Manoranjan Pal, former Professor at the Economic Research Unit (ERU), Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), obtained his Ph.D. in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute. He has held visiting faculty positions at academic and government institutions in various countries, including the National Statistical Office of Mongolia; South Asia Institute (SAI), University of Heidelberg, Germany; Centre for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE), Louvain la Neuve University, Belgium; Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malay, Malaysia; and the Department of Statistics, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh. He was Member Secretary of the International Statistical Education Centre for more than ten years. He has published over 100 research papers in reputed national and international journals and books. His research interests include measurement of poverty, inequality and segregation, applied econometrics, measurement of health and nutrition status, gender bias and empowerment of women.

Premananda Bharati, former Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, obtained his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta. He has extensive teaching experience, including teaching courses in Anthropology to graduate and postgraduate students at the Indian Statistical Institute and other universities, including institutes abroad. He is an examiner and paper setter in Anthropology for various universities, and reviews papers for a number of journals. He has published more than 100 papers in reputed national and international journals. His research interests include nutrition and health, anthropometry, empowerment of women and tribal communities.