Bhaskar Mittra is the associate director of TCI. He oversees the Institute’s India operations and leads the TCI Center of Excellence in New Delhi. In this capacity, he mentors staff and doctoral scholars, designs and manages multi-sectoral research programs, and steers collaborations that integrate agriculture, nutrition, and rural livelihoods within India’s evolving policy frameworks.

Bhaskar’s work blends academic rigor with field-based understanding developed over more than 25 years across India. His professional experience includes a long tenure with the Tata Trusts, where he managed large-scale portfolios in natural resource management, rural livelihoods, and environmental conservation, as well as research roles with the Indian Institute of Forest Management and Peoples’ Science Institute. He has been a vocal proponent of social entrepreneurship in India, a role he picked up during the time TCI was housed at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

His thematic expertise spans community-led natural resource governance, agriculture and food systems, livelihoods and enterprise models, climate and environmental management, and social impact evaluation. He has contributed to international research and policy dialogues, conducted commissioned impact studies for major philanthropic and development organizations, and published papers in journals, including Global Food Security and the Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics. He is a life member of the Agricultural Economics Research Association and serves on working groups of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Ecosystem Management and IUCN Environmental, Economic and Social Policy.

Across his career, Bhaskar has remained deeply connected to civil society networks, grassroots innovators, and public institutions—committed to bridging science, empathy, and sustainability to shape a more equitable, resilient and transformative India.