Archive · 22 Aug 2026
TISS Graduate Killed in Delhi Fire Receives Posthumous Degree
Shrutika Baranwal was a 25-year-old student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
She studied Water Policy and Governance and earned a first-class result.
She died in a fire in Delhi before she could receive her degree.
The fire killed 21 people in total.
Shrutika had travelled to Delhi to complete paperwork for a new job.
Her parents will accept her degree at the institute’s convocation.
The degree will be given after her death, so it is called posthumous.
Her family lost her phone, laptop, bag and other belongings in the fire.
They remember her through the photos and videos she shared.
Shrutika Baranwal, 25, was among 21 people killed in a June fire at a bed-and-breakfast facility in south Delhi’s Hauz Rani.
The Tata Institute of Social Sciences will award her Master’s degree in Water Policy and Governance posthumously at its 86th convocation.
Her parents, Ramesh Prasad Baranwal and Babita, travelled from Bokaro, Jharkhand, to Mumbai to receive the degree.
Shrutika earned a first-class result and had secured a job through campus placement before travelling to Delhi for joining formalities.
Her family said her belongings were destroyed, while faculty praised her work on groundwater preservation and shallow aquifer management.
- Who
- Shrutika Baranwal, a 25-year-old Tata Institute of Social Sciences graduate; her parents, Ramesh Prasad Baranwal and Babita, will receive her degree.
- What
- TISS will award Shrutika’s Master’s degree in Water Policy and Governance posthumously.
- When
- She died in June; the degree will be presented at TISS’s 86th convocation, described in the article as taking place Saturday.
- Where
- She died in a fire at a bed-and-breakfast facility in Hauz Rani, south Delhi; the convocation is in Mumbai.
- Why
- She had completed the course with a first-class result but died before the convocation, so her parents will accept the degree on her behalf.
- Graduate
- Shrutika Baranwal
- Age
- 25
- Degree
- Master’s in Water Policy and Governance
- Institution
- Tata Institute of Social Sciences
- Academic result
- First class
- Fire toll
- 21 people died
- Planned employment
- Rubber, Chemical & Polymer Skill Development Council