Shyama V. Ramani has over three decades of research and teaching experience having worked at several academic institutions such as the United Nations University UNU-MERIT (Netherlands), Brunel University (UK), INRAE (France), Indian Statistical Institute (India) and St. Stephens College (India). Her current research explores the intersection of technology, innovation, and policy to tackle critical societal challenges, including water insecurity, unsafe sanitation, waste management, sustainability behaviour, and the transition to a circular economy. She is a transdisciplinary scholar having collaborated with researchers from diverse disciplines, including scientists from the life sciences, sociologists, management science experts, statisticians, econometricians and scientometricians. She has published 50 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, 22 chapters in books, 30 articles for the general public and edited 3 book volumes. She has been a consultant for public agencies in Canada, Netherlands and Luxembourg. She has led ten research projects sponsored by the EU, Dutch and French Research agencies and the ICSSR.
Shyama is also a serial academic social entrepreneur. Her publications in Scientometrics gave rise to a French firm, TecKnowMetrix, which she co-founded in 2004. Though she left it after two years, the firm is still active. Further, she is the founder of the charity ‘Friend in Need India Trust’ (FIN) and the social enterprise ‘SITE4Sustainability’. The former explores how to drive positive change through charity and training, and the latter through market-based solutions. Shyama was one of the laureates of the ‘Women of the Earth’ trophy in 2008 awarded by the Institut de France and the Yves Rocher Foundation and honoured as one of the 100 Indian Women Achievers of 2008 in the Women’s Forum For Economy and Society, at Deauville, France. In 2015, she was voted as one of the 100 women achievers by the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with Facebook in the category hygiene and sanitation. In 2017, Friend In Need was one of the three winners of the 'Tamil Nadu Environment Awards for NGOs' accorded by the Tamil Nadu Government. Through her academic and humanitarian work, Shyama is recognised as an engaged scholar in the field of sustainable development.
Education:
Ph.D. (Mathematical Economics), Cornell University; M.A (Economics), Jawaharlal Nehru University; B.A (hons) Economics, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi.