J K Bajaj

Jatinder Kumar Bajaj is director of the Centre for Policy Studies and, at the time of the award, a member of the national commission examining the sub-categorisation of the Other Backward Classes. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of literature and education, from Delhi ^[1].

From physics

Bajaj was born on 21 March 1952 at Giddarbaha in Sri Muktsar Sahib district, Punjab, and studied at the government school there and at D.A.V. College, Amritsar ^[2]. He earned an MSc with honours in 1973 and a PhD in theoretical physics in 1978 from Panjab University, Chandigarh, and did research at IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay and the University of Madras ^[2].

The Centre for Policy Studies

In 1990 he and a few colleagues founded the Centre for Policy Studies in Chennai, with the aim of understanding India from an Indian point of view ^[2]. Its work includes Annam Bahu Kurvita, on the classical Indian tradition of producing and sharing food in plenty, studies of the religious demography of India, and a body of work on Mahatma Gandhi ^[2].

His research on localities of northern Tamil Nadu in the 18th century gives a detailed picture of how the Indian polity worked before British rule ^[2]. He has also started a programme of resource atlases that map the land and people of individual districts, and has produced them for several districts of Madhya Pradesh and parts of Tamil Nadu ^[2]. He has served on the governing councils of several national bodies and as an independent director on the board of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited ^[2].