Our Team

Subrat Das, Executive Director

Subrat joined CBGA in December 2002. He is serving as the Executive Director since August 2010, prior to which he worked as the Coordinator for two years. He had earlier been part of the research team at CBGA and worked on India's public policy towards natural disasters, public spending on social sectors, responsiveness of budgets to disadvantaged sections of population and bottlenecks in budgetary processes in the country. He studied Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Subrat oversees the planning, implementation and assessment of CBGA's overall strategies. He also directs the organisation's administrative work and manages its partnerships with relevant stakeholders.

Bhuwan Chand Nailwal

Bhuwan joined CBGA in August 2010. Presently he is working as a Finance and Administration Officer. He is a Commerce graduate from Delhi University. He has a sound grasp of tax compliance, accounting and auditing requirements, having worked with several charted accountants firms over the past five years. Bhuwan takes cares of a number of important tasks relating to our office administration, accounts and auditing.

Harsh Singh Rawat

Harsh is working with us as an Office Assistant since April 2005. Prior to joining CBGA, he had worked for around ten years in various organisations. Harsh plays an important role in ensuring smooth functioning of our office and preparing efficiently for the numerous training workshops, consultations and meetings that we conduct all through the year.

Sumita Gupta

Sumita joined us in March 2008. She is a Commerce graduate from Delhi University and has more than four years of work experience in the field of finance and accounts. She is working with us as an Accounts and Administration Associate with numerous responsibilities pertaining to office administration, accounts and auditing. She also has an important role in ensuring smooth functioning of our office and organization of our training workshops, consultations and meetings.

Tara Rawat

Tara joined CBGA as an Accounts and Administration Assistant in July 2011. She holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Delhi University and is currently pursuing Company Secretary Professional Programme from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). At CBGA, Tara takes care of several routine finance and administration activities. She is also responsible for the organization's communication and transactions with banks, vendors and service providers.

T. K. Shaji

T. K. Shaji joined CBGA as a Finance and Administration Officer in May 2012. He holds a Master's degree in Commerce from Kerala University. He has more than 10 years of experience with finance, accounts and administration work in the development sector. Prior to joining CBGA, he was working with an organisation called Deepalaya. At CBGA, his responsibilities include management of finance and accounts, taking care of statutory requirements, various administrative tasks, addressing the reporting requirements of funders, and coordination of the work of the Finance and Administration team.

Happy Pant

Happy joined CBGA in August 2012. She is currently working with us as a Senior Programme Officer.  She holds a Master's degree in Economics and a PG Diploma in Nutrition & Health Education. She has extensive experience in the development sector, working on training and knowledge management, governance, decentralization and reproductive health issues. She has earlier worked with the Country Office of United Nations Development Programme in India for five years, and has done consultancy assignment for an initiative of UNAIDS. She has the lead responsibility at CBGA for strengthening linkages with the media as well as with the policy makers in order to seek their continued partnership for its endeavors. She is also responsible for strengthening the organization's efforts pertaining to communication and dissemination.

Kanika Kaul

Kanika joined CBGA as a Programme Officer in October 2011. She holds a Masters degree in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Before joining CBGA, Kanika was working on strengthening women's political participation with The Hunger Project. She has the lead responsibility in the organization for advocacy with policymakers and capacity building initiatives on budget analysis and advocacy at South Asia level.

Khwaja Mobeen Ur Rehman

Khwaja joined CBGA in September 2004. He is a graduate in Economics from the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He also holds a Masters degree in Rural Development from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). He is currently working with us as a Programme Officer. Khwaja has considerable experience in primary data collection, compilation and tabulation; he is supporting a number of in-house programmes in research and advocacy. He also plays an important role in our communication and dissemination activities and in the organization of our workshops, consultations and meetings.

Pooja Rangaprasad

Pooja joined CBGA in January 2012. She is currently working as a Programme Officer (for Advocacy and Outreach efforts). She has a Masters in Social Policy and Development from London School of Economics. She has previously worked in the development sector with a wide range of stakeholders such as State legislators, politicians, government officials and civil society focusing on issues related to children. Her work at CBGA focuses on advocacy and outreach efforts on issues relating to tax justice and transparency and accountability in the global financial system.

