The Team
Srinivas Chokkakula
President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research | Lead, Transboundary Rivers, Ecologies, And Development Studies (TREADS) Initiative
Srinivas Chokkakula is the President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research. He is the MoJS (Ministry of Jal Shakti) Research Chair – Water Conflicts and Governance at CPR, where he leads the Transboundary Rivers, Ecologies, and Development studies (TREADs) programme – a research cluster founded by him. His research and policy interests lie primarily in the water sector, focusing on transboundary water conflict/cooperation and governance.
Srinivas Chokkakula is the President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research. He is the MoJS (Ministry of Jal Shakti) Research Chair – Water Conflicts and Governance at CPR, where he leads the Transboundary Rivers, Ecologies, and Development studies (TREADs) programme – a research cluster founded by him. His research and policy interests lie primarily in the water sector, focusing on transboundary water conflict/cooperation and governance. He has written and published widely on the subject.
His interests extend to the broader area of politics of infrastructure development, including inland waterways, smart cities, and rural roads. In a major initiative, he leads a collaborative research programme with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) for improving the outcomes of GoI’s flagship Namami Gange programme and informing policy thinking about rejuvenating India’s rivers. Srinivas was a Member of the Drafting Committee of India’s National Water Policy constituted by the Government of India in 2019.
He has an interdisciplinary training in geography, planning and engineering. He has a PhD from the University of Washington, Seattle, and an MA from the University of Miami, Florida in political geography; an earlier Masters in Urban Environmental Planning from CEPT University, Ahmedabad; and a B. Tech. in Civil Engineering from Kakatiya University, Warangal. He did his post-doctoral research at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, SOAS, University of London. He has received several scholarships and fellowships, including the Chevening (Young Indian Environmental Managers 2000) and the Fulbright (Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair in Public Policy 2022-23).
Before his PhD and the shift to academics, Srinivas worked with PVOs for a decade, engaging with wide ranging topics including urban and regional planning, and local governance in India; disaster response and reconstruction; and indigenous knowledge systems for natural resource management. He is a keen supporter of the non-profit sector, he founded, helped establish NGOs, and served/serves on their boards.
Archit Shukla
Consultant
Archit is currently working as a Consultant with the TREADS initiative at the CPR, New Delhi. In this role, he is assisting in the legalese of the initiative, working on the Urban development legislation for Ganga-Basin states in relation to the master plan. He is also working on the political and institutional aspects of transboundary water governance with a focus on the relevance of the European river rejuvenation experiences for the Indian context.
Archit is a law graduate at the National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi. He is deeply interested in Public Policy and Dispute Resolution. He has a wide array of skills, mainly skilled in legal research, strategic planning, legal drafting, and legal assistance. He has also contributed to the academic literature by publishing articles on varied subjects of law and society. He is intrigued by the new perspectives of emerging laws, and also has a lighter side to him which delights in new experiences, and avidly follows football.
Debarshee Dasgupta
Senior Research Associate
Debarshee Dasgupta is a Senior Research Associate with CPR’s Transboundary Rivers, Ecologies, and Development Studies programme and the MoJS (Ministry of Jal Shakti) Research Chair- Water Conflicts and Governance. In this role, he researches various aspects of federal and inter-state governance of water in India. He is broadly interested in institutional aspects of water governance, river basin management, and environmental planning. He holds a master’s degree in Environmental Planning from CEPT University, Ahmedabad.
Evy Mehzabeen
Senior Research Associate
Evy Mehzabeen is a Senior Research Associate at the Transboundary Rivers Ecologies and Development Studies (TREADS) Initiative of CPR. Her current work delves into water sensitive urban planning and policy.
She holds a PhD, M.Phil. and Masters in Regional Development from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She was previously with TESF India, IIHS in the capacity of a project co-investigator where she completed a project on sustainable urbanism. She has also been associated with various projects related to transboundary water and riverine communities. Her research interests include Urban Morphology, Colonial Urbanisms, Hinterlands and Frontiers, Contestations of the urban space and Riverine Ecologies.
Gulshan Kumar
Administrative Assistant
Gulshan Kumar provides all administrative support to the TREADS Initiative.
Kartikeya Mishra
Design Associate
Kartikeya Mishra is working as a Design Associate at CPR. He has completed his Bachelor of Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal. Alongside this, he has completed a Professional Diploma in Graphic Designing from Shaw Academy (Upskillist). His academic journey combines urban planning education with design expertise, reflecting a multidisciplinary approach to learning.
Subia Ahmad
Senior Research Associate
Subia Ahmad is a Research Associate at CPR’s Transboundary Rivers Ecologies and Development Studies (TREADS) Initiative. In this role, she is currently working on the political and institutional aspects of transboundary water governance with a focus on the relevance of the European river rejuvenation experiences for the Indian context.
Prior to this, she was working as a Consultant with the Accountability Initiative at CPR on a formative evaluation commissioned by UNDP’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). She has also worked as a Consultant with World Resources Institute (WRI) India with the Sustainable Landscapes & Restoration team on food loss and waste in India. She has previously interned with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), New Delhi and Focus on the Global South, New Delhi.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Delhi University and a Master’s and M.Phil degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, in International Relations and West Asian Studies respectively.