Anantha Duraiappah is the director of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), UNESCO's first and only Category 1 Institute in the Asia Pacific.

He is responsible for developing the Empathy, Mindfulness, Compassion, Critical inquiry (EMC2) model-the Institute's novel approach on Social and Emotional Learning-to achieving SDG 4. A strong believer in personalized learning and Artificial Intelligence for good, he initiated and oversaw the development of the Institute's Artificial Intelligence-powered General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant learning platform-FramerSpace, now being used across many countries.

He is an academic and science-policy advocate at heart and is a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS). Anantha co-chaired the International Science and Evidence based Education (ISEE) Assessment and the Biodiversity Synthesis Group of the Kofi Annan commissioned Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He continues to publish extensively in the field of economics, environment and education. He is also an avid Kendo player.