Same Language Subtitling on TV in India and its impact on a billion viewers

Research Consortium Members

Dr. Brij Kothari


Project Co-Lead

Brij is on the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and the founder of PlanetRead, committed to scalable solutions for reading and language learning. He conceived Same Language Subtitling (SLS) on mainstream TV in India for mass literacy, in 1996. SLS became national policy in 2019, thanks to his research and advocacy. He is the recipient of the International Literacy Prize from the Library of Congress. He has a Ph.D. from Cornell University.


Role: Research impact of SLS on reading, language learning, school outcomes, school preparedness, information access, equity issues. Policy advocacy.

Dr. Katharina Michaelowa

Project Co-Lead

Katharina is a professor of Political Economy and Development at the University of Zurich. She has worked extensively on primary education quality, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this context, she also served as an academic advisor of the Conference of Francophone Education Ministers (CONFEMEN) for its program on learning achievement. She is currently expanding her work to education in India. She covers a broad range of methodological approaches including experimental and quasi-experimental research.


Role: Exploring the benefits of SLS for reducing inequalities. Lead for SLS in Africa. Policy advocacy. Partnerships.


Dr. Tathagata Bandyopadhyay

Lead: Data and Statistics

Tathagata is the Dean of IIM-A, the lead institution, contributes both institutional backing for SLS.  He is Visiting Professor at Michigan State University, USA (2010, 2012, 2018), Birmingham University, UK (2009), University of Umea, Sweden (2009), Iowa State University, USA (2003, 2005, 2007), University of Georgia, Athens, USA. (2003, 2005). His expertise in statistics will further ensure the quality of our data and quantitative research, to be of use to policy in India and the South. 


Role: Research design, data quality and statistical analysis


Nirav Kumar Shah


Lead: SLS Operations & Implementation

Nirav is Chief Operating Officer of PlanetRead. He has headed the organization right from its inception. Moreover, he was the project coordinator for the Same Language Subtitling (SLS) project which led to the formation of PlanetRead. He graduated from Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Puducherry and has MBA in International Business from Pondicherry University.


Role: Lead, operations and implementation of SLS, Quality assurance for SLS implementation, Technology oversight


Dr. Pekham Basu

Consortium Member

Pekham is a faculty in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India. She completed her graduation in History from Loreto College, Calcutta. Her PhD is on the Widows of the Mine, based on her extensive work on occupational health, violation of labour rights of mineworkers in Rajasthan, India. In the two decades of work in the field, Pekham has worked on violence against women and children, social entrepreneurship, with funding agencies and corporate social responsibility.


Role: Research, Academic publications, Liaison and advocacy with media industry in Mumbai, Fundraising


Ikanshi Khanna


Consortium Member

Ikanshi, as an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Research (CECDR), Jamia Millia Islamia, her role include influencing Early Childhood Development (ECD) domain by conducting researches and developing knowledge material in the area. She teaches Masters Programme in Early Childhood Development (ECD) and contribute to the professional and institutional development for quality improvement of ECD services in India by generating strategic partnerships and discussions with the key stakeholders.


Role: Research, Academic publications, Liaison and advocacy with policy makers in Delhi, Fundraising


Aarti Punjabi

Consortium Member

Aarti holds a PhD in English from Mumbai University titled “Same Language Subtitling through Task-based Teaching to Help Learners in Primary and Secondary Schools Develop Language Skills”.  Her interest lies in development and promotion of SLS to enhance language skills, challenges in assessment and using multimedia in language classroom.  She is a Visiting Faculty for communication at NMIMS and SP Jain Mumbai for post graduate students.


Role: Research, Academic publications, Liaison and advocacy with media industry in Mumbai


Neha Bailwal

Consortium Member

Neha is a Ph.D scholar at the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD).  Neha works in the area of development economics particularly in rural areas with the main focus on social inequality and education. Before joining the Ph.D programme, she worked as a visiting faculty in Department of Economics, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi and as a research assistant in a ICSSR funded project on “Assessment of human well-being in India”.


Role: Research, Academic publications, Liaison between India and Swiss teams, Liaison between project technology needs and IIT-Delhi


Dr. Markus Maurer

Consortium Member

Markus is professor of vocational education at the Zurich University of Teacher Education (Switzerland), with additional teaching mandates at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (NADEL/ETH).  He has been conducting research on vocational skills development in international cooperation, with a particular focus on South and Southeast Asia. Since 2017, he’s been the principal investigator of the Skills for Industry research project, co-funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency (SDC) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).


Role: Research, Academic publications


Dr. Alexander Künzli

Consortium Member

Alexander is Professor of translation studies at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting of the University of Geneva. He teaches audiovisual translation, translation theory, and research methodology. He has conducted research into subtitling from a variety of perspectives (production processes; subtitles as products of these processes; reception). Among his recent publications are a monograph that investigates professional subtitling culture as well as articles on subtitle quality, quality assurance, and subtitling competence. Alexander Künzli worked as a professional subtitler until 2007.


Role: Research, Academic publications, expertise in subtitling research


Dr. Michael C. Prusse

Consortium Member

Michael is Professor of English language teaching (ELT) at the Zurich University of Teacher Education. He has taught extensively in lower and upper secondary teacher education, with a particular focus on teaching English language and the literatures of the English-speaking world. His research covers aspects of subject-specific education, teacher motivation, teaching language and literature, specifically children’s and young adult literature, and bilingual teaching in the local context. Michael has participated in projects that used quantitative methods but is more experienced in qualitative and text-based methods.


Role: Research, Academic publications


Mrs. Viola Asri

Consortium Member

Viola is a postdoctoral researcher at the Thurgau Institute of Economics and at the University of Konstanz. In her work on social protection in South Asia, Viola has used observational and experimental approaches analyzing primary and secondary data. For past 6 years, she has gained experience in collecting data and running field experiments. To ensure the relevance of her research for policymaking, she has partnered with NGOs and government offices such as the Ministry of Social Welfare in Bangladesh.


Role: Research, Academic publications, Lead, for SLS in South Asia (e.g., Bangladesh), Fundraising


Ms. Jalnidh Kaur

Consortium Member

Jalnidh is a Ph.D. student in Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research explores the role of teacher and technology inputs in improving learning outcomes in developing countries. She has worked with J-PAL South Asia as a Senior Research Associate providing field and data research assistance on RCTs evaluating the impact of technology-based education interventions. She is a Rhodes Scholar, holds an M.Phil. in Economics from Oxford University.


Role: RCTs: Ph.D. research with independent oversight of adviser at Columbia U, Academic publications, Liaison with J-PAL, Fundraising.


Sabareesh Ramachandran

Consortium Member

Sabareesh is doing a PhD in Economics at University of California, San Diego. He is currently working on questions about optimising public service delivery in education and healthcare. He was previously working as a Research Associate with J-PAL. He has worked on large scale RCTs in education on measuring the impact of improving school governance and on the accuracy and utility of standardised tests conducted by administrations. He graduated from London School of Economics and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.


Role: RCTs: Ph.D. research with independent oversight of adviser at Columbia U, Academic publications, Liaison with J-PAL, Fundraising.