• Narrative Analysis
• Inclusive Development
• Right to Food
• Social Inclusion
• Child Rights
• Disability Rights
• Community Conservation
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Organic Certification
• NGO Governance

Manikandan is a development practitioner with more than 16 years of experience in the areas of action research, NGO governance, grant management, fundraising, planning, monitoring & evaluation (PME) and operations including finance & human resource management.

He has completed his Masters in Rural Development and Management alongside a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication, both from Gandhigram Rural University, Dindigul. 

His research work is mainly in the areas of right to food and social inclusion with specific focus on urban poverty. He is trained in the use of narrative analysis as a tool to explore beliefs and social institutions. 

He was previously associated with Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory (KGC-Stanford University), Centre for Equity Studies (CES-New Delhi) and the Timbaktu Collective (TC-Anantapur). His association with TC has been the longest, where he was part of their overall operations for more than a decade. He served as its Director (Operations and Administration) before joining the University. 

He has been intrigued by the multitude of elements that lead to societal inequities and is interested in exploring models that thrive to make the world an equitable one. He likes traveling, poetry and listening to people and their stories.