Introduction
The Institute of Global Harmony (IGH) is an experiment to foster a collective teaching and learning experience that will create future generations of people, who believe of their own accord in the dictum that the only way to live a life of happiness and without fear is to live in harmony with themselves, the society, and the environment. In doing so, they realize full potential of their manifested form and achieve excellence in their pursuits.
The IGH is a college of higher learning that will produce skilled graduates, grounded in human values, sought after by the governments, industry, organizations and the institutions alike. The IGH graduates will help create sustainability of the humankind.
The IGH envisions partnering with international organizations, including the United Nations (UN), the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP), the Global Harmony Association (GHA), and others, individuals and groups from different perspectives to collectively craft holistic solutions for a harmonious society leading to a peaceful and sustainable world. The crafted solutions will be adopted into teaching curriculum via many available state-of-the-art Information Technology (IT) modes. IGH places equal regard for contributions from all disciplines of physical and social sciences, philosophical and religious thoughts, political and economic systems, and faith and cultural traditions, all connected together as sub-systems of the same o¬ne system, called knowledge. The collective knowledge becomes wisdom if infused with human values to share and utilize the earth’s resources in an equitable and responsible manner so that we leave our children a world better than we inherited from our parents.
Organizational Structure
Institute of Global Harmony is a Global Think-Tank, a non-profit, all-volunteer educational, research and public outreach institution committed to explore, conceptualize, develop and disseminate alternate system(s) of education for bringing the world together as a harmonious civilization. It is organized under § 501 of the United States Internal Revenue Code.
The pilot program of IGH as a functional Graduate Studies Program will be carried out by the IASE {D} University in Sardarshahr, Rajsthan, India. The IASE {D} University in Sardarshahr, Rajsthan, India was selected as an ideal place to lay the foundation of IGH for building a harmonious civilization through education. The decision was made based on the following factors:
- IASE (D} is a constituent of Gandhi Vidya Mandir (GVM), founded in 1950 as a sequel to its founder’s dedication to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi whose assassination spurred a revolution in his heart and soul. Shri Kanhaiyalal Dugar was born and brought up in Sardarshahr in the erstwhile princely State of Bikaner in a very distinguished and wealthy family, yet, he was spiritually inclined since his childhood. He had renounced his entire wealth for the cause of education and the welfare of society at large, and embraced Sanyas, thence after known as Swami Shri. Ramsharanji. He spent fifty long years in service of mankind selflessly. During his last days, he uttered, “this body of mine can no longer serve others; rather it needs to be served”, and went into ‘Samadhi’.
- Purity of intention of the its visionary leadership comprised of distinguished people involved in building modern India and their dedication to bringing state-of-the-art Teacher Education programs to such a remote place in the Thar desert, where a human beings for certain are able to find their purpose in life,
- Great history of IASE {D} with Chancellors such as: Sh. Vinoba Bhave, an advocate of nonviolence and human rights. Often called Acharya, he is best known for the Bhoodan Movement. He is considered as a National Teacher of India and the spiritual successor of Mohandas Gandhi; Dr. L. M. Singhvi was an Indian jurist, parliamentarian, scholar, writer and diplomat. He served as the second-longest-serving High Commissioner for India in the United Kingdom He was conferred Padma Bhushan in 1998; and Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a poet and an iconic Indian leader, known for his cultural moderation, liberalism and political reasonableness. He served as the 10th Prime Minister of India, first for 13 days in 1996 and then from 1998 to 2004.
- The details of the IASE {D} can be found at the website: www.iaseuniversity.org.in.
The details about the Director and the Advisory Board are given below:
Dr. Laj Utreja
Director
Dr. Laj Utreja’s professional experience covers a wide range of disciplines related to the U.S. space and defense programs. He has worked in various capacities, as hands-on engineer, as technical leader in people management, and as CEO of a small business in developing corporate vision. In 2001, he received the George M. Low award, NASA’s highest honor for quality and technical performance to a small business. He had been involved in technology research in the general areas of system studies with emphasis on interceptor systems analysis, launch technology, hypervelocity impact analysis and testing, hypervelocity guns, space environment and space debris, computational fluid dynamics, aerodynamics analysis and testing, aerodynamic deceleration and testing.
