- Mihir Shah
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Mihir Shah Born November 25, 1956
GujaratResidence New Delhi, India Nationality Indian Mihir Shah (Gujarati: मिहिर शाह (born November 25, 1956)) is a renowned Indian Economist, policy maker and social worker.[1] He is currently the member of the Planning Commission of India and is the youngest ever member and the first ever from the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.[2] He is also the secretary and the co-founder of Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS), a large and successful grassroots non-government organization that fosters water and food security in the dry lands of India having establishment at Bagli block in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh. Currently as the member of the Planning Commission, in-charge of Rural Development and Water Resources portfolios, and the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
Contents
Education
Mihir Shah graduated with a B.A. degree in Economics (first class) in 1976 from St. Stephens' college, where he was also awarded the K.C.Nag Economics Prize. In 1978, he received an M.A. degree in Economics from Delhi School of Economics with a Merit Scholarship. He also received an M.Phil. degree and a Ph.D. degree (for a much acclaimed dissertation) in Applied Economics from Centre for Development Studies (affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru University), Trivandrum in 1979 and 1984 respectively.
Career
After completing his PhD, Shah taught for a few years at the Centre for Development Studies. He then resigned to travel extensively in rural and tribal India in an effort to understand grass root problems and formulate an alternative model of social and economic development. In the meantime, he worked a variety of issues related to agrarian change, rural development, tribal welfare and water management which included work with NABARD as well as issues in the Narmada Valley Project.
After several years of grassroots experience, he co-founded Samaj Pragati Sahyog (SPS), a very successful non-government organization based in town of Bagli in the district of Dewas in Madhya Pradesh. SPS addresses issues in tribal dry lands of India, ranging from unemployment, poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, governance, social gender bias among others and more generally helps the poor to articulate their needs. It partners with the Indian government, state governments, local panchayats, donors and various local organizations to enhance the delivery of public services in smaller towns and villages. SPS works across million acres of land across 72 districts in 12 states of India, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Orissa and Bihar and has immensely improved the living conditions of people in these areas.[3] Mihir Shah, along with their colleagues penned their experiences in a book titled "India's Drylands: Tribal Societies and Development through Environmental Regeneration",which was published by the Oxford University Press in 1998.[4] It primarily deals with the macro-economic significance of watershed programmes for food security and employment guarantee in India.
He has also played a significant role shaping policies and in the development of tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh. He was the honorary director of the "Tribal Watershed Development Project", carried out for the Tribal Welfare Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh between 1992 and 1996. He was a Consultant in the Directorate of Institutional Finance, Government of Madhya Pradesh, for the preparation of Madhya Pradesh Tribal Development Project, Bilaspur Division, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Rome in 1997. He coauthored one of three chapters in Human Development report of the state in 1998. He was the honorary Project Leader of the "Sir Dorabji Tata Trust Revolving Fund", for carrying out a range of human development and income-generating activities in the 90 village tribal enclave, Bagli tehsil, Dewas between 1997 and 2003.
More recently Shah has been involved with various committees and bodies at the national level. He was the Advisor for the Film on "CAPART Watershed Development Guidelines", produced jointly by Samaj Pragati Sahayog and Riverbank Studios for CAPART, New Delhi (1999). He was the principal investigator of "Towards Sustainable Livelihood Security in Tribal Drylands Through Watershed Development and Empowerment", Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (1999-01). He also served as a member in the consultative Team of "Strengthening CAPART's Watershed Development Division", a Work and Information Systems Study on the Watershed Development Division of CAPART, aimed at setting up transparent and responsive systems for administration of the division (2000–02).
From 2002 to 2009, Shah was the Adviser to the Commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court of India in the Right to Food case. He was the honorary Adviser to the Technical Committee on Watershed Programmes in India (Parthasarathy Committee) set up by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India (2005–06) during which he was primarily responsible for drafting this landmark report.
In 2007, he co-founded the National Consortium of Civil Society Organizations that provides resources and support for the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). In 2006, he was appointed as a member of the Working Group on Effective Rural Technology Delivery for XIth Five Year Plan. He was also part of the Hameed Committee set up by Prime Minister of India (Manmohan Singh) in 2005 to inquire into capart's functioning and suggest measures to improve it. He also served as a member in several committees and governing bodies in the state government of Madhya Pradesh during these years.
