Rajeswari S. Raina (Ph.D. Economics) is a Professor with the Department of International Relations and Governance Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Shiv Nadar University, and Associate Director of the University’s Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory (C-PACT). She is a keen student of the interface between development policy and knowledge - formal organized science and technology as well as unorganized situated local knowledge systems. Her current research focuses on (a) Institutions and ways of knowing complex social-ecological systems, (b) Evolving frameworks: the state, science and civil society actors for sustainability and resilience, (c) Knowledge-policy-practice continuums in agroecological transformations, (d) Science in international assessments.
She is a well published researcher, advisor to and participant in several environment-and-development programmes, public policy and scientific research programmes, both national and international, community-led and government or donor-led. As an active member of networks and professional societies on rural innovation, post-growth, agrarian and rural studies, science-technology-society studies, rainfed agriculture, agroecology, institutional economics, ecological economics, teachers against the climate crisis and water, she is an ardent advocate of a bio-economic approach to a prosperous, equitable and sustainable world.
On-going Research:
- “Institutional Change for Rural Innovation: The Civic Space, Science and the State in India, the 1980s through 2010s” Principal Investigators: Prof. Keshab Das (GIDR, Ahmedabad) and Prof.Rajeswari S. Raina (SNU, Delhi, NCR) Project Partners: Dhruv Raina (JNU, New Delhi), D. Raghunandan (CTD, New Delhi), Major S. Chatterjee (Rtrd., Former Advisor, Office of PSA, Govt.of India, New Delhi), Lavanya Suresh (BITS, Hyderabad) and Om Prasad (Post-doc researcher). Project Duration: 1st September 2020 to 31st August 2022 (extended to March 2023 due to pandemic disruptions). Sponsored by Ford Foundation, NY, USA.
- "Financing the Agroecological Transformation of Agri-food Systems”, Consultancy project in collaboration with Prof. Tara Nair (GIDR, Ahmedabad). Part of the programme on “Public Development Banks and the Sustainable Development Goals” coordinated by the Global Development Network (GDN), sponsored and coordinated by Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), Paris . Project Duration: March2022-July2022.
- "Agri-food systems in a post-growth world" (chapter) for the reader "Beyond growth? Alternative models for economic development," as part of the project "Supporting the Institutionalization of Capacities on Climate Change Studies and Actions (ICCC) implemented by GIZ and MoEFCC, April-October 2022.
Recent Research Projects:
- Millet-based Nutrition Programmes: Theoretical Challenges and Policy Problems in Rainfed Agriculture, Principal Investigator. Collaborative research project - with NCDS, Bhubaneswar, and WASSAN, Hyderabad. Sponsored: ICSSR Major Research Programme, March 2017 to February 2019 – extended to December 2020.
- Academia Engagement on Decentralized Sanitation, Principal Investigator, with Sreedeep Bhattacharya (C-PACT, SNU). Consultancy Project, sponsored by: National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). September 1st 2018 to March 31st 2019.
- “Scaling-up the Rural Enterprise”, an Indo-UK collaborative research project on Bridging the Urban Rural Divide (BURD), in collaboration with Centre for Technology and Development (CTD), New Delhi, IIT-Mumbai, Imperial College, London, University of Nottingham, and Swansea University. Sponsored by DST (Government of India) and EPSRC (Government of UK), (2012-15).
On-going Supervision:
- One PhD dissertation in the Department of International Relations and Governance Studies (beginning Spring 2022)
- One PhD dissertation as External member, Doctoral Advisory Committee, in Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay (beginning Spring 2021)
- Two MSc. (Water Science and Policy) dissertations in Shiv Nadar University (Aug2021- May 2022)
- One BA (International Relations) dissertation (August 2021-May 2022)
Teaching interests:
Inter- and trans-disciplinary studies, Institutional economics, Ecological economics, Policy Research, Knowledge Politics, Science, Technology, Society studies (STS), Complex SES
Teaching Areas/themes:
Agricultural and environmental challenges, Agroecological transformations, Biodiversity, Climate adaptation capacities and resilience, Development and Governance frameworks, theories and practices, Post-growth thinking and action, Asian agri-food systems and work, Rural innovation, Inclusive development.
“Measuring What Counts in a Limited World”, seminar paper presented online, as part of the KREA University Environmental Lecture Series, organized by KREA University, 29th March 2022.
“Prioritizing Sustainable Relationships: SDGs and STI”, discussion/presentation in the session on Presentation of evidence and experiences of STI prioritizations and pathways from different contexts and organizations, at the STRINGS Project Workshop on “Perspectives and Policies to steer science, technology and innovation for the SDGs,” organized online by the STRINGS project, UNDP and UKRI , 28th Feb., and 1st March 2022.
“Holding Out Against the Global Fundamentals of Growth: Knowledge and Technology in Asia’s Agri-food systems” Seminar paper presented online at the Seminar on Technological Globalization from Below, organized byCEPED, Universite de Paris, Paris, 23rd February 2022.
“Institutions and the Evolution of Indian Agriculture”, invited lecture delivered (online) as part of the 50th Foundation Year lecture series, at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) Trivandrum, on 29th January 2021.
Panelist in the Prakash Gole Memorial Discussion Series, on “Food sufficiency, nutrition deficiency and distributional inefficiency: What does it mean in an ecological context?” Organized by the Friends of Ecological Society and Ashoka Trust for Research on Ecology and Environment (ATREE), 26th November 2020. (https://www.facebook.com/ecologicalsociety/posts/1419004961767336)
Keynote Address, “Policy Incongruence as Problem: Climate Change and a Possible Paradigm Shift in Indian Agriculture,” at the National Seminar on Agriculture in India: Problems, Policies and Prospects, BJB Autonomous College, Bhubaneswar, 29th February 2020.
Address to Economics Faculty, “Economics and Environmental Decision Making: Post-growth Thinking”, at the MESMAC International Conference 2020, on Applying Theory: Paradigms, Practices and Faultlines, at Muslim Education Society (MES) College, Mampad, Calicut, 15th January 2020.
Keynote Address “Countering ‘Unthinkingness:’ Beyond Number of Women for Excellence in and Relevance of Science” at the Keynote Address at the National Seminar on “Role of Women Scientists in Developing Science and Society in India,” organized by the Asiatic Society, in the Vidyasagar Hall, ASIATIC SOCIETY, Kolkata, 13-14th January 2020.
- Re-elected Vice President of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (in Dec. 2021).
- Appointed member of the Special Committee of the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, from April 2022-March 2025.
- Elected member, of the International Science Council (ISC) Regional Committee for Asia and the Pacific, of the International Science Council (ICSU), November 2018- November 2019.
- TN Khoshoo Memorial Award 2018 – The theme of this year’s award is ‘Women in Sustainability’ which recognizes the exceptional contribution of women in sustainability research. (Award and lecture on the 19th of November 2018, Satish Dhawan Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore).