Dr Swapan Garain has been active in the voluntary sector for more than two decades. He has been active in teaching university students, training, action research, writing, field action, setting up and managing NGOs, consultancy, networking among social sector stakeholders and promotion of social entrepreneurs.

His work has largely been in the area of structural and behavioral inputs in enhancing organization effectiveness of social sector organizations and the efficiency of delivery of services for the poor, deprived and disadvantaged.

Promotion of Social Entrepreneurship & Affiliations

Dr Garain has been a member of the Government of India's Planning Commission Steering Committee on Voluntary Sector (www.nic.in) for the 10th Five year plan. He was the Group Advisor of IndianNGOs.com, a socio-commercial initiative for professional inputs for strengthening the voluntary sector in India, during its formative years, 1999-2001. Dr Garain has been the Project Director of University of Technology Sydney Project on Asia Pacific Philanthropic Information Network for content development of Indian Third Sector (www.asianphilanthropy.org). He was also a member of the National Advisory Committee of Comparative Nonprofit Project India Country Study of the Johns Hopkins University (www.jhu.edu), USA. Dr Garain is the Founder and Chairperson of Interactive Karma India, an entrepreneurial initiative for capacity building in the voluntary sector and support services to volunteers, donors, and NGOs. He is a trustee of International Institute of Social Entrepreneurship Management and a founder member of Society for Civic Initiatives, Delhi.. Dr Garain served as a member of the Social Infrastructure Committee (CSR) of Mumbai Chamber of Commerce and Industry during 1999-2003. He has also been serving in various corporate and NGO committees and boards.

Dr Garain has helped launch and manage a number of NGOs. He is the owner and promoter of two egroups for NGO professionals and trained Social Workers with about 4000 and 200 members respectively. Some of his current initiatives are : (i) Setting up India's first accreditation service for NGOs, (ii) Forming a national level association of trained social workers, (iii) Launching a Fellow Program for social sector professionals and (iv) Setting up of an association of NGO professionals.

Work Experience

Dr Garain worked with S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) as Professor and Founder Chairperson of its Centre for Corporate Citizenship for two years during 2001-2003. SPJIMR is one of the top ten management institutes in the country. At SPJIMR, he was engaged in promoting corporate involvement with a motto that it makes business sense to invest in social sector. Dr Garain has been teaching and carrying out research at Tata Institute of Social Sciences since 1985. Prior to this, he worked with Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, University of Mumbai and Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, India Program. During two decades of academic work, Dr Garain has been engaged in teaching postgraduate social work students, supervising internship of students, guiding M.Phil & Ph.D scholars, and undertaking independent and sponsored research and consultancy assignments. He has designed, introduced and taught the following subjects to post graduate students : Social Entrepreneurship, Management of Development organizations, Environmental Management and Project Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. He has also been teaching Organizational Behavior and Administration of Social Welfare organizations. In academic administration, he has been the Coordinator for Masters Research, Faculty Coordinator for Job Placement Cell for social work students, and Faculty Coordinator for Social Work Students' Forum, besides serving on committees for purchase & store, computer resources, sexual abuse, academic affairs, employees credit society, etc.. He has also been the acting head of a department running post graduate degree program in the area of management of NGOs during 2000-2001. He has been the examiners for masters and doctoral students at Visva-Bharati University and Shivaji University.

Education

Dr Garain hold a Honours degree in Social Work from Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, Masters degree in Social Work with specialization in Social Welfare Administration from Tata Institute of Social Sciences at Mumbai, Doctorate in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies of University of Mumbai and a Diploma in Management from India Gandhi National Open University. He has done post doctoral work on internet fundraising and also been a Senior Fellow in Philanthropy at Johns Hopkins University (USA).

He has received fellowships and scholarships from Ford Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, Indian Council of Social Science Research, and Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Research and Publications

He has conceived, designed and director more than 10 sponsored research and consultancy projects. He has authored a book titled "Organizational Effectiveness of Non-governmental Organizations" and published a dozen papers in various periodicals. He has presented papers in various national and international conferences.

Travel

Dr Garain has traveled extensively in most part of rural and urban India. In relation to his academic work and professional involvement, he has also traveled to United States, Russia, Northern Ireland, Australia, Thailand, Japan, Turkey, China and South Africa. Interest Area His current areas of interests are : Social Entrepreneurship, Capacity building and management of social sector organizations, Philanthropy, Corporate Citizenship, ICT & Social Sector, and NGO accreditation.