Priyadarshini Mohanty

Priyadarshini joined CBGA as a Programme Officer in August 2011. She has an M.A. and M. Phil degree in Anthropology from Utkal University, Odisha. She has been working in the development sector since 2004 and her previous association with organizations like Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) and Micro Insurance Academy (MIA) has strengthened her understanding on diverse development issues. Her primary responsibilities in CBGA include coordinating the organization's capacity building programmes at the national level, leading the organization's publication and dissemination efforts and contributing towards its advocacy with legislators.

Gyana Ranjan Panda, Ph.D.

Gyana joined CBGA in August 2007. He has a master's degree in Political Science from Utkal University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He had earlier worked with the National Centre for Educational Research and Training, doing research on various aspects of education. In CBGA, he has worked on research studies focusing on constraints in utilization of funds in the social sector and budgetary provisions for adaptation to climate change in India. He has led CBGA's work on demystifying the budgets and budgetary processes in other South Asian countries. As a Senior Research Officer, he leads the organisation's efforts pertaining to research on climate change and public provisioning for water and sanitation.

Jawed A. Khan

Jawed joined CBGA in August 2007. He has done MA and M. Phil in Economics, and has previously worked with the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. Jawed has a lot of experience in field-work based research in areas like fiscal decentralization and utilization of funds in social sector programmes. He is currently working with us as a Senior Research Officer, focusing on rural development, fiscal decentralisation and responsiveness of budgets to disadvantaged groups like minorities, dalits and adivasis. He also contributes significantly to CBGA's capacity building efforts with CSOs across the country.

Manzoor Ali

Manzoor joined CBGA in August 2011. He has done his M.A. and M. Phil in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has previously worked in
UGC-funded research projects and analyzed the issue of political defection of legislators, both at Central and State level, and its impact on the development of States. At CBGA, he is currently working with us as a Research Officer, focusing on the systemic weakness in the government apparatus in social sectors and other issues pertaining to implementation of programmes and schemes in social sectors.

Narendra Jena

Narendra joined CBGA in May 2011. He has done his
M. Phil in Economics from the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Before Joining CBGA, Narendra had worked as a researcher at the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), the Centre for Trade and Development (CENTAD) and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi. Analyses of public expenditure towards human development, EU-India free trade agreement and regional aspects of industrial development have been his interest areas of research. He is currently working with us as a Research Officer, focusing on public investments in agriculture and responsiveness of government budgets to climate change.

Nilachala Acharya

Nilachala is associated with CBGA as a Senior Research Officer. He did his M.Phil in Economics from Berhampur University, Odisha. He possesses an in depth understanding of budgets and relevant institutions at the national and sub-national level in India. His areas of research interest are financing of agriculture, issues relating to food security and issues on transparency in Union and State Budgets in India.

Prashant Prakash

Prashant joined CBGA in June 2012. He is currently working with us as a Research Officer. He has done M.A. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has worked earlier with Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and National Council for Applied Economic Research, New Delhi. He has also taught at Dyal Singh (Evening) College and Sri Venkateshwara College in Delhi University, in which he had focused on macroeconomics and globalization. At CBGA, he is focusing on a number of issues pertaining to taxation and mobilization of public resources. He is also working on CBGA’s efforts pertaining to data visualizations.

Sankhanath Bandyopadhyay

Sankhanath joined us as a Research Officer in July 2010. He was earlier a Research Fellow at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. He has also worked with the ICFAI Business School in Kolkata. He has done a BSc in Economics from Calcutta University, and MA from the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His research area in CBGA relates to taxation and other sources of receipts for the government.

Saumya Shrivastava

Saumya joined CBGA in July 2011. She has done her M. Sc in Economics from Teri University, specializing in Environmental and Resource Economics. She had also worked as an Intern with CBGA during 2010-11 and carried out research on public investment in Agricultural Research and Education in India since 1990-91. As a Research Associate with CBGA, Saumya is currently working on responsiveness of budgets to disadvantaged sections of population and issues relating to climate change.

Sona Mitra

Sona joined CBGA in June 2012. She is currently working as a Senior Research Officer. She has done M.A. and M. Phil in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been working on gender and development issues, focusing especially on the issues of women and work in a feminist-macroeconomic framework since 2005. Prior to joining CBGA, she was working as a Research Consultant at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy where she had worked on issues related to fiscal decentralization and financing of human development. At CBGA, she is focusing on issues relating to Centre-State fiscal relations, fiscal decentralization and budgeting for health sector in India.