Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe,
President, ICCR
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha is the National Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). An activist-researcher at the core, Dr Sahasrabuddhe happens to be the Vice President of Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini as well. RMP is South Asia's only training and research academy for elected representatives and voluntary social workers.
Having headed BJP’s Training Cell for over a decade, Dr. Sahasrabuddhe currently is National In-Charge of twin departments of the party, viz Policy Research and Good Governance.
As a student activist, he had offered satyagraha and was behind bars during the Emergency of 1975. He was also National Secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) while being whole-timer of the Organisation. He has also worked as member on Senate and Management Council of the University of Mumbai for several years. He has also served on Boards of Governors of academies like YASHADA, (academy of development administration, Pune) and Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA) as member. Between 2013-15, he was the Vice-President of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, a 208-year-old prestigious society.
A freelance journalist since his college days, Sahasrabuddhe is a regular contributor to several Marathi and English language dailies and weeklies and a blogger as well. The University of Mumbai awarded him a doctorate in Politics in 2009 for his thesis ‘Political Parties as Victims of Populism and Electoral Compulsions: A Quest for systemic Solutions.’ His research was later published in the form of a book, entitled ‘Beyond a Billion Ballots.’ His latest book ‘The Innovation Republic’ captures 17 key Governance Innovations made by the Narendra Modi Government. Dr. Sahasrabuddhe has been an active participant in Rajya Sabha with almost 100% attendance. Over last two years Parliament has appointed him to the court of Delhi University, to Indian Council of World Affairs as well as a member to the Press Council of India".
Mr. Dinesh K Patnaik,
Director General
" Shri Dinesh K. Patnaik is a career diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service with experience of over 25 years in a variety of interesting and challenging assignments.
He has served in Indian Missions in Geneva, Dhaka, Beijing and Vienna.
At Headquarters, he has served in the Europe West, External Publicity, Africa and UN Divisions.
Shri Patnaik served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Vienna from 2009 to 2012.
He was India’s Ambassador to Cambodia from 2012 to 2015.
He was India’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco from 2015 to 2016.
He was Deputy High Commissioner of India to London from 2016 to 2018.
He was Additional Secretary (Indian Ocean Region) from November 2018 to July 2019 and thereafter Additional Secretary (CPV&OIA) from July 2019 to January 2020 in the Ministry of External Affairs.
He is currently Director General in Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
Ambassador Patnaik holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kolkata. He also holds a Master’s degree in Advanced International Studies from the University of Vienna and Certificate in International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy, Vienna.
Ambassador Patnaik is married to Poonam who is an international educator. They have two daughters ".