Dr. Utreja has taught graduate and undergraduate schools in the Mechanical Engineering and Bhagavad Gita in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has also taught courses related to Vedic Philosophy and Wellbeing for the Continuing Education at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Having spent most of his adult life studying Sanatana Dharma, Laj has given talks on its applications as part of cross-cultural understanding to various groups and organizations all over the world.
Dr. Utreja is very active with the Interfaith Mission Service of the Greater Tennessee Valley where he arranges interfaith and diversity summits to promote understanding among different faith, race and cultural groups. His reverence for Bhagavad Gita has in part motivated him to write his two books, “Who are we?” and “What is our origin?” He has taken concepts and ideas from Vedic philosophy and integrated them with personal experiences to explain universal precepts in his books. The books are available at www.amazon.com and www.lajutreja.com.
Currently, Dr. Utreja is also serving as Director, Institute of Global Harmony at Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardarshahr, Rajasthan, India, and is responsible for all initiatives, including administrative, fiscal and management pertaining to the establishment of Institute of Global Harmony at Gandhi Vidya Mandir in India. The emphasis is to create a harmonious civilization through education. In 2013 and 2014, he was invited to Oxford Round Table – Child Education, where he presented Creating Harmonious Civilization – A Paradigm Shift in Education. His current affiliations include, International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP), Global Harmony Association (GHA), World Constitution & Parliament Assembly (WCPA), Child Rights and You (CRY), and Interfaith Mission Service (IMS).
Dr. Vijay Bhatkar
Dr. Vijay Bhatkar is one of the most acclaimed and internationally acknowledged scientists of India. India’s leading computer magazine Dataquest has acclaimed Dr. Vijay Bhatkar amongst the star pioneers who shaped India’s celebrated IT industry (US$ 100 Billion In 2012), with supercomputing capability, capacity, and infrastructure, as its crowning glory. Dr. Bhatkar is best known as the architect of India’s national initiative in supercomputing where he led the development of Param supercomputers. When India was denied the supercomputer by the USA, Dr. Bhatkar took the challenge of developing an indigenous supercomputer in a record time of 3 years and delivered Param 8000 in 1991 and went on to develop terascale Param 10000 in 1998, propelling India into the exclusive club of select nations, who possess this strategic technology. Based on the Param series of supercomputers, he built the National Param Supercomputing Facility (NPSF) which has been now made available as a grid computing facility through Garuda grid on the National Knowledge Network (NKN) providing nationwide access to High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure.
Today, Dr. Bhatkar has once again taken the lead in proposing the National Mission on Development of Exascale Supercomputing Capability, Capacity and Infrastructure on National Knowledge Network. This is one of the largest projects in S&T in India with a 12th Plan budget of nearly Rs. 5,000 crores that will not only transform India’s computing but will also catalyze India’s leadership in Science through Third & Fourth modes of scientific discovery by engaging world’s largest number of researchers and scientists across a large number of research labs and universities of India collaborating together.
Dr. Bhatkar is also widely known for bringing ICT to the masses through a wide range of path-breaking initiatives, such as the celebrated GIST multilingual technology covering India’s 22 official languages with 10 diverse scripts that has dissolved the language barrier on computers once for all; MKCL’s computer literacy programme that made a world mark by creating 7.5 million computer literates within a decade; Education to Home (ETH) initiative for bringing the benefits of ICT to school education, in learning, teaching, administration, governance and communication & collaboration.
In the 80’s, Dr. Bhatkar substantially contributed to the ushering of electronics revolution in India. He led the development of several innovations such as India’s first fully solid state color television, colour TV broadcast during Asiad in 1982, distributed control systems for Indian power plants and process industries, traffic control systems, automation of security systems, defense simulators and the like from the component level upward that contributed to building the indigenous foundation of India’s electronics industry which was to become India’s IT industry later. Faced with the challenges of creating a large number of software professionals in a shortest possible time, Dr. Bhatkar founded the Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) in C-DAC which during the 90s provided over 10,000 software professionals to India’s fast growing IT industry.
