Jos Chathukulam is the former Professor of Sri. Ramakrishna Hegde Chair on Decentralization & Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) Bengaluru & currently, Director, Centre for Rural Management, Kottayam, Kerala, India, and a national-level expert on Decentralized Governance and Rural Development. He has wide fieldwork experience throughout the country. He is associated with several consultative committees of the National Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change. He also has an equally good record of publications. His publications have appeared in World Development, UNU- WIDER, International Journal of Rural Management, Public Administration and Development, Journal of Health Management, Asian Journal of Women Studies, Journal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), Gandhi Marg, Mainstream Weekly, Indian Public Policy Review, Journal of Rural Development, Man and Development, Indian Journal of Public Administration, and several others. He was one of the key organizers of the People’s Plan Campaign in Kerala and Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) in other states in India. He had administered and evaluated 176 projects covering different parts of the world, including Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, Sudan. He has done extensive research on decentralization and local governance across Indian states, Latin America, and Africa. He is an expert of Devolution Index which is used to compare the rate of decentralization across the Indian states. Recently, he has co-edited two books, Challenges to Local Governance in the Pandemic Era: Perspectives from South Asia and Beyond (Cambridge Scholars Publishing UK, 2022) and Deepening Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on Decentralisation, Co-operativism and Self-Managed Development (Routledge India, 2023). Email: joschathukulam@gmail.com
