Aman Ki Asha – Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation & Aman Ki Asha

Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation & Aman Ki Asha

Jul 29, 2010News, Water is life0

India-Pakistan Conference on Water, New Delhi
July, 29-30, 2010

PARTICIPANT PROFILES

Ramaswamy Iyer

Ramaswamy R. Iyer , formerly Secretary, Water Resources, in the Government of India, was Research Professor at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi, where he worked on water-related issues, and in particular on cooperation on river waters by India, Nepal and Bangladesh (1990-99). He continues in CPR in an honorary capacity. He has been a member of many government committees and commissions, including the National Commission on Integrated Water Resources Development Plan (1997–99), and was the Chairman of a Task Force on Natural Resources, Environment, Land, Water and Agriculture, set up by the Commission on Centre-State Relations (2008-9). From time to time, he has undertaken consultancy assignments for the World Bank; the World Commission on Dams (WCD); the International Water Management Institute, Colombo; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New Delhi; the European Commission; and others. He was a Member of the UNSGAB High Level Expert Panel on Water and Disaster, an adjunct to the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (August 2007 – March 2009). He has published numerous articles and papers, edited /co-edited some books, and has authored the following books: A Grammar of Public Enterprises, Rawat, Jaipur, 1991;

WATER: Perspectives, Issues, Concerns, Sage Publications, (2003);

Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, Harmony (Sage, 2007).

Water and the Laws in India (ed) Sage Publications, 2009.

Khalid Mohtadullah

Khalid Mohtadullah is a former Member Water of Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority WAPDA, and is a Senior Advisor to the Global Water Partnership, UNDP and International Water Management Institute IWMI. Mr. Mohtadullah has more than 45 years of professional experience in planning, research and capacity-building, and management and implementation of projects related to water resources. He is a civil engineer by profession with Water Resources as his area of expertise, and has worked on irrigation systems design and management, planning and preparation of irrigation and drainage projects, regional planning for water resources, and economic and technical monitoring and evaluation of water related projects. Mr. Mohtadullah obtained his postgraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, and later attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the Harvard Business School, and is an alumni of the Economic Development Institute EDI of the World bank. He has served as the Deputy Director General of IMMI in Sri Lanka and has headed the Global Water Partnership in Stockholm, and is currently serving as the country Director IWMI Pakistan.

R.Rangachari

R. Rangachari is presently Honorary Research professor, Centre for Policy research, New Delhi, which is an independent and non-partisan research institute and think tank. He had been Research Professor of this institution since 1992.He specializes in Water resources management, Water law and Policy and Regional cooperation.

Prior to CPR, Rangachari served the Government of India in many senior positions. He served in the Central Water engineering service since 1953 till 1988. At different periods of his career he held the position as Member, Central Water Commission, Additional Secretary, Ministry of water resources, Chairman, Ganga flood control Commission, Chairman, Sone river commission, Chairman, Brahmaputra Board, Commissioner for Ganga waters, Member, Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission, Chairman, Joint Indo-Bangladesh Committee for implementation of sharing of waters at Farakka, Chief Engineer, (Designs) Central Water Commission, Commissioner for Ganga waters, etc.

After his retirement from Government service, he continued to be actively associated with the field of water resources development and management. He has been consultant and advisor to many Government and other agencies, such as the Ministry of Water Resources, GOI, Government of Tamilnadu, Indo-Bangladesh Task Force on Flood management set up after the disastrous 1988 floods, Planning Commission of India, Water and Power consultancy services, India, B.P Koirala Nepal-India Foundation, World Bank, etc. He has chaired many expert committees in India, such the Planning Commission working group on flood control for the X Plan, Expert committee to review implementation of the National Commission recommendations on Floods, etc.

Rangachari has written a large number of Articles on various aspects of Water resources management and on Regional cooperation through harmonious development of shared Water systems. He has authored or edited/co-edited a number of books. Some of these published since 2000 are as follows:

Water Resources of the Indian Subcontinent, (Ed) Asit K.Biswas, R.Rangachari and Cecilia Tortajada, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2009

Bhakra-Nangal Project: Socio-economic and environmental impacts, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006

Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Region: A framework for sustainable development, The University Press, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2001

Cooperation on Eastern Himalayan Rivers: Opportunities and challenges, (Ed) R.Rangachari and others, Konark Publishers, New Delhi, 2000

Large Dams: India’s Experience, A Report prepared for the World commission on Dams (WCD), R.Rangachari and others, Published for limited circulation by World Commission on Dams, Cape Town, South Africa, 2000

Dr. Zaigham Habib

Dr. Zaigham Habib has worked in the water sector of Pakistan as a development and planning consultant, a researcher, and an advisor on policy issues. Currently, she is a member of Think Tank Committee on Water Resources, organized by Pakistan Engineering Council. She has contributed towards the Task force on Climate Change, hosted by the Planning Commission Pakistan.

Dr. Habib has participated in many development planning and evaluation studies funded by Government of Pakistan, ADB, WB, FAO. She has worked with International Water Management Institute and National Institutes.

