Executive Council

Deepak Kumar Behera hails from Sambalpur district in Odisha and is an internationally acclaimed anthropologist. Presently, he is serving as the Vice Chancellor of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) Deemed to be University. Prior to joining KISS-DU, he served as the Vice-Chancellor of Sambalpur University, Berhampur University and Rajendra University, Bolangir. Under the leadership of Professor Behera, Berhampur University secured “A” grade by NAAC (the first state-funded university in Odisha to achieve this distinction). Professor Behera has the distinction of being the only academician from Odisha to become the Vice Chancellor of four different universities.

Professor Behera has many national and international distinctions to his credit. He had been a Fulbright Visiting Professor at California State University, Long Beach, where he taught a course titled, “Childhood in a Changing Context (With Special Reference to South Asia)”. As a recipient of DAAD fellowship, he had been a Visiting Guest Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Karl Ebrard University, Germany. The other prestigious fellowships received by him include: the Carlos Chaga Foundation Fellowship, Brazil; National Research Foundation Fellowship, Republic of South Africa; German Research Council Fellowship, Germany; Indo-French Academic Exchange Fellowship, India/France; Indo-Israel Academic and Cultural Exchange Fellowship, India/Israel.

He has also been a visiting professor in Aarhus University, Denmark; University of Free State and University of Durban-Westville, South Africa; Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Maison des Sciences de L"Homme, Paris and CNRS-EHESS, France. He has also delivered invited lectures at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; Tel Aviv University, Israel; University of Orange Free State, South Africa; University of Durban West-Ville, South Africa; University of California at Santa Cruz; University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Utah, Logan (famous Brownbag Lecture); University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. Professor Behera also delivered the prestigious Jubilee lecture (Anthropology Section) in the 100th Science Congress held at Calcutta University in January 2013.

Professor Behera has also been a recipient of the prestigious Sarat Chandra Roy Memorial Gold Medal by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata (the oldest educational institution in Asia) for his outstanding contribution in the field of cultural anthropology in India.

He has to his credit more than 120 research publications in reputed journals and edited volumes. He is the author/editor of 22 volumes.  His publications have appeared in reputed publishing companies such as Routledge, Springer, Anthem, Elsevier, Pearson, Orient Longman, Kluwer International, Trans-National, Manges, Greenwood Press, Concept, etc. He was the editor of the Journal

Dr. Prashanta Kumar Routray has been serving as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), since April 2005. For the last five years, he has been holding charge as the Registrar of KISS Deemed to be University. KISS is the largest Integrated Residential Academic Institution for the indigenous communities. Thirty thousand tribal students, from kindergarten to the university level, receive free education, healthcare, vocational and athletic training at KISS. There are ten thousand more in ten satellite centres across Odisha.
In a thirty-eight-year-long working career, Dr. Routray has served three institutions in various capacities. He began his professional career at the Advanced Study Centre in Psychology at Utkal University, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1992. He joined the Centre for Youth and Social Development, (CYSD) a Bhubaneswar-based NGO specializing in capacity building, research, and advocacy for the tribal, rural, and urban poor in Odisha, in 1992. By 1994, he shifted from research to practice, taking over as a Programme Officer and Trainer. He rose fast and was heading the Panchayati Raj division at CYSD in 1996. Routray was promoted again in 1998 to the rank of a Programme Manager, leading entire divisions and major projects, coordinating with state and union governments and hundreds of professionals and volunteers on the ground. As a Program Officer, he was with LEPRA India, a NGO which works for mainstream rehabilitation of patients of Leprosy and other debilitating diseases, for a year between 2004 and 2005.
Routray specializes in academic and vocational training of students and the youth. He is the topper in the Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. As a practitioner of Organizational Psychology and Management, he has excelled in large-scale education delivery, strategic organizational planning and turnkey project management, training of trainers, and information and communication management.
Several national and international courses and workshops on these have subsequently strengthened his domain expertise. In 1998, for instance, he was in the Netherlands, attending a UNESCO certified training course on early child development at the AVERROES European Training Centre, Amsterdam.
At KISS, Dr. Routray is responsible for the overall institutional growth and development for both academic and non-academic activities. It primarily involves presiding over a contingent of over two thousand teaching and support staff and coordinating with various donor and collaborators such as the state and the union governments, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNESCO, The US Embassy, ORACLE Education Foundation, TISS, Give

Mr Vikramaditya is the Vice President of KIIT University and KISS University - an ecosystem of its kind that includes the world's largest indigenous organisation. For over two decades, he has campaigned and worked in grassroots for poverty reduction, human rights and involuntary displacement. Concomitantly, he administered public relations, networking, fundraising and governance assistance to all the organisations with which he has been associated. He has also been involved in policymaking in association with state governments and other stakeholders in pivotal domains of Resettlement and Rehabilitation and State Youth Policy. His diverse portfolio includes work with UNDP, UN Women and Tata Steel in different capacities. He is also an IVLP Fellow and a Fullbright Scholar.