Dr. Bhatkar is credited with the creation of several national research labs and institutions, notably amongst them being C-DAC, ER&DC Trivandrum, IIITM-K, TechnoPark, MKCL, IsquareIT, ETH Research Lab and Multiversity. Simultaneously, he has mentored several innovation-based start-ups. Ever since he joined as a core member of IPAG Electronics Commission in 1972, Dr. Bhatkar has substantially contributed to shaping of India’s path breaking policies in electronics, automation and control, computer and software, ICT, education and S&T and e-Governance over the successive four decades contributing to India’s pre-eminence in these fields.
Dr. Bhatkar has served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to PM, Member of the Governing Council of CSIR. He was also a member of the IT Task Force constituted by PM in 1998. He is a Fellow of IEEE (USA) and Fellow of ACM (USA), world’s foremost professional societies in Electronics and Computers respectively, besides being Fellow of CSI, INAE, IETE, NASI, MASc, etc. He has served as the Chairman of e-Governance Committees of Maharashtra and Goa. He was called upon to address the Royal Society of London; he led the Indian delegation to South Africa to formulate India-SA initiative in advanced computing; he was a member of the Indo-Russian Long Term Program (ILTP) in S&T, Indo-Hungarian and Indo-French Joint Commissions, substantially contributing to India’s international cooperation in electronics, computing and ICT. Dr. Bhatkar has authored/edited over 12 books and 80 technical and research papers and addressed several university convocations, international and national conferences and conventions and public functions. His ground-breaking articulations have been widely covered by both print and broadcast media.
His current research interests are in supercomputing, artificial intelligence, brain-mind consciousness, and synthesis of science and spirituality. Dr. Bhatkar is one of the most decorated scientists of India in terms of national and international awards, fellowships of professional societies and public recognitions. He was conferred with the Padmashri Award in 2000 by Government of India and the Maharashtra Bhushan Award of 1999-2000, the highest recognition of the Government of Maharashtra. He is the recipient of the prestigious Jindal Prize 2012 for science and technology in the service of society. He was conferred with the Saint Jnaneshawar World Peace Prize 2010 by World Peace Centre for promoting synthesis of science and spirituality in the service of humanity. He was also nominated to the Petersberg Prize 2004 for Information Technology for Development and was conferred with the prestigious Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award 2003. Dr. Bhatkar has been showered with a string of awards, notably amongst them being Adi Godrej Award 2010, C-DAC Oration Award 2006, KG Foundation’s Personality of the Decade Award 2004, PGCIL Award 2001, Om Prakash Bhasin Foundation Award 2000, Global e-Biz Award 2001, FICCI Award 1999 for Excellence in Engineering & Technology, LokmanyaTilak Award 1999, Rotary Excellence Award 1997, Pune’s Pride Award 1996, H.K. Firodia Award 1996-97 for LifeTime Achievements in Science & Technology, Distinguished Alumni Award 1994 of IIT Delhi, VASVIK Award 1993, and Electronics Man of the Year Award 1992 and many more. For contributions to the social service and to the world of spirituality, he has been conferred with several social and spiritual awards and public recognitions.
Dr. Bhatkar is presently the Chancellor of the prestigious Nalanda University. He is Chairman of Board of Governors of IIT-Delhi, Chairman of ETH Research Lab, Founder Chancellor and Chief Mentor of Multiversity, Chancellor of D. Y. Patil University, and National President of Vijnana Bharati a People’s Science Movement of over 6,000 scientists across India.
Dr. Bhatkar did his Ph.D. in Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1972; M.E. from M.S. University in 1968; and BE from VRCE, now VNIT, Nagpur in 1965. He has been honoured with D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) by Dr. D.Y. Patil University. Dr. Bhatkar is a Distinguished Alumni of both IIT, Delhi and VNIT, Nagpur.
Bruce Cook, Ph.D.
Adviser, Publicity
Dr. Bruce Cook lives with his wife, Mary, in Elgin Illinois.Between the two of them, they have twelve grandchildren. He earned a B.A. in Radio-Television from Ohio Wesleyan University, an M.A. in Speech Arts from San Diego State University, and a Ph.D. in Communication from Temple University, Philadelphia. His favorite things include writing, websites, gardening, driving, and scuba diving.
