Ashwini Chhatre

Associate Professor, Economics and Public Policy
Chair - IRB; Executive Director - BIPP

Email ashwini_chhatre@isb.edu

Website https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5VNx4fAAAAAJ

Overview

Ashwini Chhatre is an interdisciplinary scholar with research interests broadly centred on the dynamic cross-scale interactions between governance, economic development, and environmental protection. Ashwini relocated to India from the US in 2014 to serve on the faculty at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He spent 13 years in the US, five of which were in Graduate School at Duke University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science. Ashwini was the first Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science at Harvard University in 2006-07, before joining the faculty in the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Between his BA in Economics from University of Delhi in 1990 and the start of PhD at Duke, Ashwini spent 11 years working in different parts of India, mostly as a community organizer and social activist working on issues related to natural resources like land, forests, and water. A background in Economics, graduate training in Political Science, and long-standing engagement with scholarship in Geography, Anthropology, Landscape Ecology, and Environmental History ensure that his research will never be confined to a single discipline! Ashwini’s main research interests lie in the study of the intersection of democracy with environment and development, with a focus on decentralized forest governance, climate change vulnerability and adaptation, and multifunctional agriculture. Over the last 20 years, the scope of this research projects have covered the entire spectrum from household-level to global analysis, and have continuously bridged research, policy, and practice. Ashwini was the founding Editor-in-Chief of World Development Perspectives during 2016-19, served as the Senior Editor of Conservation Letters during 2009-2014, and his research has been published as one book and several articles in Science, PNAS, and other leading journals. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Bharti Institute of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business while serving on its faculty as an Associate Professor of Public Policy.

Grants

Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and Dutch Research Council (NWO) - Bright spots of climate-smart agriculture: Learning from high-performing farming systems

Experience

Academic

  • 2019 - Present: Chair, Institutional Review Board (IRB), Indian School of Business
  • 2017 - Present: Executive Director, Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business
  • 2017 - Present: Associate Professor of Public Policy, Indian School of Business
  • 2015 - 2020: Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2017 - 2019: Executive Director, Digital Identity Research Initiative, Indian School of Business
  • 2014 - 2017: Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Professor, Indian School of Business
  • 2013 - 2015: Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2011 - 2015: Affiliate Faculty, Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2009 - 2015: Faculty Fellow, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana
  • 2007 - 2013: Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2010 - 2011: Associate Fellow, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2006 - 2007: Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science, Center for International Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Professional

In the Media

August 8, 2023: ISB signs knowledge partnership MoU with Goa, The Hindu.

July 7, 2023: ISB launches two new courses, Deccan Chronicle.

March 4, 2023: Himachal to collaborate with ISB for policy inputs in bio-energy sector: CM, Business Standard.

March 4, 2023: HP govt to collaborate with ISB for policy inputs in bioenergy sector: CM Sukhu, Hindustan Times.

March 4, 2023: Himachal Pradesh to collaborate with ISB for policy inputs in bio-energy sector: CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Times of India.

January 4, 2023: Meet focussed on facets of public policy, road ahead opens, The Hindu.

June , 2023: Financial inclusion helps tackle climate risks in semi-arid regions, The New Indian Express.

April 11, 2023: Indian School of Business, Odisha govt sign MoU to strengthen nutrition outcomes, The Print.

March 4, 2023: Himachal to start pilot project for bio-energy production from pine needles, bamboo: CM, The New Indian Express.

May , 2023: Access to financial services can help rural India cope with climate risks, Down To Earth.

March 4, 2023: Himachal to collaborate with ISB for policy inputs in bio-energy sector: CM, ANI news.

July , 2023: Jowar is more resilient to climate change, The New Indian Express.

December 22, 2022: ISB hosts meet on sustainable forest economy, The Hindu.

December 13, 2022: MoA&FW to collaborate with ISB-led consortium in agriculture-nutrition, Plunge Daily.

December 4, 2022: ISB, Odisha Govt Ink Pact For Women’s Empowerment & Rural Prosperity, Pragati Vadi.

October 25, 2022: Can marketing wild produce rejuvenate India’s forests?, Ecobusiness.

October 20, 2022: ISB joins forces with AAK for a Sustainable Forest Economy., Plunge Daily.

October 6, 2022: Phantom Forests: Why Ambitious Tree Planting Projects Are Failing, e360.yale.

September 26, 2022: The forest economy must be nurtured., The Hindu Business Line.

September 20, 2022: Indian School of Business's innovation, taking markets to remote villages to strengthen forest economy, Jagran.

September 17, 2022: From e-commerce to fuel, how forests can foster a carbon-neutral future., The Economic Times.

September , 2021: Effects of climate, agriculture, air quality combine to impact public health, India Today.

September , 2021: Climate change, pollution, agripractices causing illnesses, The Times of India.

December 30, 2021: ISB, Jharkhand govt to work on boosting forest economy, Times of India.

October 21, 2020: Forests: A Profitable Restoration Mantra, Business Line.

September 29, 2020: Labour Shortage May Hit Biodiversity in Western Ghats: Study, The Tiimes of India.

September 29, 2020: Labour scarcity makes coffee plantation ecosystem in Western Ghats fragile, Down To Earth.

September 27, 2020: Brew and biodiversity: Over to small coffee farmers, The New Indian Express.

August 26, 2020: Empower local communities for extensive forest restoration and climate change mitigation: Study, The Indian Express.

August 26, 2020: Empower local communities for extensive forest restoration and climate change mitigation, News Today.

August 26, 2020: 300 million world over can have their forests restored, The Hindu, Hyderabad.

August 25, 2020: Empower local communities for extensive forest restoration and climate change mitigation: Study, Down To Earth.

June 11, 2020: Rebooting India, CNN News18.

March 23, 2019: Omidyar Network: Doing good is the bottom line, Fortune India.

November 12, 2018: With most states enrolled, UIDAI to focus on updation, Hindustan Times.

November 1, 2018: An imaginary friend, The Indian Express.

October 6, 2018: ISB, Tenure Facility work with forest Communities to collect data, The Times of India.

July , 2018: Swap rice for maize, millet and sorghum to save water and boost nutrition - experts tell India, Reuters.

August , 2018: Can trade save forests?, Forbes.

October 29, 2017: Interview with Ashwini Chhatre on Environment, Development, and Democracy, Yale Himalaya.

May , 2011: Forest Cooperatives in India are a Model for Community Forestry, Silviculture.

Research & Publications