Education
He went on to do a second Master of Arts in South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States of America, and proceeded to complete his Doctor of Philosophy in History from the same university.
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Vivek Bhandari
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From 2007 to 2011, Professor Bhandari served as the 11th Director Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), a premier management school located in Gujarat. Professor Bhandari was one of the youngest business school directors in India when he took over this responsibility.
In his tenure, IRMA grew significantly in size and stature, and was able to impact policy at the national level in a variety of fields related to rural development.
As a result, the institute also received national and international recognitions under his leadership, most notably from the Canadian agency, the International Development Research Centre (International Development Research Centre), as well as ministries in the Government of India. Professor Bhandari spent his early years in various parts of Rajasthan (India).
He then went on to complete his Bachelor Honors in History from Saint Stephen’s College, Delhi, and then a Master’s in Modern History from the University of Delhi. After completing his education, Professor
Bhandari became a tenured faculty member in the School of Social Science at Hampshire College in Amherst, Master of Arts, in the United States of America. In this capacity, he also taught and researched collaboratively at academic institutions in the Five College Consortium (which includes Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst) located in Massachusetts, United States of America. In 2007, he returned to India as director of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), a position he held until mid-2011.
In 2010, Professor Bhandari spent time at the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI), University of Pennsylvania as a visiting scholar. After leaving IRMA in 2011, Professor
Bhandari divides his time between academic work, consulting on matters related to development, and public engagement.
From 2011 to 2015, Professor Bhandari served as a consultant to a variety of philanthropic trusts and foundations such as the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, and the Reliance Foundation. Working as an independent researcher, he worked closely with a number of grassroots organizations working on issues of rural development, livelihoods, political reform, and gender equality.
He was also associated with the World Economic Forum"s Global Shapers Program from 2012 to 2014.
In 2013, he was appointed Ratan Tata (Visiting) Chair Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Over the years, Professor
Bhandari has published in the Journal of Asian Studies, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, in edited volumes, and reference works such as the International Encyclopedia for the Social Sciences, the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. and the Encyclopedia of Sustainability He is a co-author of the "State of Panchayats Report: An Independent Assessment, 2007-2008," which was commissioned by the Government of India and was India’s first macro-study of institutions of local self-governance in India (called Gram Panchayat). The study allowed him to explore his particular interest in the study of social mobilizations and community organizations in India.
He explored many of these issues in his column for the monthly Democratic World.
A year into his term as director of IRMA in 2008, Professor Bhandari was included in Business Today magazine"s list of India"s Top Twenty-Five "Young Executives Under the Age of 40".
Membership
He also served as a founding faculty member of the Young India Fellowship Program in New Delhi.
