Board of Directors

                                                                                       Our Board

Prafulla Kumar Sahoo, Chairman

Mr. Prafulla Kumar Sahoo is a renowned Social Scientist and a Post Graduate degree holder from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). He is involved in the field of social development for more than 30 years.  Mr. Sahoo is the founder Chairman of CYSD a leading voluntary organisation in the state / country doing pioneering work for the cause of rural and tribal poor in Orissa.

Mr. Sahoo has several degrees from different distinguished institutions in India and abroad—Diploma in Monitoring & Evaluation from Centre for Development and Population Activities, CEDPA, USA: Certificate on Total Quality Management (TQM) – from Team Technology, USA; “Training on Strategic Planning & NGO Management & Development” from Cranfield School of International Management, United Kingdom.

Mr. Sahoo has been actively associated with the UN declared Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and has addressed at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on “Strengthening Civil Society in the context of and UN Reforms” at the 60th aniversary of the UN.

Mr. Sahoo has guided and completed several policy and action research studies on Education-National Literacy Mission, Youth, Women, Tribals Environment and Development domains.

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Prof. Anup Kumar Dash, Member Secretary

A progressive Development Sociologist, currently Professor of Sociology at Utkal University, Prof. Anup Dash is a vivacious academician who does not restrict himself to his varied off-campus engagements at national and international publications and reflexion forums across an extensive local-global spectrum, or organising and chairing international workshops. Having formerly held the Ambedkar Chair as Professor (a Chair created by the Government of India, Ministry of Welfare with a focus on studies and research on social exclusion and marginalization) at the National Institute of Social Work and Social Sciences, Prof. Dash has been working for more a decade now to build foundations for practitioner-driven Impact Assessment System among NGOs and Social Performance Management systems for MFIs through his intensive action and research engagements.

Prof. Anup Dash has worked as technical expert to the Government of Maldives (Ministry of Planning and Development and Ministry of Youth Affairs) in the Construction of the Youth Development Index, supported by the UNDP, and has recently completed a research on Improving the Impact of Microfinance on Poverty, funded by the Ford Foundation (USA) as part of a larger global initiative involving three British Universities and twenty MFIs. Prof. Dash was a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Micro-enterprise Development Institute (2001) at the Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester (USA). His current academic interest include: Non-State Actors and Development Alternatives, Non-Profits and Voluntary Sector Studies, Social Economy and Microfinance, Poverty, Gender and Social Exclusion, Peace and Non-violent Social Order.

 Concentrating on developing new foundations for Scholar-Practitioner Collaboration, and on evolving the University-NGO partnership for improved development practice, Prof. Anup Dash has been invited by the Institute of Social Banking (Germany) to speak and lead workshops at the Summer Schools of the European Bankers.

 With his belief in building “grounded theories”, Prof. Dash has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bremen (Germany), University of Osnabrueck (Germany), Arbetslivscentrum (Stockholms, Sweden), has been organizing workshops on Results-Based Accountability Systems at the CIVICUS annual global forums in Glasgow (Scotland) in collaboration with the Scottish Council of Voluntary organisations.

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Jagadananda, Member

Mr. Jagadnanda is a social activist and working for the development of tribal and rural poor in Orissa (India) through people-centred initiatives.  He has been leading CYSD for the last 27 years.

His leadership and dedication to improving the life of people has been widely recognised both by the State Government of Orissa and the Government of India, apart from various international bodies.  He has been instrumental in the bringing out of the first Social Watch Report titled ‘Citizens’ Report on Governance and Development’, and has authored many articles and books on the development sector.

He was a Member of the Joint Machinery for Collaborative Relationship between the Government and the Voluntary Sector - the official national forum, headed by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Govt. of India & Member of the Task Force on strengthening Government-NGO Partnership at the Planning & Coordination Department, Govt. of Orissa. He has been a member of the Civil Society Advisory Group of the Commonwealth Foundation - an inter-governmental organisation instrumental in bringing out the Guidelines for Good Policy and Practice for NGOs and participated at the Commonwealth Heads of the Government Meeting held at Edinburgh and Abuja, Auckland and Harare. He was the Founding Member, International Social Watch Group Uruguay-an NGO lobby group to monitor UN Commitments on Social Development & Gender equity & Member, Global Coordination Committee.

 Shri. Jagadananda was also a Member, NGO Delegation to World Summit for Social Development, United Nations, New York and Copenhagen, Denmark. He represented Indian Civil Society at the UN Conference on Financing for Development, Annual Meeting of the World Bank / IMF and Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting in UK and Brunei.

He was also the Chairman of Voluntary Action Network of India, the largest national network of development NGO’s.

He was a visiting senior fellow at CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, dealing with issues of legitimacy, transparency and accountability within civil society in close collaboration with Hauser Centre for Non-Profit based at Harvard University.

In July 2008, Jagadananda was nominated as the Orissa State Information Commissioner to advance the Right to Information agenda in the State.

Prafull Kumar Das, Member

He is working as a Senior Manager in a National Bank since last 25 years. Besides that, Shri Das is also actively involved in advancing the Micro Finance activities in the state.  Shri Das is also associated with a number of Civil Society organisations in which he contributes voluntarily. 

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Prof. Krutibas Ranasingh, Member

He is actively involved with a number of educational institutes and social service organisations. He is playing a key role in the All Orissa UGC Lectures Association (South and West zone).  Presently, he is working as Principal of a college under Utkal University.

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Mrs. Shanti Devi, Member

Mrs. Devi received the Jamanalal Bajaj Award in the year 1994. She was associated with the ‘Bhoodan’ movement and has also worked with Acharya Vinobaji. In 1961 Mrs. Shanti Devi became the Secretary of Utkal Navajeevan Mandal and in 1964 founded ‘Seva Samaj’, for imparting education to tribal girls. She became the President of Orissa Prohibition Congress. She is also associated with a number of Gandhian institutes.

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Smt. Tulasi Munda, (Padmashree), Member

Since the last 43 years, Ms. Tulasi Munda has been associated with tribal development activities and working towards the all round development of tribals.  She has received the prestigious PADMASHREE Award for her relentless work for the development of tribals. She is a strong supporter of Gandhian philosophy. She has been widely recognised as a great tribal leader.

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Prof. (Smt) Prabhat Nalini Das, Member