Team

Executive Director, IRADe

Dr. Jyoti Parikh

Dr. Jyoti Parikh is the Executive Director since the inception of IRADe in 2002. Dr. Parikh is the former member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change – India and is a recipient of Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPCC authors in 2007.

Dr. Jyoti Parikh has made valuable contribution in environment and climate change issues of the developing countries. She is also heading the Center of Excellence (CoE) on Urban Development and Climate Change, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), India.

Dr. Jyoti Parikh has also provided energy and environment consultancy to the Planning Commission, New Delhi (1978-80), World Bank, U.S. Department of Energy, European Economic Community, Brussels, and UN agencies such as UNIDO, FAO, UNU, UNDP and UNESCO. Moreover, she has been actively contributing as an advisor to various ministries for Government of India.

Dr. Parikh served as the Senior Professor at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, and was the Acting Director of IGIDR during 1997-98. She also worked at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria, and was visiting professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) of UNU, Tokyo 1995-96. She holds a PhD. from the University of Maryland, College Park and M.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from University of California, Berkeley.

Deputy Director, IRADe

Mr. Rohit Magotra

RohitMagotra has joined IRADe from 2013 and is presently leading the thematic area of Sustainable Urban Development as Deputy Director. Between 2016-2018 he led the Think Tank Forum for South Asia Regional co-operation under USAID SARI/EI programme to engage with policymakers, media, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, civil society and citizens to help prioritize, fast track and push the agenda for Cross Border Electricity Trade. He is currently leading research on climate change and cities. His research work focusses on climate adaptation and climate action in Indian cities.

Mr. Magotra is Masters in Environmental Sciences with an advanced degree in management from IIFM, Bhopal. He has authored/co-authored/contributed several national and international papers and publications related to energy policy, disaster resilience, climate resilience, public health, energy, forestry environment, smart cities, e-governance & SME supply chains. He has 19 years plus experience in policy research, advocacy, consensus building, programme management, setting multi-stakeholder consortiums of government, public and private sector. He is an impact investor and recipient of prestigious awards which include Stockholm Challenge GKP Award, 2007, Dell Small Business Excellence Award, 2009 NASSCOM Social Innovation Honours, 2010.

Prior to IRADe, he worked as Director, Inext Retail Services Pvt. Ltd. and Chief Operating Officer, Ekgaon technologies.

Senior Advisor, IRADe

Dr. Ajit Tyagi

Senior Advisor, IRADe

Dr Ghulam Nabi Qasba

Research Analyst

Dr. Mohit Kumar

DrMohitKumarl has joined IRADe in July 2015 and is presently working as Research Analyst. He is presently working on several projects dealing with, developing Disaster Risk Resilience (DRR) in mountainous cities, formulation of mitigation strategies for air pollution in Delhi, identification of thermal hotspots in Delhi, Rajkot and Bhubaneshwar using satellite data, assessing the variability of ambient air temperature and land surface temperature across the urban landscape, land use/land cover classification using remote sensing data, and analysing the impact of climatic parameters on Dengue prevalence in Delhi and Rajkot. Previously, he worked on a project dealing with ecological assessment of mangroves and coral reefs in Marine National Park and Sanctuary, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India.

He holds a Ph.D. from Nirma University, Ahmedabad, and is life member of Indian Society of Geomatics (ISG) and Indian Meteorological Society (IMS). He has authored several research papers in international journals, demonstrating application of satellite data for societal benefits. Dr. Kumar has an experience of 10 years in utilizing remote sensing satellite data and Geographic Information System (GIS) for deriving information related to spatio-temporal changes in vegetation cover, changes in coastal zones, mangroves, coral reefs, climate change, land use/land cover change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, heat stress, spread of vector-borne diseases and disasters in mountainous regions.

Prior to joining IRADe, he has worked at Space Applications Centre (SAC), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Ahmedabad, and at Gujarat Environment Management Institute (GEMI), Gandhinagar.

Senior Research Analyst

Dr. Nimisha Jha

Dr. Nimisha Jha joined IRADe in December 2019 and is presently working as a Senior Research Analyst in the “Climate Adaptive Action Plans to Manage Heat Stress in Indian Cities,” “Prediction of Dengue with Climate change over Delhi and Rajkot.”  She is responsible for research, analysis, and documentation of the technical functions under the mentioned programs, aiming to study the implications of climate change-induced heat stress and disasters in cities and the urban centres in India and South Asia.

