Bharat Jhunjhunwala, PhD

Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala acquired his Bachelors Degree in Science (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) from Kanpur University and Doctoral Degree in Food and Resource Economics from University of Florida in 1973 at the age of 23.

He is Trustee of Ganga Today Trust located in the state of Uttarakhand in the Indian Himalayas. He is involved in promoting treatments by Natural Phage Therapy with waters of the Ganga River.

He was Assistant Professor of Economics at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He was consultant to donors and NGOs like Oxfam, Care, Swedish International Development Agency, and Swiss Development Cooperation in the nineties.

He has undertaken extensive studies of economic impacts of hydropower dams. He has published three books on the topic: (1) Economics of Hydropower; and (2) Economics of River Flows: Lessons from Dam Removals in America; and (3) Water: Impact of Dams on its Qualities.

He has been involved in many court cases relating to construction of dams on the rivers. A study on Cumulative Impact Assessment of dams on the Ganga River was commissioned by MOEF pursuant to his intervention. The Kotlibhel 1B Hydro Power Project on River Ganga along with 24 other projects were cancelled because of these litigations. He has argued personally in many cases before the Supreme Court, National Green Tribunal and High Court of Uttarakhand.

He writes a weekly column on political economy which is published in about 20 papers in ten languages in India.

He was awarded the Nachiketa Award by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002 for outstanding contribution to economic journalism.