Dr Sudha Pai retired as Professor from the Centre for Political Studies and as Rector (Pro-Vice Chancellor) of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in January 2016. She was Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi from 2006 to 2009 and National Fellow of the ICSSR from 2015-2017. Dr Pai was awarded the 2019 Exemplar Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement by the South Asian Studies Association, USA at the South Asian Studies Association Conference at Claremont College Mckenna, Los Angeles, in 2019.
Dr Sukhadeo Thorat is Chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR); former Chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC); and Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has a BA (Milind College of Arts, Aurangabad, Maharashtra), MA in Economics (Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad), MPhil/PhD in Economics (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and Diploma in Economic Planning (Main School of Planning, Warsaw, Poland). His research areas include agricultural development, rural poverty, institution and economic growth, problems of marginalised groups, economics of caste system, caste discrimination and poverty. He was the Director of the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi from 2003 to 2006 and the Research Associate of International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA, since 1992. In 2008 he was awarded the Padmashree in the field of literature and education.