In July 2016, Bruce joined Maria Cristina Azcona as co-editor of Strategies for Peace (Cook Communication). He published his novel Harmony of Nations: 1943 – 2020 with JustFiction Editions in 2012.
Bruce serves on the faculty of ORT Technical Institute in Skokie, IL. His affiliations include: World Mediation Organization as a Fellow, Worldwide Peace Organization Bruce as Vice President/Founder, and Global Harmony Organizationas a board member. Bruce is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in Americain an annual listing.
Bruce has developed a variety of websites, starting with www.author-me.com in 1999. These include www.wwpo.org, www.innisfreepoetry.org, www.enskyment.org, www.reservebooks.com, www.worldsundayschool.com. He has also developed 5 Android Apps in the Google Play Market.
Dr. Rodica Silvia Pop
Adviser, International Membership
Dr Rodica Silvia Pop has been a middle school teacher since1978, and the founder member as well the president of Children for Children -Children for Peace Foundation in Romania since 1995. As a teacher she promoted globally, education for all and a culture of peace. In 1983 she was recognized as Honorary Citizen of Dalas , USA, and considered Global Ambassador of Peace. In 2010, she received the national “Best Teacher of the Year,” award. In 2013, the 23rd General Conference of ICOM-CECA offered her the Best Practices Award for Education and Culture in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Creativity is her strength. Some of her school projects have been recognized on an international level at the Global Education Festival in Sanremo, Italy, where her school continuously won the First Prize in Creativity for 14 projects during 2008-2016. A pioneer in Museum Education in Romania, she earned a Phd degree in that discipline. The IGH experiment would be an educational and personal experience that would assist children and adults alike in their transformation to a peaceful and harmonious way of living.
Noor Gillani PhD.
Adviser, Programs
Noor Gillani, D.Sc. is of ethnic Asian-Indian origin, was born in Tanzania, received his grade-school education in Tanzania and the UK, then went to the USA for higher education, receiving his AB cum laude at Harvard University (1967), and his MSc and DSc (1974) at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL).
After his doctorate, Dr.Gillani pursued an academic career for 36 years before retiring in 2010. Throughout that period, his principal research focus was on Air Quality studies. First, he was a staff member culminating as Professor of Mechanical Engineering at WUSTL (1974-1992). The last years of his career (1995-2010) were as Principal Research Scientist at NASA’s National Space Science and Technology Center and Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. During his career, he has also spent sabbatical leaves at other universities (NCSU) and at US Federal Government research labs (DOE, EPA and TVA). He also served in a number of advisory science committees in industry and State and Federal Government programs, and as US Delegate to NATO’s Commission for the Challenges of Modern Society (NATO/CCMS), and on the Steering Committee of its Air Pollution Pilot Program (1984-92). Dr.Gillani’s biography has appeared in a number of Who’s Who publications.
Dr.Gillani has also served actively and for long as a volunteer: as Member of Aga Khan Education Board of the USA, and Founder and National Director of its innovative child development and parent empowerment program (1987-97); as Founder and President of the PYAR Foundation for children in distress around the world (2000 – ); since 2007, as a Member of the International Association of Educators for World Peace, and its VP for Programs for the last four years; and locally, in a number of social justice causes and interfaith work for 13 years, importantly to counter Islamophobia through education. Starting in 2017, he would serve as (a) Asst. to the Director of Mahabodhi International Meditation Center (MIMC) in India, in New Projects Planning and Management related to the Center’s many humanitarian programs
Dr.Gillani is a proud father of three grown-up children and two grand-children. His interests include religious studies. Having developed a model of Islamic Humanism, he lives by it. His prime focus in life now is on the search for Truth in its physical and spiritual dimensions, based principally on studies, and the practice of love, service and meditation.
Dr. Charles Mercieca
Adviser, Peace Education
Dr. Charles Mercieca spent most of his life doing academic work and traveling in an effort to help bring about world peace through education. In addition, he revealed great interest in problems of human and social concern. He has also advocated using human resources merely for positive and constructive purposes. He was born in the Island of Malta and studied in Italy and the USA where he has been living since 1961.
