Dr. Indira Ramarao

Provost - Social Sciences & Allied Faculties

Dr. R. Indira, Provost - Social Sciences & Allied Faculties, M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru was formerly Professor of Sociology and Director of the International Programs at the University of Mysore. She has served as Visiting Professor, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chair, University of Mysore; Visiting Fellow at Delhi University & Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Honorary Visiting Professor, Impact and Policy Research Institute, Delhi & Scholar-in- Residence @ Bangalore and Kuvempu Universities. She has guided twenty-seven students in their doctoral work and completed twenty-one research projects on themes of social relevance.

Prof. Indira is former President of the Indian Sociological Society(ISS) and has received from ISS, the Lifetime Achievement Award conferred on distinguished sociologists for their outstanding contribution to the discipline of sociology in the country. She is recipient of the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Mooknayak Award from the Karnataka Media Academy for her columns in Kannada media on the situations of marginalised groups, & awards for her research-based works on social issues from Kannada literary associations.

A two-time Fulbright Scholar, four-time Shastri Fellow and an ICSSR Senior Fellow, Dr Indira has written extensively both in Kannada and English in journals, theme-based books, newspaper columns and edited volumes on issues of social concern. A public sociologist , her research work with forest dependent communities in the Joida region of Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka State with a special focus on women's empowerment initiated many reforms in a region that had been sidelined by development projects for several decades. She has delivered more than five-hundred invited lectures in national & international platforms.