Meet Our New Faculty and Staff | June 2025

Faculty

Mr. Amit Kumar
Assistant Professor, Law

Amit has previously worked as an Assistant Professor at the National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal, and VIT-AP University, Amravati. He has previously taught public international law, international humanitarian law, and refugee law.

He has published articles on international law, business and human rights law. His work has been featured in reputed journals like the Asian Journal of International Law, the Australian Journal of Asian Law, and the Indian Society of International Law Yearbook on International Humanitarian and Refugee Law. He has also written opinion pieces on critical legal issues which have been published in the media.

Amit holds a BA LLB (Hons) from Chanakya National Law University, Patna, and an LLM in International Law from South Asian University, New Delhi. He is currently pursuing his PhD in International Human Rights Law from Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur.

He can be reached at

Ms. Chunthailiu Gonmei
Assistant Professor, Law

Chunthailiu’s academic interests include Comparative Law and Constitutional Law, Legal Theory, Ethics, and Traditional Knowledge in the realm of Intellectual Property Law.

Her research centres around the idea of asymmetric federalism and its application to the cause of tribal/indigenous people. She feels teaching is her calling, and believes in the idea of constantly learning and unlearning.

She has an LLB at the Campus Law Centre, Delhi University, and an LLM from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. She is currently pursuing her PhD at NALSAR. Her PhD thesis is a comparative analysis  of the constitutional status of the indigenous inhabitants of India and the US from a federal perspective.

She can be reached at 

Ms. Ragini Surana
Assistant Professor, Law

Ragini’s research interests include the fields of private law and legal history with a focus on the law of contract and unjust enrichment. Prior to joining NLSIU, Ragini was  part of the research group on Legal Transfers in the Common Law World under the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt.

Besides her research in the field of contract law and unjust enrichment, Ragini has also worked with a practicing advocate on editing legal commentaries on arbitration and insolvency.

She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from the National University Singapore, and a BA LLB (Hons) from the Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat. She is currently in the process of finishing her PhD at the Goethe University, Frankfurt.

She can be reached at

Dr. Shiuli Vanaja
Assistant Professor, Social Science

Dr. Shiuli Vanaja is an applied microeconomist specialising in development economics, behavioural economics, and resource economics with a special focus on gender.

Previously, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Azim Premji University’s School of Arts and Sciences. At APU, she taught various economics and interdisciplinary courses to a diverse and mixed undergraduate student body. She is currently working with the team at the Centre for Science and Environment on the Survey of Working India Report 2025.

She is particularly fascinated by social and cultural institutions, practices, and norms that shape behavioural patterns and influence choices in societies like India. More recently, she has been engaged in two research projects: (i) on analysing constraints on female labour force participation in urban areas, and (ii) on forest rights, forest-based livelihoods, and social networks of tribal groups in central India.

She has a BA (Hons) in Economics from Banaras Hindu University, an MA Economics and an MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a PhD from Cornell University.

She can be reached at

Dr. Srikrishna Ayyangar
Associate Professor, Social Science

Srikrishna Ayyangar is a Political Scientist with expertise in comparative politics of developing areas, particularly around questions of populism and its place in democracies beyond the Americas and Europe. He has also been involved in the design and development of public policy programmes for many years, and has taught courses related to problem solving, policy writing and implementation analysis. He has expertise in comparative configurational methodologies, particularly in the Qualitative Comparative Analysis method.

He has taught at Azim Premji University for more than a decade, and prior to that, at the University of Hartford and the University of the South – Sewanee. He has also had short-term teaching appointments at New York University and at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.

Srikrishna has most recently published a book titled ‘A Logic of Populism: India and its States’ (Cambridge 2025). His research works have also been published in journals like the Studies in Comparative Development and Studies in Indian Politics.

He can be reached at 

Research Staff

Ms. Amaidhi Devaraj
Co-Director, Juvenile Justice Clinic

Amaidhi has over 18 years of experience in various disciplines from theatre, law, counselling, activism, etc. all directed towards social change. She has previously worked at the Centre for Child and the Law (CCL), NLSIU where she was Project Director, Enabling Justice to Children in the Juvenile Justice System.

Prior to this, she has worked in national and international organisations in the field of education, lifeskills, mentoring, health and hygiene, and public health.

Amaidhi is passionate about social change, and actively seeks out opportunities in both her personal and professional life to contribute towards the holistic development of society.

She has a BA LLB from University Law College and a Diploma in Human Rights Law from NLSIU.

She can be reached at

Ms. Subhadra Nair
Researcher, Juvenile Justice Clinic 

Subhadra’s research delves into the Indian Criminal Justice System, encompassing both adult & juvenile justice. Her primary inquiries include examining procedural frameworks for prisoner interview (mulaquat) across Indian prisons, specific needs of children of prisoners in India, Social Investigation Reports (SIRs) and Preliminary Assessment (PA) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act,2015.

Before joining the Juvenile Justice Clinic at NLS, she worked as a researcher at the Centre for Child and the Law (NLSIU) and Prayas, Centre for Criminology and Justice (TISS Mumbai). She also assisted the mitigation team at Project 39A, NLU-D. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Rights Law.

She can be reached at