Context & Background:
Land literacy and land skills as educational priorities remain fragmented and underdeveloped across India and South Asia. The question of how future generations — students, professionals, and citizens — learn to engage with land is rarely addressed systematically.
This session positions education, capacity building, and knowledge dissemination as the missing pillars in the broader land governance reform process. It aims to explore how academic institutions, private organizations, and non-governmental training initiatives are developing innovative ways to embed land into formal, informal, and professional learning systems.
By integrating cross-sectoral experiences from India and the South Asian region, the session will surface innovations in pedagogy, institutional partnerships, and capacity-building models that can shape a new generation of land-informed professionals and citizens.
Focus
To understand and map the evolving ecosystem of land-related education and capacity-building efforts across government, academia, private sector, and civil society — and to identify pathways for embedding land education and professional skills across all levels of learning.
Objectives of the Session:
· Explore cross-sectoral innovations: Understand how different actors — academic institutions, NGOs, and private firms — are advancing capacity building in the land sector.
· Diagnose education gaps: Identify key deficits in land education across schools, universities, executive training, and community learning from government, civil society, and academic perspectives.
· Reimagine pedagogies: Discuss course formats, syllabi structures, and teaching methods that can bridge current gaps and foster land sensitivity.
· Institutionalize land as a profession: Explore how higher education institutions can build interdisciplinary pathways and cultivate land as a recognized professional domain.
· Promote creative learning approaches: Examine storytelling, field immersion, simulation, and case-based learning as means to make land engaging and relevant across disciplines and learner groups.
Expected Outcomes:
A mapped understanding of ongoing capacity-building innovations across sectors.
Identification of scalable pedagogical and institutional models.
A preliminary roadmap for institutionalizing Land Studies within higher education and professional learning systems.
Collaboration ideas for future programs and policy integration.
About the session speakers
Prof Prasad Pathak
Dean - Research, FLAME University
Panelist
Prasad Pathak is a physical geographer with specialization in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems. Using these techniques Prasad studies various environmental phenomena. For his doctoral work, Prasad studied glacial lakes in arctic Alaska for changes in their trophic structure and its links with surrounding landscapes. He completed his doctoral degree from University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), NC, USA.
Prasad has also worked with Center for GIScience at UNCG as a post-doctoral fellow where he was involved in various research projects, development of research proposals, preparing manuscripts, and developing and conducting GIS training workshops.
In India, Prasad has worked with many reputed institutes (government and private). He has also worked at headquarters of ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) in California, USA as an intern.
Currently, he is working on urban issues such as urban heat islands, urban walkability and spatial in-justice.
Prof Narayana A
Professor, Azim Premji University
Panelist
NA
Mr Mohammed Hussain Shaikh
Land Masters Advisory
Panelist
With over 24 years of experience in the real estate sector, I specialize in Land Acquisition, Land Finance Strategy, and Real Estate Education, bridging the gap between industry practice and academic learning. My expertise covers Land Valuation, Land Acquisition, Land Governance , and Land Advisory.
I have played a key role in developing a comprehensive Land Data Bank in Maharashtra, supporting research, planning, and informed decision-making for public and private stakeholders. As an educator and consultant, I deliver specialized lectures, workshops, and advisory sessions on Land Acquisition Management, Land Use Planning, Rehabilitation & Resettlement, and Land revenue, aligning practical insights with policy and compliance frameworks.
My approach integrates academic rigor with industry relevance, fostering a skill-based and application-oriented learning environment. Whether through teaching, consulting, or strategic guidance, my goal is to advance responsible, efficient, and sustainable land governance in India’s evolving real estate landscape.
Mr Janak Raj Joshi
Executive Director, LMTC
Panelist
NA
Mr Gangaraju Saladi
Professor, FLAME University
Panelist
NA
Prof Chaitanya Ravi
FLAME University
Moderator
Chaitanya Ravi’s research interests lie at the intersection of energy policy, environmental policy, land policy, international relations and South Asia. His PhD dissertation at George Mason University, USA was a technological history of the debate over the US-India nuclear cooperation agreement in India. A revised version of his dissertation was recently published as a book (A Debate to Remember-The US-India Nuclear Deal) by the Oxford University Press-India. He has taught energy policy, environmental policy, biology and microbiology at George Mason University and environmental studies at New York University. He also holds a Masters in Environmental Science from Savitribai Phule Pune University.