Dr. Amitava Mukherjee, an internationally recognized scholar and development practitioner on food security, hunger and poverty reduction, has worked extensively in the countries in Asia, especially in China, South East and Central Asia and India. He has also worked in several countries in Africa. The basic reach of his work has been in poverty reduction and food insecurity and hunger. And range of his work has included action research, project implementation, capacity building and advocacy, for over three decades across continents.
Educated and researched at Ranchi University, India; Rice University, Houston; Stanford University, Stanford; London School of Economics, London and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Dr. Amitava Mukherjee, is the erstwhile Senior Adviser, Government of India, in the Ministry of Rural Development, NRLM, New Delhi, prior to which he was Senior Expert at the Macro-economic and Policy Development Division, United Nations, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok and head of United Nations Centre for Agricultural Engineering and Machinery, Beijing and Head of United Nations Centre for Poverty Alleviation through Sustainable Agriculture, Bogor, Indonesia. He was also Chief Technical Advisor, Pro-Poor Public Private Partnership at the U.N. and a Master Trainer in the UN System. He is currently also the Executive Director, Development Tracks Research, Training and Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi and Managing Trustee, Probhas Kalyani Priti Trust, India,
He held the chair in Economics/Planning at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, and was Executive Director, Actionaid India, concurrently in-charge of Actionaid’s China programme. He is one of the founders of Partnes in Change in 1995, which is working on corporate responsibility (CR) issues in India for the last two decades and of PRAXIS, institution for participatory research, Head Quartered in Patna, India.
He has written and lectured (across continents) extensively on poverty and food security comprising numerous reports and papers and over nearly 40 books.
Family Background
Amitava Mukherjee comes from one of the oldest and most respectable families of Hazaribagh. He belongs to a family of well-known public figures of lawyers, jurists, scholars, philanthropists and educationists. Their ancestral house has hosted distinguished public figures like Sri Romananda Chattopadhaya, Sri Sanjeeb Chattopadhaya (of Palamau fame), Lord Northbrook (Viceroy of India), Sri Subodh Ghosh, Sri Balai Chand Mukhopadhaya (“Bonophool“), Sri Bibhuti Bhusan Mukhopadhaya, Rabindra Nath Tagore himself and his daughter Indira Devi, Dr. Amiya Kumar Chakravaty (poet and Secretary to Tagore), Subhas Chandra Bose, Sri Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhaya (“Rabindra Jibonikar“), Sri Monmotha Nath Roy and Sri K. B. Sahay.
Amitava Mukherjee’s ancestral home at Hazaribagh, India
Married to the late Dr. Neela Mukherjee, a distinguished development expert. They are blessed with a wonderful son, Taponeel (Hakka), a good human being. The family is a keen bird watcher and animal lover.
They are a great connoisseur of Indian Music, especially light classical, Ghazals and Rabindra Sangeet. Over the past few years, noted singers like (i) Shama Rahman, (ii) Kamalini Mukherji, (iii) Aditi Gupta, (iv) Susmita Goswami, (v) Srabani Sen, (vi) Srikanto Acharya, (vii) Shounak Chattopadhyay, (viii) Shamik Pal, (ix) Alak Roy Choudhury, (x) Riddhi Bandopadhaya, (xi) Mounita Mukherjee Chattopadhyay, (xii) Ratna Mitra, (xiii) Arena Mukherjee, (xiv) Anindita Kazi, (xv) Srikumar Chattopadhyay, (xvi) Aniruddha Sinha, (xvii) Suman Bhattacharjee, (xviii) Prabuddha Raha, (xix) Priyangbada Banerjee, (xx) Subhomita Banerjee, (xxi) Lopamudra Mitra, (xxii) Shreya Guhathakuta, (xxiii) Sompa Kundu, (xxiv) Partha Sarathi Eklabya, (xxv) Rajeshwari Bhattacharya, (xxvi) Monoj Murali Nair, (xxvii) Manisha Nair, (xxviii) Madhuboni Chatterjee, (xxx) Somali Mukherjee, (xxxi) Saikat S Roy (xxxii) Chandraboli Rudra Dutta, (xxxiii) Jayati Chakravaty and (xxxiv) Imon Chakravaty, have regularly performed at their residences as also in some concerts sponsored by them in Hazaribagh, Ranchi and New Delhi.
The family is a great connoisseur of Indian Music, especially light classical, Ghazals and Rabindra Sangeet. Over the past few years, noted singers like (i) Shama Rahman, (ii) Kamalini Mukherji, (iii) Aditi Gupta, (iv) Susmita Goswami, (v) Srabani Sen, (vi) Srikanto Acharya, (vii) Shounak Chattopadhyay, (viii) Shamik Pal, (ix) Alak Roy Choudhury, (x) Riddhi Bandopadhaya, (xi) Mounita Mukherjee Chattopadhyay, (xii) Ratna Mitra, (xiii) Arena Mukherjee, (xiv) Anindita Kazi, (xv) Srikumar Chattopadhyay, (xvi) Aniruddha Sinha, (xvii) Suman Bhattacharjee, (xviii) Prabuddha Raha, (xix) Priyangbada Banerjee, (xx) Subhomita Banerjee, (xxi) Lopamudra Mitra, (xxii) Shreya Guhathakuta, (xxiii) Sompa Kundu, (xxiv) Partha Sarathi Eklabya, (xxv) Rajeshwari Bhattacharya, (xxvi) Monoj Murali Nair, (xxvii) Manisha Nair, (xxviii) Madhuboni Chatterjee, (xxx) Somali Mukherjee, (xxxi) Saikat S Roy (xxxii) Chandrabali Rudra Dutta, (xxxiii) Jayati Chakravaty, (xxxiv) Imon Chakravaty, (XXXV) Monamay Bhattacharjee, (xxxvi) Amrita Ghosh, (xxxvii) Pandit Ajay Chakraborty, (xxxviii) Haimanti Shulka, (xxxix) Shirin Soraiya, (xxxx) Abshiekh Lahiri and (xxxxi) Aditi Mohosin, have regularly performed at their residences as also in concerts sponsored by them.
With late Dr. Neela Mukherjee helped communities belonging to Lodha Tribe in East Midnapore, West Bengal, India to start 12 free primary schools called Saal Piyali schools for educating children belonging to the Lodha Tribe, without any donation from any donor whatsoever and without any support from the Government except in accessing mid-day meal scheme in some of the schools. They have created a corpus [out of their earning from a Private Limited Company (Development Tracks in Research Training and Consultancy), for the Schools which is invested in commodity trading by the community members to earn resources to run the schools.
Late Dr. Neela Mukherjee
Economic Strategist with a human face and a kind heart
Dr. Neela Mukherjee passed away on 2 June 2011 at Delhi, after a brief illness bravely fought and patiently borne. She leaves behind her husband, Dr. Amitava Mukherjee and son, Taponeel and numerous friends and well wishers all over the world. A Doctorate from Jadavpur University, Neela had a brilliant academic record being first class first throughout her academic career. She began her career in the Indian Economic Service in 1977, was Professor of Economics at LBS National Academy, Mussoorie, India; Commonwealth Fellow at London School of Economics, London; Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University, Stanford and UNDP Fellow at London School of Economics, London. She was at the time of her death, Chairman, Development Tracks RTC, New Delhi and Managing Trustee, Indrani Foundation. She ran and managed 12 Primary Schools in Midnapore District, West Bengal, India.
