Dr. Tanojkumar Meshram is a public policy, education, and development professional & researcher with over 20 years of experience in government, academia, and the social sector.
He finished his Ph.D. in Social Policy from The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, Greater Boston Area in the USA. He was awarded Wyatt Jones Endowed Fellowship and Marjorie S. Trotter Doctoral Fellowship at Brandeis University to complete his Ph.D. For his dissertation, Tanoj did a comparative case study of the implementation of the Right to Education Act-2009 (RTE) in India with the purpose to advocate reforms in the implementation of school education policies.
His research interests include Public policy, Implementation theory, Critical policy studies, Education policy & finance, Development & social sector, Infrastructure (transport & energy). Methodologically, he is trained as a mixed-method researcher.
Born and brought up in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, Tanoj is an ex-Indian Engineering Services (IES) officer with experience in Government (Indian Railways), Public Sector (NTPC) and Non-Profit (Azim Premji Foundation). His expertise has been in the domain of strategy, general management, operations, program design, policy implementation, institution building and education leadership & management with experience of working at multiple locations in 10 states of India. He has also worked with Kansas City Public Schools, Missouri, USA as an Education Pioneer Fellow.
Tanoj completed his graduation in Mechanical Engineering from Government College of Engineering, Amravati, Post-Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy (PGP-PMP) from IIM Ahmedabad and Master of Arts in Social Policy from Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. As a part of the IIM-Ahmedabad Fall Fellows Program on Public Policy, Governance & Leadership he studied 1) Social entrepreneurship, 2) Business, government & public policy and 3) Macroeconomic theory & policy at LBJ School of Public Affairs and McCombs School of Business. He has also finished a Course on Education Policy Analysis and Research in Comparative Perspective from the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a part of his doctoral program at Brandeis. Though he began his career as Mechanical Engineer, he was soon introduced to the study of social sciences-Psychology, Public Administration and a host of other social science subjects under General Studies during his Civil Services Examination days in the late 1990s.
During his tenure with the Government of India (Indian Railways), he held eight different middle and senior management positions at multiple locations across the country starting from Probationary Officer to Head of the Department in Rail Divisions managing operations and maintenance of passenger and freight services. During his work in Railways, he gained extensive experience in policy implementation, administrative reforms, people management & industrial relations, procurement, operations, cross-functional coordination, project management, and assets creation & management. He turned around various units and improved operational efficiency through innovations, improved project management, and people management practices and reduced costs by better financial planning, tighter budget control and zero tolerance for corrupt practices. He also led a $10.5 Million prestigious Stainless Steel Rail Wagon Manufacturing Project with a team of 750 people including the development of required physical & human infrastructure, expertise and vendor base. This project was the first of its kind in the Indian Railways as a part of the new product development policy of the government in the rail-road freight sector. As a part of his role in Indian Railways, he also oversaw legal & regulatory compliance with various federal and state government labor laws such as Factories Act, Industrial Dispute Act, Trade Union Act, and social legislations such as Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Female Employees at Workplace, Affirmative Action Policy, and Workmen’s Compensation Act.
While being a part of Azim Premji Foundation, an education non-profit, he played a crucial role in the nascent Education Management & Leadership (ELM) domain and developed strategies, designed and implemented first-of-their-kind initiatives in K-12 education with a focus on individual and institutional capacity building. His first project in ELM included leading strategy, design and execution of large scale UNICEF, Central, and State Government funded Education Leadership Development Program for 5000 school leaders and education officers in the state of Chhattisgarh. He also strategized, designed and led the execution of the initiative for setting up SIEMAT (State Institute of Education Management and Training) for the state Government of Rajasthan and was nominated on its Governing Council.
His latest assignment included working with Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore as an external consultant. During this assignment, Tanoj worked on developing IIHS’s approach towards education policy and social transformation. This included teaching, guiding students’ projects, knowledge management, research, and grant management.
As a public intellectual, Tanoj believes that theory and research should make a positive impact on the real world and advocates the cause of egalitarianism and social change through public speaking and writing in mainstream and alternative media including his blog on The Times of India Blogs.
