects supported by Welt hunger hilfe, CARE, Oxfam Australia, Concern World Wide and Plan international. His key expertise is in the areas of project design and project cycle management, proposal writing, convergence building, Module development, Training and capacity building and Documentation.
Currently he is working with the School as a Senior Faculty Associate based at Hyderabad and he can be contacted at swamy@thelivelihoodschool.org