Writer, poet, and agricultural policy scientist Shashank Dattatray Kulkarni from Sakhrale (Urun-Islampur) in Walwa taluka has been awarded Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration by the Central University of Jammu. The topic of his dissertation was ‘Policy Ecocide and National Policy for Farmers: A Case Study of Farm Suicide in Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra.’
For this research, he got the guidance of Prof. Dr. Sanjiv Jain, Vice-Chancellor of the University, and Prof. Dr. Ruchi Chaudhary, Head of the Department.
Shashank Kulkarni is an internationally renowned Agricultural Policy Scientist currently working as Faculty in the Department of Public Policy and the Public Administration Central University of Jammu. He was the founding scholar of the direct Ph.D. program in the department. He has done important work as a Senior Research Fellow of the University Grants Commission. He has been honored by various countries of the world for his research and writing work.
Shashank D. Kulkarni is known as the Father of the ‘Policy Ecocide’ concept. During his doctoral research, he innovated this important concept in the field of Public Policy. His contribution to the subject of Public Policy is recognized by different countries around the world. He is also known for his benchmark work on the National Commission on Farmers, which is popularly known as Swaminathan Commission. He got the opportunity to work with the Father of the Indian Green Revolution, Prof M. S. Swaminathan, at M. S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai. His world-famous book ‘Swaminathan Commission: A Foundation of Farmers Policies in India’ got a preface from Prof M S Swaminathan. This book enlisted in the National Book of World Records as the first book in the world, which is exclusively written by the Swaminathan Commission.
He has written more than ten books in Marathi, Hindi, and English languages on various subjects. He has written in various national and international research journals. He has played an important role in the establishment of Pujya Dwarkanath Shastri National Research Centre.
He is also known as the founder of ‘Baba Laxman Das Rashtriya Smarak Nirman Seva Samiti,’ an innovative social and spiritual movement in Jammu and Kashmir. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the famous Swahili University in South America in recognition of his fundamental research work in the context of India’s agricultural policy.