Awards
1. 2004—Social Entrepreneurship Award of American India Foundation, New York
2. 2004—Doreen Mashler Award of International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for Outstanding Contribution to Integrated Watershed Management for Sustainable Development
3. 2000 – Ashok Gondhia Manav Sewa Puraskar of Young Men's Gandhian Association, Gujarat, presented by Shri Sadiq Ali, Chairperson, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, New Delhi
4. 1996—Diwaliben Mohanlal Mehta Award for Outstanding Social Service presented by former President of India, Shri R.Venkataraman (Chairperson of Jury - Former Chief Justice of India, Shri P.N.Bhagwati).Articles and publications
Besides deep commitment to the social sector by working at the ground and the policy level, he contribution has also been through his acclaimed writing in a variety of fields like grass-roots awakening, agrarian reforms, public policy and philosophy. Here is a non-exhaustive list of his articles.
Economic and Political Weekly
Shah, Mihir. 2010. The Power of Uncertainty: Reflections on the Nature of Transformational Initiatives. Economic and Political Weekly, VOL 45 No. 25 June 19–25, 2010. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/14888.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2009. Structures of Power in Indian Society: A response. Economic and Political weekly. VOL 43 No. 46 November 15–21, 2008. see http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/12872.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2008. Radicalism of NREGA. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 43 No. 23 June 07 - June 13, 2008. see http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/12339.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2008. Rainfed Authority and Watershed Reforms. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 43 No. 12 and 13 March 22 - April 4, 2008. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/12090.pdf
Ambasta, Pramathesh, Vijay Shankar, P.S. and Shah, Mihir. 2008. Two Years of NREGA: The Road Ahead. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 43 No. 8 February 23–29, 2008. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/11979.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2007. Employment Guarantee, Civil Society and Indian Democracy. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 42 No. 45 and 46 November 10–23, 2007. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/11233.pdf
Shah,Mihir,Rao,Rangu and Vijay Shankar,P.S. 2007. Rural Credit in 20th Century India: Overview of History and Perspectives. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 42 No. 15 April 14–20, 2007. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/10500.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2006. Reforms for Watersheds. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 41 No. 49 December 9–15, 2006. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/10039.pdf
Shah Mihir. 2006. Towards Reforms. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 41 No. 27 and 28 July 08 - July 21, 2006. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/492.pdf
Vijay Shankar,P.S.,Rao,Rangu, Banerji,Nivedita and Shah,Mihir. 2006. Government ‘Schedule of Rates’: Working against Rural Labour. Economic and Political Weekly. http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/2008.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2005. Ecology, Exclusion and Reform in Madhya Pradesh. Economic and Political weekly. VOL 40 No. 48 November 26 - December 2, 2005. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/1394.pdf
Jain,Jyotsna and Shah, Mihir. 2005. Antyodaya Anna Yojana and Mid-day Meals in Madhya Pradesh. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 40 No. 48 November 26 - December 2, 2005. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/1400.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2005. Saving the Employment Guarantee Act. Economic and Political Weekly. VOL 40 No. 7 February 12–18, 2005. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/165.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2005. First You Push Them In, Then You Throw Them Out. Economic and Political Weekly.VOL 40 No. 47 November 19–25, 2005. http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/1364.pdf
Shah, Mihir. 2005. NREGA: A Historic Opportunity. Economic and Political weekly. VOL 39 No. 50 December 11–17, 2004. See http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/8464.pdf
Books/chapters in books
Shah,Mihir and Vijay Shankar,P.S. 2006. Watershed Reforms in India. In R. Parthsarathy and S. Iyengar (eds) (2006): New Development Paradigms and Challenges for Western and Central India (2 vols), Concept, New Delhi.
Shah, Mihir Shah and Vijayshankar,P.S. 2003. Land Reforms in Madhya Pradesh: Redefining the Agenda. In Praveen Jha (ed.) Land Reforms in India, Sage Publications, New Delhi.
Mihir Shah, D. Banerji, P.S.Vijayshankar and Pramathesh Ambasta, India’s Drylands: Tribal Societies and Development Through Environmental Regeneration, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1998.
Media articles
Shah, Mihir. 2009. Taking goals of NREGA-I forward. The Hindu. August 14, 2009. See http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2466.ece. Last retrieved on November 14, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2009. UPA’s Challenge: Rural Governance Reform. The Hindu. May 28, 2009. See http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/28/stories/2009052855230800.htm. Last retrieved on November 14, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2009. Multiplier Accelerator Synergy in NREGA. The Hindu. April 30, 2009. See http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/30/stories/2009043055630800.htm. last retrieved on November 14, 2010
Shah, Mihir. 2009. Direct Cash Transfer No Panacea by Itself. The Hindu, September 20, 2009. see http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/20/stories/2008092055751000.htm. Last retrieved on November 14, 2010.
Shah, Mihir and Ambasta,Pramathesh. 2008. NREGA: Andhra Pradesh shows the way. The Hindu, September 8, 2008. See http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/08/stories/2008090856271000.htm. Last retrieved on November 2009.