Academic Achievements
He secured his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 1966 in Philosophy and Historical Foundations and taught at Alabama A&M University for 34 years. During this time he was also Visiting Professor, Kyung Hee University, South Korea, fall 2000; Tver State University, Russia, spring 1993; National University of Santa Ana, El Salvador, spring 1990; Visiting Scholar, Northeastern University, summer 1985; Associate in Education, Harvard University, spring 1985, and Hon. President, SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich, since 2001-11.
This professor is also founder and president of the International Association of Educators for World Peace, which is a non-governmental organization of the United Nations whose four major goals are peace education, environmental protection, human rights and disarmament. He has been enlisted in several “Who’s Who.” Besides, he also studied several languages including English, Maltese, Italian, Spanish, French, German Russian, Latin and Greek.
He published a few books and over 900 articles on a variety of topics related to education, political science, culture, religion and social problems of human concern. Some of his articles were translated into quite a few languages and put on quite a few websites, one of which was done not long time ago in Russia which carries several selected articles of his.
Some websites which carry his articles are: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=129 (in English) and http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=136 (in Russian). Quite a few other websites, printed some of his articles in other languages especially in Spanish. In all of his writings he expresses concern for all people from every walk of life and from every religion and culture. His main contribution is revealed in transcending all boundaries of division as to make all people feel like brothers and sisters.
Glen T. Martin, Ph.D.
Adviser, Law & Justice
Glen T. Martin, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy and Chair Emeritus of the program in Peace Studiesat Radford University in Virginia, USA. He is President of the Institute on World Problems (IOWP) and President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA), organizations that sponsor the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. He has traveled and lectured worldwide on behalf of the Earth Constitution and emerging world law, as well as on behalf of WCPA projects such as sessions of the Provisional World Parliament and the development of a World Court system. He has received several international peace awards, including the GUSI Peace Prize International in Manila, Philippines, 2013. He is author or editor of eleven books, including his well-known book, Millennium Dawn: the Philosophy of Planetary Crisis and Human Liberation (2005) and his latest book, One World Renaissance: Holistic Planetary Transformation through a Global Social Contract (2016) (www.oneworldrenaissance.com). His personal website can be found at www.radford.edu/gmartin.
Professor A.K. Mukhopadhyay
Adviser, Consciousness
Professor A.K. Mukhopadhyay, MBBS from Calcutta University (1977), MD from AIIMS (1981) joined the Faculty of AIIMS in 1985. Since 2006, he has been the Head, Department of Laboratory Medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi.
He had been instrumental in setting up a new Department at AIIMS, the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine in 1988 and pioneered three-year MD course in Laboratory Medicine since 1977, which is, in fact, for the first time in the Nation. His personal research interest is in psychoneuroimmunology, neurodegenerative disorders, depression and stress, and consciousness.
Besides being Member and Fellow of several National and International Academic bodies, he had been an invitee of Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican in November 1999. He is in the Advisory board of Commission for Extended Science.
He coined the term and concept of supracortical consciousness in 1985 and developed further this idea integrating Science, Humanity and Spirit. His keen desire to develop a Science for Consciousness has given birth to four worthy books; (i) Frontiers of Research for Human Biologists (1985), (ii) The Dynamic Web of Supracortical Consciousness (1987), (iii) Conquering the Brain (1995) and (iv) The Millennium Bridge (2000). Following 2000, all his publications extending this new paradigm could be obtained from latest news/publication page of his website http://www.akmukhopadhyayconsciousness.com.
Rene V.L. Wadlow
Adviser, Global Citizenship
Rene V.L. Wadlow, President and a Representative to the United Nations Geneva, Association of World Citizens (www.worldcitizensunited.org).Editor of the online journal of world politics and social issues Transnational Perspectives (www.transnational-perspectives.org) Formerly, Professor and Director of Research, Graduate Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland.Founding Secretary of the European Association of Development and Training Institutes (EADI); President of the French child-welfare organization Partage 1992-1998; active in the creation of projects in Cambodia and Vietnam, development of existing projects in Thailand, India and Bangladesh. He served as an advisor in the Ministry of Education, Gabon, Africa during the first years of independence 1961-1964. Later he participated in the planning of development projects, especially in the Sahel zone of Africa as a consequence of the 1972-1982 drought. He was born in the USA, 2 October 1934 and educated at Princeton University and the University of Chicago in international relations.
