Faculty

Prof. M. Abdul Rehman Pasha
Visting Faculty

Author of over fifty books in Kannada and English, M. Abdul Rehman Pasha is a writer and a professional translator. Associated with a number of NGOs and government departments, he has produced over 140 Development Documentaries, 63 Educational Videos, 4 feature films, in Kannada, English and Hindi. He has to his credit, over 15 state, national and international awards and acclamations for his contributions to Kannada literature and media.

He was at the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, where he served as a language training expert in the Department of Kannada and Culture.  Among other things, Prof. Pasha is an expert in teaching Kannada to non-Kannada persons.

He will be teaching ‘Programme in Indian Languages and Literature: Kannada’ course.

Prof. Siddharth Swaminathan
Visting Faculty

Siddharth was most recently Senior Fellow at the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University (2023-24). He has previously taught at several universities in India and the US. Courses include comparative politics, world politics, and statistical methods. His research interests include subnational comparative politics, state capacity, citizenship and urban governance, and public opinion.

He will be teaching ‘Research Methods in Politics.’

Dr. Zakir T. Thomas
DPIIT IPR Chair Professor

Zakir brings over 35 years of distinguished service in the Government of India as an officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), retiring in May 2024 as Director General (Systems) heading the e-governance wing of the Income Tax Department. He has held key roles across the Ministries of Finance, Science and Technology, and Education, and was honoured with the Finance Minister’s Award, the highest recognition from the Income Tax Department.

He served as Registrar of Copyright for the Government of India and as the Founding Project Director of the Open-Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative at CSIR, a global open innovation platform for affordable drug discovery targetting neglected diseases. He has represented India at international forums including WIPO, was Indian delegate to the OECD tax forum, delivered talks at the European Parliament and American Chemical Society, and contributed extensively to scholarship on IP, innovation, public health, and technology policy.