Venkatesh Dutta

Fulbright Scholar, University of Maryland, USA

Member – Core Group, State Science & Technology Programme (SSTP), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (2014 – 2017).

Ph.D. Urban Water Systems (TERI University), Post – Doctoral Fellow (Maryland), M.Sc. (Environment Management), BSc. (Environmental Sc.) The university of Delhi.

Dr. Dutta has worked in the urban environmental sector in India for a number of years and he is interested in exploring India’s urbanization and environmental challenges. His research interests pertain, primarily, to urban environmental management, and specifically to groundwater management and valuation of ecosystem services. He is interested in action-oriented and evidence-based research in the areas of urban governance, spatial economics, urban water systems, low-carbon city, social choice and ecology of the Indian cities by seeking to develop structured capacity building programs and local planning mechanisms. He has developed a comprehensible research significance in the interaction between environmental dynamics, groundwater systems, and water services provisioning in the urban context.

Dr. Dutta also worked with the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) as a consultant during 2003 – 04 where he focused on urban water reform that provided policy support to Delhi’s water utility in strengthening tariff reform. He has recently completed two projects on groundwater management in Uttar Pradesh – the first project is targeted towards preparation of 5 years ‘Action Plan for Artificial Recharge Activities and Water Conservation Schemes in Critical Block Bheetargaon of Kanpur Nagar’ and the second project is on ‘Groundwater Quality assessment with Integrated Mapping in Kanpur and Kannauj Districts, Uttar Pradesh’. With the support from DST, he set up the Centre for Policy Research at Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow where he is working on a large project titled ‘Study of Policy and mechanisms that could facilitate delivery of STI outputs for social inclusion in water sector’. The Centre is equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories. He has guided four doctoral candidates and more than 25 masters’ theses on different aspects of water resources management. He has to his credit more than 20 research papers. He is a fellow of Society of Earth Sciences India and a life member of International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), UK; Indian Water Resources Society, IIT Roorkee and Indian Association of Hydrologists.