Mahendra P.Lama appointed IGNOU pro-vice-chancellor

Professor Mahendra P. Lama has been appointed the new pro-vice-chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), an official statement from the varsity said Wednesday.

Lama, 52, was the founding vice-chancellor of Sikkim University set up in 2007, thus becoming the youngest vice chancellor of a central Indian university at the age of 45.

A member of the National Security Advisory Board of the central government, he has a long association with the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where he has been teaching South Asian economies, and is also the chairman of the Centre for South, Central, South-East Asian and South West Pacific Studies.

"He is presently nominated by the government as a member of the steering committee of the coveted South Asian Forum set up by the heads of the states and governments at the 16th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit in 2010," the statement said.

Lama has been nominated by the president to executive boards of various leading education institutions like IGNOU, National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) and Hyderabad University.

Besides authoring and editing 22 books, he has worked on several issues like human security, migration, refugees, trade, investment and energy cooperation in south Asia.

His works have been published in many journals and translated into a number of foreign languages. He also writes regularly in prominent national dailies in India and south Asia.