Deepti Srivastava
Coordinator – Research Ignus
Deepti did her doctoral research on the education of destitute urban children and worked in several NGOs before being closely involved with the Centre for Equity Studies and its Rainbow Homes programme. With Ignus Pahal, she has been responsible for the research and documentation involved in our various projects, leading the large-scale assessment conducted recently across UP. All her work is informed by a firm belief that all children do well when you trust their capabilities and support them at critical junctures.
Gurjot Singh Sidhu
Member, Group Ignus
Gurjot started his career in the education sector as a graduate student in Physics with research interests in social sciences and computational modelling. Over the last two years, in the bracing company of his colleagues at Ignus, he has forayed into field implementation of education quality improvement programmes driven by cold facts and indisputable anecdotal evidence. At Manan Books, Gurjot writes articles, jokes and poems for our learning magazines and shares his considered opinion on the content. He also dons the all-important garb of the webmaster, keeping this website running and the social media talking. While not single-handedly bringing down the average age of the organisation, he makes sure that all the team members crack a laugh at least once a day.
Manisha Chaudhry
Director, Manan Books
Manisha has many years of experience as a publishing professional and in the social development sector. She began working with India's first feminist publishing house 'Kali for Women' in 1986 and has been a consultant to a range of organizations in the development sector and the UN. An editor and translator fluent in Hindi and English, her books have been published by Kali for Women, Oxford University Press, Zubaan Books, Niyogi Books and Pratham Books.After several years of working on gender issues, she moved to the primary education sector with a view to ensuring equitable access to quality education for all children. From 2004-2017, Manisha was Editorial Head, at Pratham Books, a not for profit multilingual children's publisher. She is a severally published author of children’s books and has translated numerous others.
Manisha was a founder trustee of Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival. She spearheaded the initiative of Bookaroo in the City and the Children’s Outreach of the Jaipur Literature Festival. She has been Adviser to the Kahani Festival and JUMPSTART, a children’s content congress run by the German Book Office. She is an invited member to the Publishing Committee of FICCI. She has been in the forefront of many new initiatives to democratize the joy of reading and books and improve access to holistic education. She is co-founder Manan Books.
She enjoys listening to new languages, Indian classical music and theatre. Her idea of a perfect day is to sit in the winter sun and share an orange with her dog. She is also trying hard to learn to read Urdu.
Mukesh Kumar Aggarwal
Head of Production, Manan Books
Mukesh has more than 26 years of experience in design and production. He has handled all aspects of publication, from costing to supervising the flow of jobs from inception to delivery. He has created more than 2500 children books in multiple Indian languages in the last 15 years. Many of the titles supervised by him have won FIP awards for Excellence in Production. With rich experience in colour-correcting illustrations and getting the best reproduction out of available material, Mukesh has handled all types of design and printing jobs in multiple Indian languages which include timeline charts, newspapers, magazines, dictionaries, travel guides, educational books, children’s books, and much more.
He has specialized knowledge of handling print jobs using Unicode fonts and eco-friendly printing options. Over the years, Mukesh has developed expertise in budgeting for cost effective production of multilingual books. He is co-founder Manan Books. When he is away from his computer, Mukesh is a dedicated foodie who can lead you to the best dahi badas and samosas in Chandni Chowk on any day of the week.
Tushar Tamhane
Member, Group Ignus
Tushar is a Learner in the domain of school education by choice since 1985, a Researcher by training and a Counsellor by compulsion. A recipient of the Commonwealth Award for Science, Technology and Mathematics Teachers (CASTME 1992 - 93), he has taught Science and Mathematics in some of the most creative schools in India. Tushar has mentored and coached teachers and school leaders ( having set up new K – 12 schools for a corporate group across the country) and nurses a passion to be with risk-takers at school sites. He is engaging presently with educators, ranging from government school teachers and officials, to private school owners and administrators, to international experts. Deeply reflective in his practice, Tushar also conjures up maths puzzles and riddles on request, with a smile.
Shubhangi Bhide
Member, Group Ignus
Shubhangi has a PhD from the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay, and has done post-doctoral studies in Science Education at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai. She has since worked with NGOs supporting school education, at both on-field and systemic levels.
Shubhangi believes that reading can transform perspectives, attitudes and lives. Being an avid reader, she is also trying her hand at writing She feels it is never too early -or too late- to enter the magical world of words. Invigorated by teaching and research, Shubhangi wishes that she had not limited herself only to academic books for a large part of her life. She is making up for lost time now and she shares her story often as a cautionary tale! For Shubhangi, there is no medium as unassuming and subtle as a book to stimulate the imagination, sense of discovery and creativity among children and adults. Shubhangi is thrilled to be a part of Manan Books to provide interesting reading and fun activities for children, where effective learning simply happens as a bonus spin-off!
Subir Shukla
Principal Coordinator, Group Ignus
Subir lived in a remote tribal village (1985-92, with Eklavya, MP) while working on primary education. He was later Editor, National Centre for Children’s Literature, National Book Trust India (1993-95) before joining MHRD as Chief Consultant, Curriculum and Textbook Development, for DPEP (1995-1998). He worked independently consulting for several state governments, NGOs and national governments in Asia and Africa on improving the quality of elementary education. In 2003, Group Ignus was formed (later registered in 2013 as two companies: a for-profit, IgnusERG Education Resource Private Limited as well as a non-profit, Ignus Pahal). From 2009-11, Subir was Educational Quality Advisor to MHRD and led the development of the Quality Framework for the Right to Education. Subir is also the author of children’s books published by Tulika and NBT, some of which have seen multiple reprints.Calligraphy, badminton, story-telling - three things Subir has been deeply involved in and wishes he did a lot more of!
Surendra Prasad Singh
Coordinator – Programmes, Group Ignus
A national resource person with twenty years’ experience and former Headmaster of an upper primary school, Surendra ran a magazine for children and was selected as a member of the State Resource Group for elementary curriculum and textbook development in UP. After taking early retirement, Surendra became one of the founder members of Group Ignus.He has worked with Group Ignus in over a dozen states in India, on curriculum, textbooks, teacher training and institutional development. Using his vast experience , he has supported various states to develop textbooks and reading materials for students.
Surendra also ran a successful library programme in Varanasi to promote learning among children though libraries. He has conducted numerous workshops for writers, especially those developing materials for learning contexts of children from low-income families. When he is not deeply immersed in a project, Surendra is always game for a new challenge whether it is making up a board game, writing a poem or whipping up a great meal.
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