She received her PhD in public service delivery in cities from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and holds an M.Phil. degree in Urban Governance and Finance from Delhi, Delhi. She has written for several journals on urban governance, urban finance, climate change, and the need for adaptation measures.

Dr Nimisha Jha has around 18 years of experience in the national and regional efforts to tackle climate change and urban governance in cities. In the past, she has worked in reputed organisations such as the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), The Energy Resource Institute (TERI), National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), SAAHAS. In these organisations, she was engaged with research, teaching, and knowledge management nationally and regionally on climate change, urban governance, public service delivery, urban finance. She has presented papers at the national and international levels and has received the best paper award at the 3^rd International Conference on Regional Development (ICRD). Her project on Solid waste management “Alag Karo” was the winner of the 6^th CSR Impact Awards 2019 under the “WASH – Small Projects” category at the CSRBOX India CSR Summit 2019.

Research Analyst

Moumita Shaw

Ms Moumita Shaw has joined IRADe in January 2017 and is presently working as a Research Analyst. She is currently involved in “Climate Adaptive Action Plans to Manage Heat Stress in Indian Cities”, “Prediction of Dengue with Climate change over Delhi and Rajkot”, “Developing Disaster Resilience Action Plan through GIS and Prioritizing Actions for Natural Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Agglomerations of Shillong and Gangtok” projects where she is involved in qualitative and qualitative research and analysis and urban climate resilience planning.

She has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and has also a Master’s Degree in Geography, from the Delhi School of Economics (DSE), University of Delhi, Delhi. She has authored papers on Industrial Water Abatement and also co-authored various papers on Urban Climate Resilience, Dengue trends, Heat Stress management etc.

Ms Moumita Shaw has above 9 years of experience working in Urban Planning, slum redevelopment, climate resilience projects. Prior to IRADe, she has worked in the Centre of Environment Education(CEE), Ahmedabad and Kolkata as a Programme Officer in the field of urban sustainability, transport governance, etc. She has also worked as Capacity Building and Training Coordinator under RAY Technical Cell, at Rajkot Municipal Corporation, Rajkot, Gujarat in the field of urban planning, slum redevelopment and affordable housing. She has been extensively involved in on-field, public and Government interface projects across Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar.

Senior Research Associate

Ananya Bhatia

Ananya Bhatia joined IRADe in February 2018 and is currently working as a Senior Research Associate. She is currently involved in “Climate Adaptive Action Plans to Manage Heat Stress in Indian Cities”, “Prediction of Dengue with Climate change over Delhi, Bhubaneswar and Rajkot”, “Process analysis, observations and modelling- Integrated solutions for cleaner air for Delhi- PROMOTE”, “Developing Disaster Resilience Action Plan through GIS and Prioritizing Actions for Natural Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Agglomerations of Shillong and Gangtok” where she works on research analysis, urban climate resilience planning, Remote sensing and GIS. She completed her Bachelors in Urban and Regional Planning from Guru Ramdas School of Planning, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and has done M. Tech in Urban Planning from the same institute.  Ananya Bhatia has more than 5 years of combined experience working in Urban Planning, Environment, Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Disaster Management. Prior to IRADe, she has worked at Environics Trust, Delhi, as a research analyst and as an Urban Planner at TILA consultants, PUDA Bhawan, Mohali. She has worked in the research as well as field-based work for various projects in Nepal, Uttarakhand, Korba, Dhanbad and Mohali for her previous organizations.

Research Associate

Yashi Sharma

Ms. Yashi Sharma has joined IRADe in June 2018 and is presently working as a Research Assistant. She is assisting the urban team on all urban development projects. She has been actively working in the projects involving climate resilience of the cities which includes “Developing Urban Vulnerability Index for 6 Indian Cities”; “Natural Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Agglomerations of Shillong and Gangtok” and intervention in climate change and health risks through “Climate Adaptive Action Plans to Manage Heat Stress in Indian Cities”.

She completed her Bachelors in Urban Planning and Policy Development from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Where after, from the same institute she perused her masters in Urban and Regional Planning with specialization in housing.

Ms. Yashi Sharma has prior internship experience with Deutsche GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit (GIZ), involving retrofitting (5- point programme) of Existing IT parks in Cyberabad Zone of TSIIC. She has also interned at Centre for Urban and Real Estate Policy, where she worked in her capacity preparing Integrated Cluster Action Plan (ICAP) for each Rurban cluster (Phase-2).