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Dr Roy did PhD on Sociology from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai India, and M.Tech from Calcutta University. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1980 and held several key positions including the post of Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal. He is well experienced in public policy making and its implementation. He had served as District Magistrates of undivided Jalpaiguri district and undivided Midnapur district, where, in 1990, he led the largest literacy movement of the country and later also launched the people-centered sanitation movement. He was closely associated with implementation of land reforms, land management and support to land reforms beneficiaries while posted in the districts. Dr Roy was instrumental in reforming the Panchayat systems of West Bengal and took up several interventions for alleviation of rural poverty and empowerment of women while working as the Secretary and Principal Secretary of the Panchayat & Rural Development Department of West Bengal.
He established SIGMA Foundation, a Not-for-Profit organization with headquarter at Kolkata, in 2014 after his retirement and continues to be its President. The organization has a team of around 25 professionals who are led by Dr Roy to take up policy research, programme evaluation and implementation of projects on various thematic areas like WASH, Rural Development, Education, Child Protection, Agriculture, Climate Change, Land Use & Management, Local Governance etc.
Dr Roy is a member of the International Union of Population Science, International Water Association, Institution of Engineers, Indian Statistical Institute, Indian Science Congress Association and authored many articles published in international peer reviewed journals.

With more than three and half decades of professional experience in the field of rural and urban development and land tenure/ governance issues, Pinaki started career as a provincial civil servant in West Bengal and also has worked with UNICEF for seven years. Joined Landesa in 2011 and currently as the South Asia Director, Pinaki engages with governments to advocate on land and forest resource tenue issues as a critical component of rural community survival and empowerment, particularly focusing on women. He looks after India, Bangladesh and Nepal programmes.

Shipra Deo leads Landesa’s work to strengthen women’s land rights in India. She is a development practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in managing multidisciplinary programs addressing women’s empowerment, women’s land rights, violence against women, agriculture, collective action, livelihoods and institution building. She has experience working with international agencies such as UNDP, USAID, and BMGF, and has also worked with state governments and national as well as grassroots organizations.  She has worked closely with development projects in South Asia, Africa, and Central Europe with the focus on gender mainstreaming.

Ramesh Sharma serves as the National Coordinator of Ekta Parishad, a mass-based people’s movement for land rights with an active membership of over 250,000 landless poor. Ekta Parishad is widely regarded as one of the largest and most influential people’s movements in India, with an iconic status globally.
As a leading campaigner, Ramesh has been instrumental in planning large-scale mass struggles, campaign strategies, and advocacy initiatives. Over the past 26 years, he has played a pivotal role in strengthening and expanding Ekta Parishad into one of the most significant people’s struggles for land rights in India. He is an active member of several national alliances working on issues related to land reform, farmers’ rights, tribal and Dalit rights, and women’s land rights.
Ramesh has also contributed to public policy through his participation in various land reform committees of the Government of India and state governments. In 2008, he was appointed as a member of the National Committee on Agrarian Crisis and Land Reforms, and in 2012, he was nominated to the National Task Force on Land Reforms (Government of India). In these roles, he has been involved in drafting the National Homestead Rights Act and the National Land Reforms Policy, as well as designing institutional mechanisms for Land Tribunals and other pro-poor legal and institutional reforms.
In addition, Ramesh has collaborated with several international and academic institutions, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Cambridge University (UK), Heidelberg University (Germany), Rutgers University (USA), and the LBS National Academy of Administration (India). He has authored numerous research papers and policy documents on land rights, peacebuilding, gender justice, agriculture, and environmental issues.
Ramesh Sharma is also an active member of several global alliances working on land rights and related development concerns.

Moitreyee Dey holds a master’s degree in agriculture and Rural Development and works in the field of land governance, capacity building, and women’s land literacy. She began her career as a Program Officer at IIT Kharagpur, strengthening local governance and sustainable development initiatives in collaboration with the Bankura district administration. She later worked with the Landesa Foundation for Innovations in Development (LFID), collaborating with the West Bengal Tribal Department to promote women’s land literacy in tribal areas. Currently, she serves as a Program Associate at Gram Niyojan Kendra – Landesa, coordinating programs on women’s land rights, establishing women-led Sangha Facilitation Centres, and inclusive rural development across West Bengal.