Dr. Prasanta RAY, the president of the Calcutta Research Group (CRG), is currently an Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Political Science, Presidency College, Kolkata; Honorary Visiting Professor, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata; Guest, Professor, Department of Sociology, Calcutta University; and Member, CRG. E-mail: pr_forever@rediffmail.com

Dr. Manish K. JHA , the vice president of the CRG, is Professor and Dean of School of Social Work at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He teaches courses on Community Organisation and Development Practice, Social Action and Movement and Social Policy, Planning and Programmes. His research interests include issues of development and governance, urban poverty and migration, social justice, social exclusion and human rights. He had authored a book Human Rights: Agencies and Agenda (2003) and co-edited a book Traversing Bihar: Politics of Development and Social Justice (2014). He has authored several papers on Food security, Social Action, Marginality and Justice, Disaster and Development, Politics of social justice, etc. He has been recipient of Commonwealth Academic Fellowship (2009) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, UK; Erasmus Mundus Academic Fellowship (2011) at University College Dublin, Ireland; UKIERI visiting Fellowship (2013) at Durham University, UK and Palme Professorship (2013) at Gothenburg University, Sweden. He is a member of several research organisations and has been activelyengaged with development practice, policy advocacy, and relief and rehabilitation work in post disaster situation.
Email: manishj@tiss.edu ; jhamanishk19@gmail.com

Dr. Sibaji Pratim BASU, the secretary of CRG, is Associate Professor of Political Science at Sri Chaitanya College, West Bengal, India. A regular contributor to academic journals and popular dailies, periodicals and news channels, he specializes in Modern Indian Political Thought and Political and Socialist Thought. He is also interested in issues of forced migration in contemporary South Asia and ‘sustainable rights’ of the people in the Indian context. His book, The Poet and The Mahatma: Engagement with Nationalism and Internationalism (Progressive Publishers, Kolkata, 2009) has received much critical acclaim. He is also the editor of The Fleeing People of South Asia: Selections from Refugee Watch and Politics in Hunger Regime (with Geetisha Dasgupta).
For details of his publications CLICK HERE

Mr. V RAMASWAMY ,the Treasurer of CRG, is a Calcutta-based business executive. After completing his formal education in economics in Calcutta and higher education in the U.K, Ramaswamy entered public action in 1984, working with and for the labouring poor in Calcutta. He was a founding member of Chhinnamul Sramajibi Adhikar Samiti, a city-wide platform of squatter organisations, social and political activists and workers’ unions. Ramaswamy was also associated with Unnayan, an important social action group in Calcutta; the National Campaign for Housing Rights, which brought together activists and campaigners from across the country and was successful in advancing state housing policy; and TARU, an Indian research and consulting network. In 1995, on behalf of Unnayan and Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, he developed a proposal for comprehensive inner city renewal in the blighted canal-side Beliaghata area through basti redevelopment and squatter rehabilitation. He has undertaken research studies for the Govt of India and international agencies like the World Bank and DfID, and was Social Development Coordinator of the Calcutta Environmental Management Strategy & Action Plan, a project of the Dept of Environment, Govt of West Bengal during 1995-97. In 1997, he established the grassroots organisation, Howrah Pilot Project, in Priya Manna Basti, a century-old jute workers' settlement in  Shibpur, Howrah. HPP runs Talimi Haq School, a non-formal learning centre for poor children, and works to build awareness, capabilities and leadership for community development among slum youth. Ramaswamy has also worked as a social planner at the Jerusalem Institute for Urban Environment and taught economics at St Xavier's College, Calcutta and at Calcutta International School, and urban sociology at the Dept of Architecture, Jadavpur University and at the Centre for Urban Economic Studies, Calcutta University. He has written and lectured extensively over the years on issues of Kolkata’s slums and squatters, among others. He was an active blogger on Cuckoo’s Call. Since 2005, Ramaswamy has been translating the Bengali anti-establishment and little magazine writer, Subimal Misra. His translations, The Golden Gandhi Statue from America and Wild Animals Prohibited were published in 2010 and 2015 respectively. He was a recipient of the Sarai fellowship in 2013, during which he translated Those Days, an account of Kolkata during 1970-71, the era of violent politics and state terror, and been invited to writing residencies in Sangam House (India), Ledig House (USA) and Toji Foundation (Korea). Email:rama.sangye@gmail.com

Dr. Paula BANERJEE, Vice Chancellor, The Sanskrit College and University and the former Honorary Director  of CRG, is an expert on Indo-American relations and studied in Cincinnati, Ohio. As part of her current work on borders and women, she has authored numerous papers on women in conflict situations in northeast India.  She is a full time faculty member in the Department of South and South East Asian Studies, University of Calcutta. She has authored a book on Indo-US relations, titled When Ambitions Clash (2003), and has co-authored a book, Women in Society and Politics in France. Dr. Banerjee is the recipient of a number of international fellowships including the Advanced Taft Fellowship (1991-1993) and has been the recipient of the WISCOMP Fellow Of Peace Award (2001).  Currently she is working on women in peace movements in South Asia and on borders and boundaries in the region. She is now the editorial board member of the Refugee Watch. Email: paula@mcrg.ac.in

For details of his publications, lectures, interviews and some of the courses offered by her CLICK HERE

Dr. Byasdeb DASGUPTA, is a associate professor, Department of Economics, Kalyani University Nadia, West Bengal. Email: byasdeb@gmail.com

Dr. Samita SEN is Professor, School of Women Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Email: samitasen@yahoo.co.uk / sensamita@yahoo.co.uk

Dr. Nasreen Chowdhory is currently an Assistant Professor, at Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. She has done PhD in political Science from McGill University, and Masters and MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.  She has published several research papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals such as Refugee Watch A South Asia Journal on Forced Migration, Journal for the Centre of South Asian Strategic Studies among others. Presently she is guest editor of a special issue on “Displacement – a ‘state of exception’ and beyond: Issues and Perspectives in Forced Migration in South Asia” under review with the International Journal of Migration and Border Studies. She was awarded Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship during 1999-2003 and also a recipient of JRD Tata Award in 1998-99. She is also a member of International Studies Association, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, International Studies Association, Canadian Association of Forced Migration Studies, American Political Science Association and an Executive Board Member of International Association for the Study of Forced Migration. In the past, she worked as Assistant Professor in the Asian University for Women and Concordia University and McMaster University. Email: nchowdhory@gmail.com