He has been working with the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences since 2006. He has been instrumental in helping the institute secure innovative needs-based development projects while forging successful partnerships with various departments of the Government of Odisha, Government of India, UN Agencies, Foundations, and Corporates. This has led to the creation of diversity in the talent pool from the platform of KISS & KIIT for a globalized world. He was one of the founder members of institutionalizing the Kalinga Fellowship – a campaign and creating leadership to deal with the pressing issue of violence against women. He spearheaded the evacuation of stranded international citizens and migrant labourers during the Covid pandemic. He is a strong supporter of indigenous rights, and through his years of experience, he has helped KISS maintain a culturally sensitive and welcoming space for tribal youth of Odisha.

He has recently been selected to join the prestigious UN Executive Leadership Programme for Sustainable Development

Prof. P. C. Joshi  (B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology , Delhi University) is the former Pro Vice-Chancellor  and officiating Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi.  He has been the Head of the Department in Anthropology in the University of Delhi. He served as head of the Department of Anthropology in various institutions like HNB Garhwal University and Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences. A prominent external expert with the Indian Council of Social Science Research, University Grants Commission, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Department of Biotechnology and Universities like Tirupati, Vidyasagar, Calcutta, Hyderabad and North Eastern Hill University and involved with teaching or research with Heidelberg University, Germany; Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, Indonesia University, Indonesia, Hue University, Vietnam and Xavier University, Philippines, he has organized fifteen Conferences included one in the University of Hue, Vietnam in the year 2010. He is the current president of the Society for Indian Medical Anthropology, Mysore, Vice President of the United Indian Anthropological Forum and Chairman, Project Advisory Committee of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Ministry of Culture. He specializes in the fields of Medical Anthropology, Himalayan Anthropology, Antibiotic Resistance and Qualitative Research Methods. Author of more the 150 research articles and more than ten books, he has supervised around 30 Ph.D. and around 25 M.Phil. students.

Dr. Ajay Pradhan is a civil engineer with doctorate degree in Water Resource Engineering with experience of over 27 years in planning, designing and implementation of number of project funded by national and international funding agencies.Ajay is currently Chairman and CEO of Cetus Consulting Solution Services Private Limited (C2S2) with its head office in New Delhi. Prior to this he worked as Managing director of Halcrow & CH2MHILL, Director of DHV consultant. He is also founder and managing director of DHI in India. Apart from this, Ajay has also provided services as consultant and scientist in different government agencies like planning commission of India and National Informatics Center respectively.
Dr. Ajay possesses key expertise in Sustainable and Integrated Water Management, Solid Waste Management, Climate Change, Hydropower, Urban Environment Management, Policy and Governance.
Ajay is the member of Governing Council of KIIT and Chairman of KIIT University Academic, Industry and Innovation. He is also Chairman of Institution of Water and Environment, India, Executive member and chairman of NCR and Delhi chapter of National Solid Waste Management Association, India. He is recipient of Udyog Ratna Award, water leader of Asia and Member of Board of IIT-DSR, North Camp University and many National, International agencies and academic institutions. Ajay is also mentor and Expert Member of Information Technology Research Academy (ITRA- Water) of Ministry of Information and Technology, Government of India for IT Innovation and Research in water sector.
Presently, Ajay is providing consultancy and advisory services for different Institution and organization. He is actively engaged in the Hydrological studies, sediment control management in Uttarakhand, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunanchal Pradesh.

Dr. Kanhu Charan Mahali is a former IPS officer from Tamilnadu cadre and served as Additional Director General of Police. Before that, he was in Indian Forest Service (IFS) in Madhya Pradesh cadre. He is an efficient Administrator with 34 years of vast and varied experience in the State Government as well as in the Government of India. He has also served as Assistant Director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) in New Delhi and Bhubaneswar. He obtained M.Sc (Ag) degree in Agricultural Economics from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar and Ph. D from University of Madras.

He was Superintendent of Police in Thiruvannamalai district, Ramanathapuram district and Salem district and Range DIG in Vellore, Thanjavur and Thirunelveli. Served as Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore City and Salem City. While serving as Commissioner of Police in Salem City, he implemented an innovative “Golden Hour Trauma Care” by synergizing Public-Private-Participation (PPP) model involving the Government and the Private hospital and their Ambulance in providing immediate trauma care to the road accident victims and reduced the death due to road accident significantly in the City of Salem.

He is a recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2005 and the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2016. Dr. Mahali was awarded the “IRTE and Prince Michael International Road Safety Award" (United Kingdom) in the year 2007 and “Dr. Malcolm Emerald Special Activity Award” for successful Mahamaham-2004.

While on deputation with the Government of India, he served as Inspector General of BSF in Mizoram & Cachar Frontier Headquarter at Silchar, Assam with an added responsibility of internal security in the state of Manipur and Nagaland. Later on, he became IG (Administration) in BSF Headquarters in New Delhi. He has also served as Inspector General (Ops), Command Headquarter (Special Ops), New Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

He is a native of Mayurbhanj district of Odisha.

Ph. D.

M. Com., M. Phil., Ph. D.

Ph. D.

M.Sc., CSIR-UGC NET-JRF, Ph.D

Convenor, Tribal Advisory Council
MSW