Nina Lynn Meyerhof, Ed.D
Adviser, Educational Psychology
President and Founder of Children of the Earth, a renowned organization that awakens young people to their inner leadership. Nina is a visionary thought leader recognized for a life of advocating for children and youth. The co-author of “Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom”, and “Pioneering Spiritual Activism”. Nina has received many awards for her work from The Mother Theresa Award to the Citizens Department of Peace Award to The International Educators Award for Peace as well as the State of Vermont passed a Resolution honoring her for her life’s work in PEACE, the Seeds of Peace Award and second of recipients for the Public Peace Prize.
Nina advocates for all people to go beyond cultural, ethnic and religious differences and strive for altruistic ethics. She moves around the world assembling adults and young people to focus on the potentials of bringing ethical living skills into world consciousness. Her focus is on the realization that peace must come from recognizing our interwoven unity.
Nina is a totally passionate committed world peacemaker and world server. She founded and directed Children of the Earth, a UN NGO , for over 25 years touching into 100 countries. She focuses on inspired inner revolution thus altering one’s behavior for social evolution with constructive actions for building a better world. Nina also trains young people to be these future leaders and have the skills to train others and so the ripple effect of her work continues globally.
Dr. Erik Hoffmann
Adviser, Harmony Mapping
has done research of the human brain and consciousness for about 40 years. From 1974 to 1982 he worked at Copenhagen University as an assistant professor at the Psychological Institute where he did research in stress management using biofeedback and EEG methods. During the years 1979 – 1983 EH served in several periods as a visiting professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey, where he did research in computerized EEG studies of brain functions in psychiatric patients. His research results have been published in scientific journals and presented at international brain conferences.
From 1994-1996 EH was working at the International Primal Center in Los Angeles, California, where he did an EEG brainmapping study of the effects of feeling release (Primal) therapy. The results of this research were in February 1995 presented to the Californian Psychological Society in La Jolla, California.
In recent years EH has studied Altered States of Consciousness, as seen in e.g. meditation, psychotherapy and ¬¬psychedelic states, using EEG methods and real-time brainmapping. This work took place in the US, Sweden, the Netherlands and Brazil, and the results have been presented at brain conferences in Miami, USA in 2001 and 2002.
In January 2006 EH conducted a study of a group of people before and after the 21-day process in Amma and Bhagavan’s Golden City in India. The effects on the brain of meditation and deekshashaktipat were studied using EEG methods.
In the summer of 2001 EH founded with Inger Spindler Mental Fitness & Research Centre in Symbion Science Park, Copenhagen. He has been working there as a Research Director with neurofeedback and brainmapping methods training children with ADHD and adults with stress.
Dr. A. K. Merchant
Adviser, UN Harmony Programs
Dr. A. K. Merchant is the National Trustee cum Secretary, Lotus Temple &Bahá’í Community of India; General Secretary, The Temple of Understanding—India [NGO with consultative status at the United Nations]. He also serves as Treasurer-Trustee, Sarvodaya International Trust—Delhi Chapter; Associate Secretary General, Global Warming Reduction Centre; Visiting Faculty, Centre for Cultural Resources & Training, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. A subject expert for research scholars enrolled for “interfaith education and Indian culture” of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund; Honorary Director, Messrs. MK Aromatics Limited, Chennai.
Dr. Merchant is the author of three monographs: (i) Communal Harmony—India’s Greatest Challenge (1991), which has been quoted in one of the Supreme Court Judgments on “Babri Masjid—Ram Janambhoomi” dispute, and (ii) Hindu Dharma evamBahá’í Dharma (1999), (iii) Five Basic Human Values & the Bahá’íFaith (2009), and over two hundred articles and research papers that have been published in national and international dailies, journals and books.
