Prof. Pramod Kumar is Chairperson, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), and Centre for     Advanced     Studies   in     Social     Science    and Management (CASSM), Chandigarh. Prof. Kumar received his Ph.D from Panjab University on Violence in Indian Politics. He became Director of Institute for Development and Communication in 1992. And remained as Chairperson of Punjab Governance Reforms Commission from 2009 to 2017 and also Chairperson of Haryana Governance Reforms Authority (HGRA) from January, 2017 to 2022. He,   was  Chief Advisor, Governance   Reforms Uttarakhand,from2022-2023. His work  focuses  on 3 interrelated themes in the domain of Social Development, Citizens’ Social Security and Safety Nets; Politics of Development for Conflict Management and Resolution; and Practice of Democracy through Empirical Methodologies and Analysis of Public Policy. He is a recipient of the prestigious Homi Bhabha Award for the year 1988-1990. He has held numerous visiting assignments, including visiting professor the Legal Studies Department, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Conflict and Peace Research, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Beginning with his first work on Violence and Indian Politics Prof. Kumar’s research interests include Ethnic Divides in a Multicultural Society, Political Economy of Punjab, Peace Building and Conflict Management in South Asia, Post Conflict Reintegration, Politics of Deprivation and Discrimination with Special Reference to Dalits, Policing in a Multicultural Democratic Societies and Combating Terrorism with Implications for Citizen Rights. He has conducted a number of field-based studies on Good Governance and Law Enforcement, Coalition Politics in India, Rural Suicides in Punjab, and Quality of Urban Governance.

Prof. Kumar is a Member of Transcend, a Peace and Development Network for Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means, Senate Member of Panjab University, Chandigarh. In addition, he is on the editorial board of some of the academic journals.

Research engagements include publications with recent works being The Idea of New India: Three Essays in Defense of Critical Thought, Electoral Politics in India: Contextualising Changing Contours (2010); South Asia Predicament: Hostage to Conflicts and Peace Deficit (2008), Polluting Sacred Faith (1992), and co-authored Mapping Criminal Justice Delivery in India (2009), Victims of Militancy (2001), Punjab Crisis : Context and Trends, 1984 and Towards Understanding Communalism (1992) (edited). He has contributed a series of research articles on Electoral Politics in India in books on Indian politics i.e. 1998 Elections: Regionalism, Hindutva and State Politics (1999), India’s 1999 Elections and 20th Century Politics (2003) and India’s 2004 Elections: Grassroots and National Perspectives (2007), India’s 2014 Elections: A Modiled Sweep (2015) edited by Paul Wallace and Ramashray Roy and published by Sage; Coalition Politics in India (2014) edited by E. Sridharan published by Academic Foundation; and Punjab Politics: Contesting Identities and Forging Coalitions published in EPW, January 2017. He has also written and contributed research articles on Dalit Identity, Violence and Terrorism, Coalition Politics in edited books.

He has also produced resource material and tools for capacity building for resolution of conflicts. This includes Model Plan of Action for Communial Riots Management, Package on Social harmony (including handbook, facilitator guide and videos), Handbook on Conflict Resolution: Strategies and Skills for South Asia, Module on Conflict Resolution for Distance Learning, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, Manual on Approaches, Strategies and Skills for Resolution of Conflicts, and Package on Institutionalising Community Policing in Punjab (handbook, resource material.

He has also provided international forums for Master Class in Critical Research, Methods and Methodologies: Social Sciences, Religions and History (2019), International Conference on Governance for the Margins (2018), Citizen-Centric Governance (2015), Policing Terrorism (2009), Identifying Peace Issues for Research in South Asia 1 | P a g e and courses on Conflict Resolution between 20052007.

In recent years Prof. Kumar’s participation in professional forums includes presentations on ‘Unfolding Challenges of Democracy in India’, in Asia and African studies (ASAFAS) Kyoto University, Japan in 2019, Dalit Identity Architecture in International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University, The Netherlands in 2012, Rule of Law Indicators at Vera Institute of Justice, New York (2008); Police Accountability Spectrum and Security Sector Reforms in European University, Budapest (2007), Police Complaints System in Nigeria in CLEEN Foundation, Lagos (2006) and in a number of seminars organised by various universities and research organisations. He has also actively participated in workshops on issues relating to Conflicts in South Asia, Religious Violence and Peace Building in Uppsala University, Sweden; University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, and University of Victoria, Canada and in various other forums.

He has also provided international forums for Policing Terrorism (2009), Identifying Peace Issues for Research in South Asia and courses on Conflict Resolution between 2005 and 2007.

He was invited to make a presentation on Civil Services Day by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India in Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi on ‘Addressing the Challenges of Public Delivery’, 2013. He was invited by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India to deliver talk on Governance Reforms, in the Officers’ Retreat In National Institute of Financial Management, Faridabad, 2013.

He is also a regular contributor to popular journals and newspapers on themes relevant to contemporary social and political reality. Prof. Kumar has contributed more than 400 write-ups in various newspapers and magazines. He currently writes columns in newspapers like The Hindustan Times, The Tribune, etc

Contact: 

Institute for Development and Communication (IDC) Sector 38 A, Chandigarh – 160014 (India) Tel. +91-172-4660038, 2625941 Fax. +91-172-2625942 E-mail: krpramod.idc@gmail.com   Website: www.idcindia.org