Meena Nair has been working with Chanakya University’s Office of Academic Affairs since September 2023. She coordinates most of the research work of the University and handles research-related Programmes as well that include PhD and Post Doctoral Fellowship.

In her previous job as Head of Research at the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), an independent not-for-profit Think Tank where is worked for nearly two decades, action research was the first principle of almost all the projects that she steered – evidence-based advocacy, and action through pilot interventions to showcase applicability and replicability for good governance.

She has had the opportunity of working with various funders – Governments, International Foundations, Multilateral Agencies, and peer institutions, and presenting project findings, showcasing/training on research tools, and participating in discussions at national and international platforms. Most of the reports prepared by her and her project teams can be found in the website of PAC. Additionally, she has written book chapters, articles, and Research Papers for international publishers and networks.

These experiences are now helping her mission to prepare, present and finalise policies and guidelines to ensure that there are systems, processes and templates to help generate quality research outputs.

• Ph.D. Urban Social Geography, 1997, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
• M.Phil. Social Geography, 1991, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
• M.A. 1989, Geography, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
• B.A. Geography (Hons.), 1987, Miranda House, Delhi University, Delhi.

Select publications

1. Samuel Paul and Meena Nair, 2022, ‘Enhancing citizen voices in service delivery in India: the role of Social Accountability Tools‘, in Bergh, S., Pelissery, S, and Satyamala, C (eds.) The State of Accountability in the Global South: Challenges and Responses, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., UK
2. Meena Nair, Kritika Shah and Aparna Sivaraman, May 2020, Will women be a part of India’s future workforce? A quest for inclusive and sustainable growth in India, Occasional Paper No.61, Southern Voice.
3. Meena Nair and Gurucharan Gollerkeri, 2019, ‘Public Affairs Centre’, in Strengthening Policy Research: Role of Think Tank Initiative in South Asia, Sukhdeo Thorat, Ajaya Dixit, Samar Verma (eds.), Sage, New Delhi, pp. 209-221.
4. S. Sreedharan, Poornima G.R., Meena Nair, Genanew Bekele, Wathiq Mansoor, Ananth Rao, 2017, Users’ Satisfaction of Public Utility Services – Multivariate System Analysis, ICABML Conference Proceedings – ISSN 2523-6547, 1st International Conference on Advances in Business, Management and Law (2017), Volume 2017, University of Dubai.
5. S. Sreedharan, Poornima G.R., Meena Nair, 2016, An Assessment of the Services of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), PAC, Bangalore.
6. Meena Nair, Prabhakar Kollapudi, Prarthana Rao, 2015, ‘Accountability in the Karnataka State Police in India’, in Anjula Gurtoo & Colin Williams (eds.), Developing Country Perspectives on Public Service Delivery, Springer, New Delhi, pp. 179-195.
7. Meena Nair, 2015, ‘Counter-Corruption Practices in India’, in Government Anti-Corruption Strategies: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Yahong Zhang & Cecilia Lavena (eds.), CRC Press Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 23-42.

Project 1:

• Title: Effectiveness evaluation of Raitha Samparka Kendras (RSK) in Karnataka to strengthen service delivery
• Duration: 2 years
• Granting Agency: Department of Economic Analysis and Research, NABARD
• Role: Principal Investigator
• Short Description: This study aimed to evaluate the services available and delivered through the RSKs in Karnataka, stressing on their relevance & efficiency to deliver them to the farmers and their impact on production and productivity levels. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including surveys, interviews, data analysis and Social Accountability Tools (SATs) like the Citizen Report Card (CRC) and Community Score Card (CSC) to offer a comprehensive understanding of the RSKs’ role in the agricultural ecosystem.
• Status: Completed 2024
• Link: https://www.nabard.org/auth/writereaddata/tender/pub_0402250943341360.pdf

Project 2:

• Title: ‘Love to Learn’ Initiative
• Duration: 2 years
• Granting Agency: AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions Private Ltd.
• Role: Project Lead
• Short Description: Led an intervention of renovation and refurbishing of three Anganwadi Centres for this CSR-funded initiative to improve Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
• Status: Completed 2023

Project 3:

