Centre for Social Change and Development (CSCD) was conceived as a Think Tank when a group of like-minded academics with a diverse expertise, aspired to develop the community through information. We aspire at fostering and supporting a society where everyone has education and training opportunities, where individual and community health matters and where awareness on environmental protection and improvement is considered an important way of community life. This, the CSCD seeks to achieve this by the use of trustworthy, current, relevant and tailor-made information delivered by social technology to socioeconomically marginalised communities. We believe that equitably accessed information is the cornerstone for a flourishing society and that everyone must have access to the right information. We learn what works to make communities better and mitigate this information inequality. We bridge links between knowledge gained from working at the frontline with our research and analysis. Our ambition is to create a righteous connection of our collective expertise and acquired knowledge to inform effective policymaking and vice versa. Through sharing our experiences, and close collaboration with key stake holders, and building people’s skills and knowledge, we aim to make a difference to the disadvantaged community.
Mr Biprodas Bhattacharjee has been long associated with education in a diverse range of settings. He has a distinguished career in teaching English for Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur before taking up the role of Principal at Students' Academy, Boral. He has visited many eminent English schools like Eton and Harrow to collaborate and learn from their curriculum and pedagogy. Alongside his educatory roles, Bipradas has been involved in several management roles. He has been the head of market research division for Clarion Macken and held spoken English workshops for various professional groups over the last 20 years. Presently he is a faculty of the MBA program, Vivekananda Institute of Science and Technology, Sonarpur. In addition, he remains the Rector, West End High School, Jhargram and the secretary for Media, Education and Development Initiative that runs "Good Parenting Initiative" program in private schools. He is also a member of the selection committee of 'Udayer Pathey', a scholarship charity offered by a notable philanthropic organisation. His other celebratory achievements include book reviews for The Statesman, columnist for career counselling for The Telegraph and as an advisor for secondary examination in TV Channels including ABP Ananda. Bipradas has authored several books on English grammar and composition and has written and published extensively a number books of Bengali poems, short stories, and essays.
A Ph.D. in theoretical physics, Sugata Mitra retired in 2019 as Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University in England, after 13 years there including a year in 2012 as Visiting Professor at MIT MediaLab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He is Professor Emeritus at NIIT University, Rajasthan, India. His work on children’s education include the ‘hole in the wall’ experiment where children access the internet in unsupervised groups, the idea of Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs) in schools, the role of experienced educators over the internet in a ‘Granny Cloud’ and the School in the Cloud where children take charge of their learning – anywhere. His interests include Children’s Education, Remote Presence, Self-organising systems, Cognitive Systems, Complex Dynamical Systems, Physics and Consciousness. He received, among many global awards, the million-dollar TED Prize in 2013. Website: www.cevesm.com
Niladri has been working in IT for 17 years. Having completed his Masters from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (formerly known as West Bengal University of Technology), Niladri started his IT career in India and subsequently moved to the United Kingdom to continue his journey. During these years, Niladri has worked in various MNCs across multiple domains and is currently working as a Senior IT consultant in a UK based company in the mobile communications domain. As part of working in various IT projects, Niladri got the opportunity to explore the strengths of social technology and believes that it is currently a very effective tool for the circulation of important information to communities who lack visibility of crucial information across multiple domains that can positively impact their lives.
Graduating from a background in Geography (Hons) from University of Kolkata, has helped stimulating Chandrani’s interest in human behaviour in the societal context. Furthermore, she was trained in educational methods and skills whilst undertaking higher training in education (bachelor of Education (BEd) and Masters in Education (Med)). Whilst undertaking postgraduate training in environmental management (PGDEM), Chandrani has been motivated to understand the differences in environmental awareness amongst individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds and its detrimental effects on health outcomes. Chandrani also remained intrigued by the differences in information seeking behaviour from individuals belonging to different socioeconomic backgrounds. Whilst undertaking Masters in Information Science (MSc) from the Information School, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, she became interested in the use and functionality of information portals as a means to address this lack of awareness. She became increasingly aware on the potential usage of social media as a communication tool. Widespread adoption of cheaper mobile phone technology and easier access to social media platforms influenced her to consider social media as a potential medium of information dissemination in developing countries like India, from where she began her journey. Being aware of the impact of blindness on the society, and its particular significance in the developing world and its deprived communities, Chandrani observed that the wider consequences of blindness and other eye health issues, often preventable, resulted from a lack of access to appropriate information. This informed her resolution to use social media as an effective health communication tool for addressing unmet needs in eye care in marginalised population. This inner conviction has been a central motivation in her exploration of the reach of social media as tool of effective information dissemination that culminated in the successful completion of PhD from Manchester Metropolitan University. Chandrani remains committed to the effective use of social media, and other available social technology, to address unmet information needs.
Graduating from Calcutta Medical College, Asia’s oldest medical Institution, Anirban has followed a lengthy medical career, initially in India and subsequently in the United Kingdom. He currently is a Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Manchester University Hospitals, the largest children’s hospital in United Kingdom and the second largest in Europe. He is the Director of UK’s largest Cystic Fibrosis unit (Cystic Fibrosis is the most common genetic condition in the Caucasian population) and heads the bespoke Bronchiectasis and Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia services. Prior to this, he has been a Consultant at Leicester Children’s Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool. He has been a tertiary trainee at Sheffield Children’s Hospital and undertaken extensive research at Bristol Children’s Hospital. Anirban has been an invited speaker in numerous national and international congresses. He has also worked in tertiary hospitals during his brief stay in India, where he spearheaded the national paediatric respiratory program. He was intrigued by the lack of awareness across all strata on the ill effects of poor respiratory health and the ever increasing menace of air pollution, polypharmacy and inappropriate overuse of antibiotics and unscientific therapy. Being educated at Narendrapur Rama Krishna Mission School and College, Kolkata, Anirban has always been inspired and motivated by missionary values. As a commitment towards education, Anirban is also the Associate Hospital Dean for Student Experience at the Manchester Medical School, Europe’s largest medical school. Anirban remains convinced that social technology provides an effective channel for health communication that has a wider reach in the deprived marginalised communities over traditional media, and has the potential to impact on better health outcomes.
Information can make a difference