Dr. Merchant has represented the Bahá’í Community of India and the Bahá’í International Community at numerous international and national conferences, symposia and seminars in India and abroad since 1985 as well as Temple of Understanding (A Global Interfaith Association accredited to the United Nations). He represented the Indian Bahá’í Community at the 8th Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, September 1990, held in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. He is an alumni of the United States’ State Department International Exchange Program 2005 for the project on “religious diversity in America post 9/11”; he was invited by H. H. Pope Benedict XVI as National Trustee of the Bahá’í Community of India to the interfaith conference to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Assisi and the World Prayer Day for Justice and Peace held at the Vatican and Assisi, 26-28 October 2011. He has been actively involved with participating and contributing to the deliberations of the Parliament of the World’s Religions held in Chicago (1993), Cape Town (1999), Barcelona (2004), Melbourne (2009), Salt Lake City (2015). On several occasions he was invited by the H. H. the Dalai Lama to address interfaith conferences and assist with organization of international conferences and seminars in India. He is an active promoter of gender justice and has spoken on numerous occasions for the implementation of Beijing Platform for Action, post 4th World Women Summit, September 1995, and written on the subject of equality of men and women on behalf of the Bahá’í Community; the environment and ecology; world peace, inter alia; served as Resource Person for the promotion on discourses of science, religion and development. Contact particulars: Email: akmerchant@hotmail.com / ak9merchant@gmail.com Telephones: 91-11-29237919, mobile: +9810441360
Ashok Kumar Thakur
Adviser, Child Education
Mr. Ashok Kumar Thakurwas born in Uttar Pradesh. Ashokis an alumnus of Delhi University, ex-servicemen, and has established an affordable private school- Muni International School in 2002. In his words, “I was not prepared in school for life and my pain was that my parents were poor but were teachers, policy makers and government, too, poor. Then this individual pain which was common in most of people turns into the ownership to change the present education and make a human being with values and skills.
Ashok is passionate about the education sector hence left his cushy business and started a school through modest means. He is a hardworking, self-made man whose main aim is to spread education in society and felt the need to start this from the lowest strata of society.
Ashok and his faculty have a pious intention of letting no child being deprived of any opportunity and to maintain, increase, and diffuse knowledge. He encourages scientific research and training amongst his students. He believes that every human being is unique and equipped with many facets, and that every individual should be developed in his school, to achieve his highest potential.
The school radically re-imagines education- its purpose, structures and spaces to make learning dialogic, reflexive and student-centric. It adopts the ‘Eklavya model’ of CREATION, ‘GRS’ of peer-learning that decentres teacher authority to reconstitute the teacher as anmotivator and facilitator of learning through “Guided Discovery”. The Eklavya model imagines every student to be both, a learner and a teacher–not only learning, but also creating and sharing knowledge within others.
Mr. Thakur with his team evolved this unique system by questioning the self and society. He believes thatthe true meaning of education is to impart knowledge, to keep our body healthy, mind curious to explore, to participate in order, to be prosperous, justice in relations, innovate and invent; and heart compassionate and full of dreams. Today, the school has 687 students and 24 rooms spread over four floors.
Muni International remains marked for its emphasis on learning foreign languages. Mr. Thakur regards proficiency in foreign language critical to securing livelihoods for students in a rapidly globalized world. Along with English, every student speaks basic Japanese, in addition to learning one more foreign language (from amongst Chinese, French, German, Arabic and Spanish) in his school. Students are prepared to be tech-friendly. Children read here with tablets and each child is taught to repair it too. Each child is equipped with more skills like Vedic Maths, Short hand, Acupressure, Ayurvedic remedies etc.
The Research & Development Department in school constitutes a fundamental component of pedagogy in the school. The R&D, consisting of all teachers, supervisors, parents, and elected student representatives assumes a crucial role in developing policy making, lesson plans, assessing the relevance of curricular content, ensuring its responsiveness to student needs and learning levels, and in addressing individual student needs or concerns. Teachers, parents and students share conceptual and pedagogical challenges to commonly identify potential solutions.