• Title: Will Women be a part of India’s future workforce? A quest for inclusive and sustainable growth in India
• Duration: 1½ years
• Granting Agency: Southern voice
• Role: Principal Investigator
• Short Description: This study examined India’s low and declining female labour force participation in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 and 8, adapting the Rao-Kelleher Gender Framework to understand structure and agency issues impacting women. Findings show that gender-biased beliefs and norms within the household regarding menstruation and post-marital gender roles present important barriers. They constrain women’s agency and choice, with decisions which are instead determined by household dynamics and workplace and societal structures.
• Status: Completed 2020
• Link: http://southernvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/India-workforce-Nair-Shah-Sivaraman-2020.pdf

Project 4:

• Title: Improving Consumer Voices and Accountability in Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin (SBM-G)
• Duration: 4 years
• Granting Agency: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)
• Role: Principal Investigator
• Short Description: The project aimed to address demand and supply issues through the use of social accountability tools (SATs) to identify barriers to effective implementation, increase the voice of consumers in the SBM implementation, and propose ways to demand greater accountability from service providers to improve the performance of SBM. Through this advocacy grant interactive dialogue platforms were created for communities of users and programme implementers to propose and initiate joint action plans.
• Status: Completed 2019

Project 5:

• Title: Improving access to information and delivery of public schemes in remote and backward districts of North East India
• Duration: 4 years
• Granting Agency: ACTED (Agency of Technical Cooperation and Development)
• Role: Project Lead
• Short Description: The project in which Public Affairs Centre (PAC) was a knowledge partner, involved three rounds of CRC exercises followed by CSCs to assess the efficiency of implementation of 10 centrally-sponsored schemes in seven backward districts located in five states of North East India (NEI). ACTED along with two other partners located in NEI, based on the findings then carried out targeted interventions to improve service delivery for each of the programmes.
• Status: Completed 2018

Project 6:

• Title: A Stakeholder Assessment of the Right to Public Services (RTPS) Act in three States of India – Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka
• Duration: 1 year
• Granting Agency: The World Bank
• Role: Principal Investigator
• Short Description: The project comprised of an assessment of the delivery of services under the RTPS Act at the department level, through a random sample survey of applicants who applied and availed of selected services that are under the RTPS purview, and the implementers and decision makers of the same services in a state, for three selected states (Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi). The objectives of the study were to systematically assess the quality, responsiveness and outcomes of the implementation of the RTPS Act for selected services provided by the concerned departments in three selected states; evaluate the impact of the RTPS Act by comparing user experiences of those who have availed RTPS vis-à-vis non-RTPS services; and generate a better understanding of the problems and constraints being faced by the selected departments on responding to applications filed under the Act.
• Status: Completed 2014

Project 7:

• Title: Monitoring Expenditure and Outcomes to improve Health Services for Urban Poor Women in Bangalore
• Duration: Phase I: 2009-11 & Phase II: 2011-2013
• Granting Agency: International Budget Partnership (IBP)
• Role: Team Lead
• Short Description: Taking forward the increasing importance being given to budget advocacy, PAC carried out a study that applied social accountability tools such as CRCs, Budget Analysis, and CSCs to assess quality of maternal health service delivery, and utilisation of funds provided to the Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation-run Maternity Homes and arrive at joint action plans to improve efficiency by bringing in community participation. As a result of the CSCs in some of the Maternity Homes, Maternity Home Monitoring Committees (MHMCs) were created for monitoring quality of service delivery that are continuing to work successfully on a self-sustaining basis. PAC was also able to ensure provision of basic amenities such as hot water and milk inpatients, drinking water for out-patients and display of user fee charts and grievance redress mechanisms in each of the 24 Maternity Homes.
• Status: Completed 2013
• Link: https://www.pacindia.org/storage/app/publications/9f6180bc-3013-4f6a-a728-b451965bf5cc.pdf

• Member of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA)
• Course completion in ‘Strategic Nonprofit Management – India’, July 31- August 4, 2017 hosted by Ashoka University, Dasra and Harvard Business School.
• Completed training on analysis of health budgets by International Budget Partnership and Centre for Budget and Policy Analysis

• ORCID – 0000-0001-8769-2908
• Academia – https://independent.academia.edu/MeenaNair12