Sankar Datta

Dr. Sankar Datta[1] (born February 17, 1958), is an Indian academic & professional development worker. He has been engaged in rural livelihood promotion / support activities for more than three decades since the early 1980s. Most of his field work has been in the undulating terrains of central India, from Chhota Udaipur in the west to Jharkhand in the east inhabited by various tribal groups.

Sankar Datta
Born (1958-02-17) February 17, 1958
Jamshedpur, Bihar, India
OccupationDevelopment Professional, Academic, Professor
Known forPRADAN, BASIX (India), The Livelihood School, Microfinance, Livelihood
Spouse(s)Sonja Datta
ChildrenSoumya Sankar

Datta is a management Graduate from the very first batch of Institute of Rural Management Anand,Gujarat,[2] with graduation in Agriculture from G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology and Ph.D in Economics from Sardar Patel University.

Background

Datta is currently Development Evangelist, well known for his work in the field on livelihood support, as a part of institutions like PRADAN and BASIX. He was a Professor and Head in the Azim Premji University, Bengaluru,[1] and leading the Livelihood Initiative of the University as well as a Member of the Faculty of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A). Having started his journey as a Spearhead Team Leader organizing soyabean farmers in central parts of India, he continued working with small rural producers as part of the founding teams of BASIX/ Indian Grameen Services[3][4] along with Vijay Mahajan, Deep Joshi, and PRADAN, two notable livelihood promotion and support institutions of India before joining the University.[5]

He was also the member of faculty of Institute of Rural Management Anand,[6][7] as well as policy forums such as Working Group of the Planning Commission (India) for the 12th Five-Year Plan (India).[8]

Datta is known in India's development domain for his work in the area of Livelihoods.[9][10]

Early life

Sankar Datta was (born February 17, 1958) in Jamshedpur, Bihar, India. He spent his early childhood in Bihar. He did his schooling from Patha Bhavana, Santiniketan.

Academic background

Datta's early school education was done at Patha Bhavana, Viswa Bharati, Santiniketan, an institution founded by Rabindranath Tagore. He completed his post-graduation in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management Anand, after completing his graduation in Agriculture (B Sc Ag & AH) from G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, and did his Ph.D on Factors Affecting Performance of Village Level Organisations in the area of Economics from Sardar Patel University. Thereafter he pursued higher studies in Agribusiness management from the Cornell University.

Professional career

As an academic
  • Datta is presently Professor, leading the Livelihood Initiatives.[1]
  • He was earlier the Dean of The Livelihood School set up by BASIX, undertaking research and training in the promotion of livelihoods, especially of the poor households of the country;
  • He was a member of the faculty in Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) and Ravi Mathai Centre for Educational Innovation (RM-CEI) of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.
  • He was also visiting faculty for several institutions like Xavier School of Rural Management (XSRM, Erstwhile XIMB-RM), National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (CCS NIAM), KSRM, TISS among others.

As a practitioner and development professional

Datta has been closely associated with promotion of Rural Livelihoods as a Practitioner.

  • He was in-charge of operations while setting up the BASIX group of Companies, a new generation livelihood support institution[11]
  • He had initiated and headed the first livelihood project of PRADAN, a major livelihood support NGO of India
  • He was Team-Leader of the Spearhead Team responsible for promotion of soybean in MP and organizing the network of producer co-operatives

Other professional engagements
  • Served on the Board of several institutions[12] including Indian Grameen Services,[13] Village Financial Services Ltd,[14] IndusTree Crafts Ltd. Purbanchal Maitree Development Society.[15]
  • Member of the Advisory Committee of Centre for Management in Agriculture (CMA) of the IIM-Ahmedabad
  • Member of the Livelihood Advisory Group of the Sustainable Livelihoods India Initiative organized by ACCESS Development Services.
  • Member of the Planning Commission Working Group for the 12th Five-Year Plan on MGNREGA.[8]

Publications

Apart from presenting various papers[16][17][18][19][20] on the livelihood challenges faced by the poor in various national and international forums he has published several books.[21] One of his frequently used publications is the Resource Book for Livelihood Promotion[22] ,[23] co-authored with Vijay Mahajan and Gitali Thakur. He has also been involved in designing and editing the first five years of the State of India's Livelihood Report.[24]