The school adopts a blended learning model, with each student accessing lessons through learning tablets. He has too many accolades to list. His views can be heard on the following utube sites:
https://youtube/drMHaSDribk, https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=xRK_5qE7GiY
Dr. M.M.Verma
Adviser, Interfaith Studies
Dr Madan Mohan Verma is Professor and Chair, Religious Harmony in the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, (Deemed) University, Rajasthan. Dr Verma is member of the National Council, South Asia Consortium for Religious and Law Studies. He is President, Interfaith Foundation, India and is a renowned crusader of interfaith harmony the world over. Prof. Verma was associated with Delhi University for 40 years both as a student and a teacher. He taught political philosophy in Delhi University from 1962-1995. He is a world-renowned writer with 8 books to his credit. Two of his latest books Bhagavad-Gita A Perspective, and Gandhi’s Technique of Mass Mobilization, have been recently published by PARTRIDGE A Penguin Random House Company.
Prof. Verma has devoted his whole life in the pursuit of knowledge. His research and insight over the last four decades is vast and varied and include subjects like Indian and world history, philosophy, socio-political issues in India, religion and interfaith. He is gifted to be able to draw knowledge from one field to another to create a unique perspective. He is regarded as a leading scholar of interfaith in the world and has spent the last two decades in studying Spiritual Scriptures of various faiths, and preaching the common message of human love and harmony. He has organized and addressed several national and international conferences and has visited foreign countries 52 times.
Prof. Verma held eminent portfolios like Director, Institute of Non-Aligned Studies; Director, Centre for UN Studies; Director, Institute of Human Resource Development; President, The Brotherhood, among others. He has been honored several times by various Universities and Organizations both in India and abroad.
For more details, please visit his website www.interfaithfoundationindia.com
Priya Ranjan Trivedi, Ph.D.
Adviser, Higher Education
Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi (67) is the world renowned environmental scientist, institution builder and a charismatic leader with more than 39 years of teaching and training experience in different areas of ecology, environment, disaster management, sustainable development, peace studies, conflict resolution, human rights, intellectual property rights, ecological tourism, geriatric care and institution building strategies.
He is the Founder Chancellor/Plenipotentiary of the State University “The Global Open University Nagaland” and Founder Chancellor of the “Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University”,
Arunachal Pradesh. He has been responsible for the establishment of many universities and professional / vocational institutions in India as well as in other countries of the world.
He has authored the World Encyclopaedias on emerging subjects like environmental sciences, remote sensing, health care, global peace and security, production and operations management, materials management, bioinformatics, green business management, geriatric care, habitat and population studies etc.
As the President of the Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) created during the NDA regime in the year 2004, Dr. Priya Ranjan Trivedi has tried to unite all the 757 universities in the country for optimising the available resources in the country with a view to stopping the duplication of efforts in the area of higher and tertiary education. During his visits to different countries including USA, UK, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Korea, Mongolia, Zambia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Maldives, Indonesia, Russia, Poland and Thailand, Dr. P R Trivedi has been transferring the appropriate technologies of institution building from India to the rest of the world.
He has received more than 55 international and national awards and appreciations conferred upon him in many countries of the world for his outstanding contribution in the areas of alternative dispute resolution, diplomatic studies, interfaith studies, spiritual development etc.
Dr. P R Trivedi has designed a masterplan paradigm for leading India by providing appropriate guidance to the Government of India in the areas of skill development, entrepreneurial leadership besides managerial competence among the young boys and girls by advocating the slogan “Catch Them Young” so that they could finally become didactics to educate their fathers, mothers, teachers and colleagues, rather the entire neighbourhood with no worries and miseries in the country.
Dr. P R Trivedi is the first person in India to have thought of vocationalising the existing careers of young boys and girls by giving them employment centric education with a view to solving the problems relating to employment as well as unemployableness. He has designed more than 2100 skill based courses with self-instructional study materials for ensuring perfect training in order to achieve the milestone of producing 550 million skilled persons in the country by the year 2025.
Dr. P R Trivedi has envisaged that the two main problems of our country i.e. unemployment and pollution have to be tackled by creating environment friendly and sustainable jobs by designing a job creation policy which could be sustained by the mother earth of our country.
Dr. P R Trivedi has been pioneer in introducing “CLEANLINESS, HYGIENE AND SANITATION EDUCATION (CHASE)” Project for making the students of the schools, colleges and universities aware regarding making their minds cleaner as well as greener so that they may throw themselves into a new environment with full of zeal and enthusiasm so that our country could use their knowledge to the fullest extent of their abilities.