About Me
Dr. Ankur Joshi
I work at the intersection of Bharatiya knowledge systems, management, education and public policy. A central question behind much of my work is simple: how can insights from our Shastra, Gurukul traditions, institutions and lived cultural practices help us address contemporary challenges in education, management and governance?
About My Work
I am an Assistant Professor at FMS-WISDOM, Banasthali Vidyapith. My academic journey has gradually brought together management, public policy, education and Bharatiya knowledge traditions. Rather than studying these as separate domains, I am particularly interested in understanding how they can speak to one another and lead to useful ideas for contemporary institutions.
I completed the Fellow Programme at MDI Gurugram in Public Policy and Governance. My doctoral research studied the Gurukul education system through a postcolonial perspective and explored the insights that this traditional system can offer for improving education in the present context. That research became an important foundation for much of my later work on indigenous research, management education and Bharatiya approaches to knowledge.
Shastriya Prabandhan
One of the important themes of my work is Shastriya Prabandhan: an attempt to understand management through Bharatiya knowledge, culture and institutional experience. It involves looking again at questions of leadership, organization, governance, human development and decision making through Bharatiya categories and ways of thinking.
Education and Gurukul
My doctoral work on Gurukul continues to influence my approach to education. I am interested in character building, Guru-Shishya relations, experiential learning, Shastrarth, holistic development and the possibilities of designing educational systems that emerge from the cultural context of Bharat.
Research and Governance
My research interests include indigenous research methodology, public policy, governance, Bharatiya management, social entrepreneurship and institutional models. I have contributed to research projects and academic initiatives associated with corporate governance, Indian ethos and integrative approaches to management.
Teaching and Training
Teaching is an important laboratory for many of these ideas. I have designed and taught courses related to Indian Ethos, Indigenous Management Systems, public policy, social entrepreneurship and research methodology. I also conduct faculty development programmes, workshops, orientation programmes and training sessions for teachers, students and professionals.
Areas I Work On
Academic and Institutional Engagement
At Banasthali Vidyapith, my work goes beyond classroom teaching. I have been associated with initiatives in research, curriculum development, management education, corporate governance and conscious leadership. My academic collaborations have also included work connected with OMRISE, Buurtzorg and researchers in the Netherlands.
I have contributed to the National Center for Corporate Governance, research and training initiatives in Indian ethos, and academic programmes that explore integrative and culturally meaningful approaches to management. I have also been associated with Vrije University in the Netherlands through academic and teaching engagements.
Author of Shastriya Parenting
My book Shastriya Parenting: Instilling Saatvik Samskar in the Next Generation extends the same enquiry into the sphere of family and parenting. It explores how Bharatiya ideas can help parents think about Samskar, habits, behaviour, learning and the development of children in contemporary circumstances.
Research, Writing and Dialogue
My publications include journal articles, book chapters, teaching cases and other academic writings with publishers and journals in India and abroad. My research has addressed Gurukul education, indigenous management, governance, spirituality, social entrepreneurship, human values and management education.
Alongside formal academic research, I value dialogue and experimentation. Shastrarth, stories, cases, classroom activities, simulations and observation of living institutions often provide insights that cannot emerge from conventional academic methods alone. This website is also a space where I share some of these experiments, reflections and learning resources.
What connects all of this?
The effort is to understand Bharatiya knowledge on its own terms and then explore its contemporary possibilities. For me, this is neither an exercise in reproducing the past nor in adding Bharatiya terminology to existing frameworks. It is an attempt to think afresh about education, management, governance and human development from within our own knowledge traditions and lived experience.