Dr. Habib’s areas of professional experience include: developing methodologies for assessing of water demand and utilization, hydrological and hydraulic performance of sub-basins, water allocation and network regulation. She has also performed gross analysis of Indus basin performance for water sharing, water allocation, network regulation and agriculture performance. She has also undertaken an analysis of water sharing, allocation and governance issues, water resources development in the context of international boundaries, regions and sectors.

B.G. Verghese

BG Verghese has been with the Centre for Policy Research since 1986. He started his career in journalism with the Times of India and was later Editor of the Hindustan Times (1969-75) and Indian Express (1982-86).

He was Information Adviser to the Prime Minister (1966-69), a Gandhi Peace Foundation Fellow for some years after the Emergency and Information Consultant to the Defence Minister for a short period during 2001.

He was a recipient of the Magsaysay Award in 1975 and Assam’s Sankaradeva Award for 2005. Verghese has served on a number of official and unofficial boards and committees and continues to be associated with a number of NGOs in the fields of media, education, the environment and community relations. He is chairman of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Delhi, and a distinguished fellow of the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad.

Verghese was a member of the Kargil Review Committee and co-author of the Kargil Review Committee Report tabled in Parliament chronicling the sequence of events leading up to the India-Pakistan confrontation and recommendations for the future.

He was also a member of the Editors Guild of India Fact Finding Mission to Gujarat in April 2002.

With a keen and enduring interest in developmental reporting and the social transformation it can help bring about, Verghese has authored several books including the seminal Design For Tomorrow early in his career following an extensive tour of the country and its infrastructure projects, Waters of Hope, Harnessing the Eastern Himalayan Rivers, Winning the Future, India’s Northeast Resurgent, and Reorienting India. His latest book, Rage, Reconciliation and Security (Penguin 2008) deals with managing India’s diversities.

Schooled at Doon School, Dehra Dun, India, Verghese went on to read Economics at St Stephen’s College, Delhi University and

Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

Trinity College, Cambridge. Verghese was born in 1927. He resides in New Delhi.

Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

Jayanta Bandyopadhyay is Professor and Head of the Centre for Development and Environment Policy at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, India and Adjunct Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Prior to taking up his present position, he was a member of the Senior Professional Staff at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, and Director of Research at the International Academy of Environment, Geneva. Presently he is also the President of the South Asian Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resource Studies, which has taken a leading role in the promotion of new and holistic curriculum on water management in a number of South Asian Universities. He has published a number of important research papers on world’s mountain systems and water policy in South Asia, in particular on the Himalayan rivers.

Syed Ayub Qutub

Syed Ayub Qutub is Director of Pakistan Institute for Environment-Development Action Research (PIEDAR). His work experience is in strategy and program formulation, policy advice and advocacy, and facilitating multi-disciplinary and expert work groups. He is an observer of community decision-making processes. His research interests are natural resources management, especially of irrigation water, and urban sanitation. His publications are on Pakistan’s environment, irrigation, population, and urbanization, and sanitation issues. In addition, he has publications on globalization and urban development and on the global trade in environmental services from the human development perspective. He has collaborated in projects and papers on environmental indices, climate change, vulnerability and resilience. He has a Masters in Geography from Cambridge University, UK. Hill walking, mainly along the nature trails in the Margalla National Park near Islamabad, is his favorite weekend hobby. He has three grandchildren.

Javid Shahmiri

Javid Ahmad Shahmiri graduated from Punjab Engineering University, Chandigarh in 1957 and did his Masters of Engineering from Rourkee University in 1952. He had a year’s training with the United States Bureau of Reclamation in 1971-72 and is an engineer with over 47 years of meritorious service with National Hydropower Power Corporation and Jammu & Kashmir Government. He has the unique experience of working on dozens of major hydel projects and closely overseeing the work of scores of mini, small, and large hydel projects including Salal Hydro project, Uri-II Hydro-electric project, Upper Sind Stages I &II and Lower Jhelum Hydel Porject in Jammu & Kashmir. His experience is in planning, design and construction with focus on water conductors, dams, power houses, and contract administration.

S. Janakarajan

Dr. S.Janakarajan, an Economist, currently a Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies MIDS, Adyar, obtained his Masters degree from Madras Institute of Development Studies affiliated to University of Madras, Chennai. He has done his Post-Doctoral programme at the Cornell University, USA, during 1992-93 and subsequently a worked as a Visiting Professor at the Oxford University, UK. He has traveled widely and has presented many papers in international and national workshops and conferences. He has published several books and many papers in national and international journals.

His areas of interest are development studies, rural development and agrarian institutions, climate change and disaster risk reduction, water management and irrigation institutions, conflicts and conflict resolution, environment, urban and peri-urban issues, and markets. He is currently engaged in a project on Climate change and adaptation in collaboration with six other institutions in South Asia.

He is the President of the SaciWATERs (South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Studies) located in Hyderabad. He is also the member of the Steering Committee of Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India (http://conflicts.indiawaterportal.org). He is also the member of the GWP.

