Gursharan Dhanjal, Vice Chairman, SKOCH Group

Dr Gursharan Dhanjal , MA, MPhil, PhD from Delhi University and an expert in strategic affairs, is Vice Chairman, SKOCH Group. He is also Editor of INCLUSION—a quarterly publication that focuses on development and addresses inclusive growth-related issues. INCLUSION has completed six years. He has over 20 years of work experience ranging from academics to research and business journalism to consulting. He started his career as an Assistant Professor and taught at Delhi University for five years before joining Asia Business News (India)—Dow Jones, a premier broadcaster of business and financial news during the mid-90s. He also worked for CNBC for over three years during the late 90s.

He has led various research projects, impact assessments and field studies in financial inclusion, e-governance and ICT for development that included traversing across the country, collecting citizen voices for over a decade now. His areas of expertise include research and rich media content. A prolific writer, Dr Dhanjal has contributed over 200 columns in leading national dailies including The Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Financial Express and The Pioneer. He has published research papers in several journals of repute in addition to authoring a widely acclaimed book entitled Tarapur: The Politics of Nuclear Age. He has recently published another book in association with Sameer Kochhar entitled Infrastructure and Governance. He has contributed papers that have been published in various books, e.g., Growth and Governance: Essays in Honour of Nandan Nilekani; An Agenda for India’s Growth: Essays in Honour of P Chidambaram; Policymaking for Indian Planning: Essays in Honour of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, edited by Sameer Kochhar; and, Building from the Bottom: Infrastructure and Poverty Alleviation, edited by Sameer Kochhar and M Ramachandran. He is a member of the Working Group on ICT in Higher Education constituted by Planning Commission for the 12th Five Year Plan. He is a regular speaker at various public fora and institutions including IIT-Delhi and Delhi University where he is also a visiting faculty. He is Member, Course Preparation Team for Master’s Programme, School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). His research interests include nuclear non-proliferation, political systems, ICT for development, financial inclusion, education, public administration, urban development, conflict resolution and peace building.