Expertise
  • Rural Development in General and livelihood promotion & support in specific.[25]
  • Dryland farming and Value Chain Management[26]
  • Gandhian economics for supporting livelihoods
  • Value Chain Development

References
  1. "Sankar Datta". Azim Premji University. Archived from the original on 24 August 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  2. Datta, Sankar. "Author information". swb.co.in/. Scholars without Borders. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  3. Datta, Sankar. "IGS eyes 'poorer' terrains to meet micro finance targets". The Financial Express. Archived from the original on 18 December 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  4. Datta, Sankar (22 November 2007). "India: Indian Grameen Services (IGS) Eyes 'Poorer' to Meet Microfinance Targets". MicroCapital. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  5. Datta, Sankar. "Welcome to Indian Grameen Services". igsindia.org.in/. Indian Grameen Services. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013.
  6. IRMA (December 1998). "Editorial" (PDF). Network. 4. 4 (70): 8.
  7. "Factors Affecting Performance Of Village Level Organisations". INSTITUTE OF RURAL MANAGEMENT ANAND Research and Publication/ Catalogue / Working Papers. IRMA. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  8. "Working Group on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA)" (PDF). Planning Commission ( Rural Development Division). Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 October 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  9. "SPEAKERS-SANKAR DATTA". CITI-FINANCIAL EDUCATIONAL SUMMIT. http://financialeducationsummit.org/. Archived from the original on 22 June 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013. External link in |publisher= (help)
  10. Datta, Sankar; Mahajan,Vijay; Singha,Ashok Kumar (2009). "Land for Infrastructure Development: Livelihoods and Fair Compensation" (PDF). INDIA INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT 2009. Oxford University Press. pp. 131–141. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 April 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  11. "Sankar Datta". BASIX India Website. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  12. "Board Members- Mother Earth". motherearth.co.in. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  13. Datta, Sankar. "Board Members - Indian Grameen Services". igsindia.org.in/. Indian Grameen Services. Archived from the original on 31 July 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  14. Datta, Sankar. "Board of Directors". village.net.in/. Village Financial Services. Archived from the original on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  15. Datta, Sankar. "Board of Director". Maitri. Archived from the original on 18 April 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  16. "Sankar Datta -Publications and Writings" (PDF). Azim Premji University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 November 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  17. Datta, Sankar (October 1997). "Power, Politics and Village-Level Organisations: Oilseeds Growers' Co-operatives in MP". Economic and Political Weekly. 32 (39 (September 27 - October 3, 1997)): A114–A120. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  18. Datta, Sankar; N. Srinivasan (July 2008). "Consolidating the Growth of Microfinance Microfinance India: State of the Sector Report 2008 by N. Srinivasan Review by: Sankar Datta". Economic and Political Weekly. No. 30. 44: 31–32. JSTOR 40279309.
  19. "Books- Lead Author - Sankar Datta". www.sagepub.in. SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  20. Edited by Dr. S.Srinivas, APMAS,Dr. Sankar Datta, ISLP and Prof. S.J.Phansalkar (January 2006). "Rural Livelihood in Andhra Pradesh" (PDF). Mahila Abhivruddhi Society, Andhra Pradesh (APMAS) and Indian School of Livelihood Promotion. Mahila Abivruddhi Society, Andhra Pradesh (APMAS). Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2013.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  21. Sankar Datta; S L Narayana, Sirnivas (23 December 2010). Savings of the Poor: How they do it. ISBN 978-8182910874.
  22. Datta, Sankar. "A resource book for livelihood promotion". amazon.com/. Ford Foundation. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  23. "An Introduction to Livelihood Promotion". ruralfinance.org/. http://www.ruralfinance.org/. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2013. External link in |publisher= (help)
  24. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. "Sankar Datta: Face to face with Sarpanches". Business Standard. 30 November 2008. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  26. Datta, Sankar. "Sankar Datta on the need for integrated financial services". microlinks.kdid.org/. Microlinks. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
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