Professor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit is a professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration in the Savitribai Phule Pune University. She holds M Phil and Ph D degrees from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and began her teaching carrier in Goa University in 1988 and moved to Pune University in 1993. She has been associated with and held administrative positions in various academic bodies. Currently she is a member of several statutory bodies including University Grants Commission, Indian Council of Social Sciences Research and Visitor’s Nominee to central universities. Widely travelled Professor Pandit has several academic publications to her credit.  A multilinguistic she speaks Tamil, Telegu, Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and English and can understand Kannada, Konkani and Malayalam and has been a friend of MEI since its founding in 2010.