Shah, Mihir. 2008. The Real Radicalism of NREGA. The Hindu, May 22, 2008. See http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/22/stories/2008052253871000.htm. Last retrieved from Nov 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2008. Governance Reform Key to NREGA Success. The Hindu. March 14, 2008. see http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/03/14/stories/2008031455581000.htm. Last retrieved on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2007. The Crowning of the Moneylender. The Hindu, September 1, 2007. See http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/01/stories/2007090155971000.htm, last retrieved on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2006. Killing Fields of 21st Century India. The Hindu. December 12, 2006. See http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/18/stories/2006121803471000.htm, last retrieved on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2006. Gandhigiri—A Philosophy for Our Times. The Hindu. September 28, 2006. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/09/28/stories/2006092802241000.htm.Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2006. Delivering on the Employment Guarantee. The Hindu. May 10, 2006. See http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/04/stories/2006050404561000.htm.Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2006. A National Authority for Rainfed India. The Hindu. April 19, 2006. See http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/19/stories/2006041913381000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2005. Employment Guarantee—MPs Lead the Way. The Hindu. August 10, 2005. See http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/10/stories/2005081005851100.htm. Last accessed on November 19. 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2005. Governance reform for India's forests. See http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/20/stories/2005052000431000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2004. A Workable Right to Employment. August 24, 2004. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/08/24/stories/2004082402251000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2004. Good Economics, Good Politics. The Hindu. May 20, 2004. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/05/20/stories/2004052001411000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2003. Nurseries of Alienation. The Hindu. December 27, 2003. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/12/30/stories/2003123000741000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2003. A forgotten people . The Hindu. Jul 30, 2003. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/07/30/stories/2003073001441000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2003. The Baiga predicament. The Hindu. June 20, 2003. http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/06/20/stories/2003062000201000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2003. Why attack the food subsidy?. The Hindu. January 24, 2003. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/24/stories/2003012400041000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Vijayshankar,P.S. and Shah,Mihir. 2002. Drought as Teacher. The Hindu. October 22, 2002. See http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2002/10/22/stories/2002102200041000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir and Banerji, Debashis. 2002. Bt Cotton—Bitter Harvest. The Hindu. August 20, 2002. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/08/24/stories/2002082400081000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir and Banerji, Nivedita. 2002. The Hindu. June 29, 2002. http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/06/29/stories/2002062900701000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2002. Water Policy Blues. Water Policy Blues. The Hindu. June 3, 2002. See http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2002/06/07/stories/2002060700101000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2002. The Adivasi Question - II. The Hindu. April 3, 2002. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/04/03/stories/2002040300291000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2002. Rethinking watershed strategy. The Hindu. Jan 29, 2002. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/01/29/stories/2002012900040800.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir and Banerji,Debashis. 2001. GM crops and the world market. The Hindu. December 20, 2001. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/12/20/stories/2001122001261000.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Banerji,Debashis and Shah,Mihir. 2001. Should India say yes to Bt crops?. The Hindu. September 6, 2001. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/09/06/stories/05062524.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Banerji,Debashis and Shah, Mihir. 2001. Fluid genome - a paradigm shift. The Hindu. August 6, 2001. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/08/06/stories/05062523.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir. 2000. Resolving the Narmada Conflict. The Hindu. December 2, 2000. See http://www.hinduonnet.com/2000/12/02/stories/05022523.htm. Last accessed on November 19, 2010.
Shah, Mihir and Vijayshankar, P.S. 1997. Water Crisis in Dewas: Is Rainfall the Culprit?. Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 32, No. 24 (Jun. 14-20, 1997), pp. 1416–1425. See http://www.jstor.org/stable/4405513
Shah, Mihir. 1985. The Kaniatchi Form of Labour. Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 20, No. 30 (Jul. 27, 1985), pp. PE65-PE78. See http://archive.epw.in/data/PDF/002230_EPW_27_7_1985_Vol_XX_No_30/REVIEW%20OF%20POLITICAL%20ECONOMY_%20The%20Kaniatchi%20Form%20of%20Labour.pdf
References
- ^ "Mihir Shah appointed member of Planning Commission". The Hindu (Chennai, India). June 7, 2009. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200906071606.htm.
- ^ "Mihir Shah appointed member of Planning Commission". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 7 June 2009. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200906071606.htm. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
- ^ http://planningcommission.gov.in/aboutus/history/mirishah.htm
- ^ Mihir Shah, D. Banerji, P.S. Vijayshankar and Pramathesh Ambasta, India’s Drylands: Tribal Societies and Development Through Environmental Regeneration, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1998.
External links
Categories:- Indian economists
- 1956 births
- Living people
- People from Madhya Pradesh
- St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni
- Delhi School of Economics alumni
- Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni
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