B. Venkatesh Kumar
Professor of Political Science
Chairperson, Centre for Governance and Public Policy
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Office Address
Phone Number
MS Gore Block Room No. 1006
New Campus
Administrative Assistants
Vaishali Gajbiye/Rajisha Ramakutty
022-25525848
022-25525848
Profile
B. Venkatesh Kumar is Professor and Chairperson, Center for Governance and Public Policy
and also the Director of the National Corporate Social Responsibility Hub established by the
Government of India’s Department of Public Enterprises at TISS. He is also the Course
Director of the One Week In service Training for senior and mid-career IAS/AIS officers
since 2011 supported by Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India.
He was a visiting Professor at the Penn State University (2011-12), a visiting Professor at
Rutgers (2012- 13) and member of the India Advisory group of the International Institute
of Education. He has been offered visiting Professorship at the Bloustein School of Planning
and Public Policy, Rutgers’ University and Visiting Scholars position at the Centre for
Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, Fall 2015 and as a Visiting Scholar at
the School of Social Welfare Policy, University of California, Berkeley, 2016
Prof. Kumar has worked in multiple capacities to guide reforms in the field of higher
education in India. He is a Consultant to the World Bank’s Higher Education Program, since
2011, having guided key reforms higher education reform initiatives in Jharkhand, Madhya
Pradesh and is now helping support the Govt. of Bihar in key reform initiative. At the
request of the then Governor of Maharashtra in (2008-10), Prof. Kumar helped initiate and
bring to fruition a number of key reforms in higher education in Maharashtra. This
resulted in the formulation of the new set of guidelines for Governance Reforms in State
Universities in Maharashtra.
Prof. Kumar is involved in advising and providing support to the Ministry of Human
Resource Development's major policy initiative -“ Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan”to revive and resurrect State Public Universities systems. He is a Member of the Project
Approval Board, National Mission on Higher Education appointed by the Ministry of
Human Resource Development. Prof. Kumar is also a member of the sectoral committee on
Education appointed by the Kerala State Planning Board for the 12th Plan period. More
recently, he was been invited as a Bank's consultant to be a member by the Department of
Higher Education, Govt. of Bihar to a committee to Reviewing the Public Universities Act in
Bihar.
He has recently completed the task of developing a strategic framework for leadership
development program for Higher Education Administrators. This will form the basis of the
upcoming Higher Education Leadership Academy.
He was involved in the formulation of the first ever guidelines for Public Sector Enterprises
on CSR and has also contributed towards the development of the revised guidelines to be
implemented from April, 2013. He currently works with several of the State Owned
Enterprises in helping them a strategy on CSR especially with focus on Inclusive Growth,
Backward Districts Development and Sustainability. He is involved in the policy design and
its implementation strategies of a number of federal government’s key social sector
initiatives.
He has a Masters and Doctoral degree in Political Science from University of Mumbai, he is
a recipient of a number of awards – Performance based incentive to a young faculty at the
University of Mumbai in 2007, a Hubert Humphrey Fellow by the US India Education
Foundation for Higher Education Administrators (2010-11) and the co- recipient of the 1st
Obama –Singh Knowledge Initiative Grant on Higher Education for the project ‘ Capitalizing
Demographic Dividend : Talent Development in India and US’.
He has authored books, over a number of papers in journals of national and international
repute and close to 17 years of teaching and research experience. His research interests are
political process and institutions in India, party and party systems in India, Governance and
Public Policy making, more specifically related to Higher Education reforms in India.