Jayanta Bandyopadhyay


Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, is a researcher, analyst and author. He is now a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, Kolkata. He is a Former Professor of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. An internationally renowned professional on public interest research, mountain environment and water governance in south Asia, Bandyopadhyay has authored sixteen critically acclaimed books and monographs, in addition to 150 papers and articles. He has delivered invited lectures in many parts of the world.

Early life and education

Bandyopadhyay had his schooling in Kolkata after which he studied engineering. He received a Master of Technology degree in 1969 and PhD in 1976 in Engineering Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. After obtaining his doctorate, he turned his research interest to the interdisciplinary area of Science and the Natural Environment. He soon got deeply interested in research on the Himalaya. His professional life started to revolve around environment and economic growth in the world's mountains. In 1977 he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, as a visiting post-doctoral fellow in the area of science and public policy.

Career

Bandyopadhyay has been closely associated with research on environment and economic growth in the Himalaya, especially on the rivers emerging from this mountain. He has been a member of the faculty at IIM Bangalore, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, and the International Academy of Environment, Geneva. In 1991 he was invited by the Earth Summit Secretariat in Geneva to single draft a chapter for Agenda-21 on the world's mountains. In 1997 he was invited by the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta to establish the Centre for Development and Environment Policy. He retired from his position at IIMC in 2012 and spent a year at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi as a Visiting Professor. He has been an adviser to the International Union for Conservation of Nature New Delhi, and the Water Diplomacy Program at Tufts University, Medford, USA. He recently acted as a review-editor for the forthcoming Report on Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme of ICIMOD, Kathmandu. The central contribution of Bandyopadhyay is an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of mountain areas and governance of rivers emerging from the Himalaya.
Bandyopadhyay served as the President of ; President of ; Chair of Scientific Advisory Committee, ; and as Board Member, . He was the Coordinating Lead Author for "" in .

Selected bibliography

Books and Monographs

  1. Environmental Sustainability from the Himalayas to the Oceans: Struggles and Innovations in China and India Co-edited 2017.
  2. IRBM for Brahmaputra Sub-basin: Water Governance, Environmental Security and Human Well-being Co-authored 2016.
  3. Environmental Governance: Approaches, Imperatives and Methods Co-edited, 2012
  4. The Indian Sundarbans Delta: A Vision, co-authored, forthcoming in 2011
  5. Water, Agriculture and Sustainable Well-being 2009
  6. Water, Ecosystems and Society: A Confluence of Disciplines 2009
  7. Report of the Task Force on the Mountain Ecosystems – Eleventh Five-Year Plan 2006
  8. Integrated Water Systems Management in South Asia: A Framework for Research CDEP Occasional Paper 09 2006
  9. Biodiversity and Quality of Life 2005
  10. Moving the Mountains Up in the Global Environmental Agenda CDEP Occasional Paper 03 2004
  11. Freshwater for India's Children and Nature 1998
  12. Mountains of the World: A Global Priority 1997.
  13. Structural Transformation Processes Towards Sustainable Development in India and Switzerland May 1996.
  14. Natural Resource Management in the Mountain Environment: the Case of Doon Valley Occasional Paper14 1989
  15. Science and Technology in the Asia-Pacific Region 1989.
  16. India's Environment: Crises and Responses 1985