He is the author of the ‘Cauvery Family’, (an initiative towards conflict resolution) which he started in 2003 that has brought together farmers of Karnataka and Tamilnadu states to resolve the most vexed inter-state water dispute in the history of contemporary India through farmer to farmer dialogue. The Cauvery family still survives and the farmers of both states have met so far 14 times in the last 7 years. They are in the process of finding a lasting solution for the much vexed and politicized dispute.

Suleman N. Khan

Mr. Suleman Najib Khan is an engineer by profession, with electrical power and automation as his focus areas. Over the years, his passion for water issues coupled with his depth of research have led him to become a noted authority in the field. Mr Khan was asked to to serve as the Secretary General of the NGO, Water Resource Development Council and was the convener of the Islamabad 1998 national conference “Water Reservoirs in the National Economy.” A prolific author, he has written reports on a plethora of topics ranging from irrigation and energy, to technology and finance.

Ravi Chopra

Dr Ravi Chopra is the Director of People’s Science Institute (PSI), Dehra Doon. At present he is also a member of the National Ganga River Basin Authority, chaired by the Prime Minister of India.

Ravi Chopra

PSI, a non-profit public interest research and development organization, is known for its innovative work in the areas of water resources management, environmental quality monitoring, disaster mitigation and response and conservation of rivers. Dr Chopra and his colleagues have pioneered creative approaches to put science and technology in the service of India’s poorest people. A key element in their approach is to build the capacities of the poor to plan their own development, implement projects and then manage the assets created.

As a researcher, Ravi Chopra has focused on the interactions between technology and society and, environment and development. He first received national recognition when he helped produce the first citizens’ report on the The State of India’s Environment in 1982. This report was critically acclaimed as “a unique effort anywhere in the world”. His analysis of India’s water requirements in the 21st century has also attracted attention. It specifies the nature of India’s water crises and sustainable methods for resolving them. In recognition of this work, Dr Chopra was made a member of the Working Group on Perspective Planning, National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development in the 21st Century, Government of India.

Ravi Chopra has worked for over four decades in the field of development and has helped establish several pioneering organizations. The issues addressed by them include involving youth in India’s development, using science and technology for empowering the poor, protection of democratic and human rights, rehabilitating survivors of natural and human-made disasters and creative education of children, including the mentally handicapped. He is a Managing Trustee of Himalaya Foundation, New Delhi.

Dr Chopra is a member of several official committees and has served on various committees of the Ministries of Rural Development and Water Resources, Government of India and the Planning Commission. He is a popular speaker on the lecture circuit in India and abroad. He has authored or co-authored 14 books and special reports. He has published more than 20 papers.

Born on April 14, 1947 Dr Chopra got his technical education in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay) and Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey. He is married to Jo McGowan, an activist in her own right. They have three wonderful children. They live in Dehra Doon in a house that has a 40 kiloliters roof rainwater harvesting tank.

See also: www.peoplesscienceinstitute.com

Ahmad Rafay Alam

Ahmad Rafay Alam is a lawyer, academic, columnist and environment activist. He is the senior associate at Hassan & Hassan (Advocates), is a member of the faculties of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Punjab University. He is the coordinator of the Environment and Natural Resource Cluster of the Development Policy Research Center at LUMS and is active in setting in the LUMS Water Program. Rafay’s regular columns in The News and Express Tribune focus on environmental and urban planning issues. Rafay lives in Lahore with his wife Aysha and four-and-a-half year old daughter and, on the weekends, organizes a weekly cycle ride through the city.

Zubair A. Dar

Zubair A Dar is a journalist from Kashmir and a researcher on use of water resources. In 2009-10, he was awarded a fellowship to study the origin of water disputes between India and Pakistan and the impact of climate change on those disputes by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Zubair has written papers and reported on water related disputes in the Indus basin and is a strong advocate of cooperation between India and Pakistan to preserve ecology of the Indus basin.

Zubair now works as a Programme Officer at the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation. He is focusing his research on innovations in mitigation and adaptation in the Indus basin to minimize the effect of the global climate change on glaciers. He lives with his parents in Rangar village, 20 kilometers from Srinagar.

Khalid Hussain

Khalid Hussain has worked as a journalist, a photographer, a documentary maker, water researcher and as a communications consultant. His area of specialization is the environment and development, with a focus on water resource management in the Indus Basin.

Mr. Hussain has led the UNDP’s Capacity Building Network for Integrated Water Resources Management in Pakistan for four years. He has also worked as a consultant for the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and for the Federal Ministry of Environment. Mr. Hussain served as the Country Coordinator for the Capacity Building Network for Integrated Water Resources Management in Pakistan (CapNet-Pakistan), a joint program of the UNDP and the Global Water Partnership.

In 1997, Mr. Hussain helped launch the NGO, Development VISISION, to provide support services for development agencies and organizations. He is also an avid photographer and film-maker. Most recently, Mr. Hussain has been part of a four-part series commissioned by Aman ki Asha about how the Indus Water Treaty is in jeopardy.

Mr. Hussain will be the Rapporteur at this Conference.