Dr. S. Irudaya Rajan is the chair of the International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD), India, and a leading scholar in migration studies with over three decades of research experience. Formerly a professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), India, he has served as the principal investigator for multiple large-scale migration and aging surveys across India. Since 1998, he has directed the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS), a pioneering study developed in collaboration with K. C. Zachariah (Founder President, IIMAD). The KMS, now in its ninth iteration (2023), has provided critical empirical insights into migration patterns, labor mobility, and remittance economies in the Indian context. The methodological framework developed by Zachariah and Rajan for large-scale migration surveys has been systematically replicated across several Indian states, including Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu, shaping state-level and national migration governance discourses.
Dr. Divya Balan is a faculty member and Area Chair of International Studies at FLAME University, Pune, India. With a doctorate in European Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, she brings over a decade of teaching, research, and field experience to her work on international migration, the Indian diaspora, and refugee studies, fields that stand at the very heart of contemporary global debates. Awarded the prestigious Europe Area Studies Programme Grant during her doctoral studies, Divya also served as an International Research Fellow at the Institute for European Global Studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Currently, she serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute for Migration and Development (IIMAD) in Kerala. In her role as a migration policy consultant for civil society and intergovernmental organisations, she continues to bridge theory and practice, bringing people-centred perspectives into governance.