Biography
Ramanjit Kaur Johal is a Professor of Public Administration at Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh. Her Masters and PhD from the Department of Public Administration, Panjab University, Chandigarh followed a BA Economics (Hons) from Lady Shriram College for Women, University of Delhi. Prof. Johal’s areas of teaching and research interests include Public Policy and Administration including substantive aspects like environment and agriculture policy, social policy, education, health, urban development, civil society participation and administration of NGOs. She has held various administrative positions in Panjab University including Dean International Students, Director Research Promotion and two terms as Chairperson of the Department of Public Administration. Prof. Johal’s international education and research involvements include leading the Panjab University research team as Co-Investigator for the UK Research Council’s project (TIGR2ESS) led by the University of Cambridge (2018-22), Fulbright-Nehru Education Administrator Program Participant (2016), Fulbright Visiting Lecturer (2011-12), and a Shastri Applied Research Project awardee (2003-06). She is currently a consultant with the UNDP Cell, Department of Planning, Punjab Government and was also consultant to the Commonwealth Asia Youth Programme on participation of youth in governance. She serves on various committees and boards of the government, universities, bilateral agencies, not-for-profits and research institutions in India including the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi and Member, Executive Committee, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI), New Delhi-Calgary.
Research
Prof. Johal’s doctoral research was in the area of Agriculture Policy (storage) and her research areas have been dominated by issues of wellbeing, empowerment of rural communities, food security and public distribution. Her research interests and her commitment to voluntary work and socio-economic development have converged fruitfully. She is leading an interdisciplinary team of over a score faculty colleagues and early career researchers working on impacting well-being in rural communities in the TIGR2ESS project, a Global Challenges Research Fund project led by the University of Cambridge and funded by Research Council UK-India. She conducted an Evaluation of Procurement Operations in Punjab during the Rabi Marketing Season 2019-20, requisitioned by the Food Corporation of India, Government of India. A two-year long Concurrent Evaluation and Monitoring of functioning of the National Food Security Act, 2013 was conducted in Punjab and Chandigarh for the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India (2018-20). She also participated in a major project (2003-06) on “Livestock and Environmental Sustainability: The Case of the Indian Punjab” funded under the Shastri Applied Research Programme of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. She is supervising Post-doc, PhD and MPhil scholars and has undertaken her various research projects with a close-knit group of colleagues and research scholars.
Publications
In Print: Gupta, Bhawna; Johal, Ramanjit Kaur; Kaur, Keeratpal (2022). SDG 2: Zero Hunger in “Punjab 2030 – SDG Wise Road Map”. SDG Co-ordination Centre-UNDP, Department of Planning, Government of Punjab
In Print: Johal, Ramanjit Kaur; Gill, Suveera; Barach, Rohit (2022). SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions in “Punjab 2030 – SDG Wise Road Map”. SDG Co-ordination Centre-UNDP, Department of Planning, Government of Punjab
Accepted for publication: Gill, Suveera & Johal, Ramanjit Kaur (2022). Agrarian Distress in Punjab, the Granary of India: A Prognosis for Public Policy in an edited volume of case studies. Chandler Institute of Governance, Singapore
Aggarwal, M., Johal, R.K. (2021), Rural women entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review and beyond, World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, 18 (4), pp. 373-392. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-04-2021-0039
Government of India, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (2020). Johal Ramanjit Kaur; Gupta, Bhawna & ors (Kaur, K., Bhargava, A., Kaur, R., Bhandari, S.). “Concurrent Evaluation and Monitoring of functioning of National Food Security Act, 2013, in Punjab and Chandigarh”, April 2018-March 2020 (15 reports). http://nfsa.gov.in/portal/Concurrent_Evaluation
Johal, Ramanjit Kaur (2020). Entry on ‘Stamp Paper’ in “Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century”, Rukmini Bhaya Nair & Peter Ronald D’Souza (eds.) Bloomsbury Academic: U.K.
Kaur, Amanjot & Johal, Ramanjit Kaur (2019). Local Governance of Municipal Solid Waste Management – A Case Study of Jalandhar City (Punjab), India. Journal of Governance & Public Policy, ISSN 2231-0924, 9 (1), pp. 99-117
Johal, Ramanjit Kaur & Kaur, Amanjot (2019). Local Governance for Sustainable Solid Waste Management: A Case Study of Chandigarh (Union Territory), India in (ed.) Sustainable Waste Management: Policies and Case Studies, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. ISBN 978-981-13-7070-0 ISBN 978-981-13-7071-7 (eBook), Volume I, pp. 91-106, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7071-7_8
Sharma, S.L., Sandhu, R. S. & Johal, Ramanjit Kaur (2017). Sustainable Cities and Communities: Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable for All (SDG 11) in Vision 2030 Document, Government of Punjab, pp.143-158
Johal, Ramanjit Kaur & Khaira, Dahlia (2015). Transparency and Accountability: An Evaluation of Social Audit under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005. International Association of Schools and Institutes of Public Administration (IASIA) Conference, Paris, 6-10th July 2015. Paper in Conference Proceedings online WG VII: Public Policy, Policy Decision-making and Policy Implementation (http://www.iasia-conference2015.org/programme/)
