Jasmeen Patheja is the founder of Blank Noise . Jasmeen was born and raised in Kolkata. Her family, traditional Punjabi business people migrated from Burma in the 1960s. Jasmeen attended one of the city’s best schools, but was always told she should prepare to be married by the time she turned twenty-one. Jasmeen always had the urge to use her creativity to make a difference. After studying psychology, Jasmeen was admitted to the esteemed Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore....
Jun 19, 2023•32 min
Parag Mankeekar is the founder of RealLives Foundation. Parag, a doctor in a rural village near Pune, transitioned from individual patient care to addressing broader public health issues. He created a comprehensive health education system to bridge the gap between social behavior and medical treatment. As a hospital administrator, he resolved disputes, revitalized the institution, and prioritized public health. After experiencing the Gujarat earthquake, Parag recognized the need for disaster edu...
May 22, 2023•41 min
Shannon Olsson is the founder of The Echo Network . Shannon, originally from rural New York, has spent 22 years listening to nature and building sustainable communities in India. With a Ph.D from Cornell University and experience at the Max Planck Institute and National Centre for Biological Sciences, she combines her scientific expertise with non-science sectors to create impactful change globally. As a chemical ecologist with over two decades of experience, she is a sought-after science consul...
May 08, 2023•21 min
Beena Chintalapuri is a founder of Internet Freedom Foundation. With expertise in cognitive psychology, historical and cultural personality types in India, and applied behavior modification, Dr. Beena has identified triggers, responses, and error patterns to correct them through behavior modification. Dr. Beena is transforming the perception of prisoners from being seen as a liability and outcasts within the prison system, to becoming a group of skilled professionals who can apply the principles...
Apr 24, 2023•24 min
Apar Gupta is a founder of Internet Freedom Foundation. Apar grew up in an upper-middle-class family in New Delhi. During his schooling years, Apar had two major interests that started to define the later years of his life, literature and technology. Apar's inclination towards social sciences led him to pursue Law, which not only aligned with his personal interests but also fulfilled his family's desire for a secure degree with promising career opportunities. After graduating from college, Apar ...
Apr 10, 2023•26 min
TITLE: Improving Water Quality Through Communities w/Sunderrajan Krishnan Sunderrajan Krishnan is the founder of INREM Foundation. He has a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Bombay and a PhD in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University. He has been a member of Indian Planning Commission 12th five-year plan working groups for ‘Sustainable Groundwater Management’ and ‘Water Database Development and Management’. Dr Krishnan’s work has mainly been in the two areas of Water ha...
Mar 27, 2023•22 min
Nikita Ketkar is the founder of Masoom Education. Nikita is a postgraduate in Political Science from Mumbai University who successfully cleared the UPSC exam in 1996 and went on to join the Armed Forces Civil Services. After serving as a bureaucrat for a couple of years, she realized that she was not content with dealing solely with files and rules. She began volunteering for various organizations and, in 2001, stumbled upon night schools while working on a project related to domestic help for a...
Mar 13, 2023•27 min
Anil Kumar Verma is a founder of PRAN . Anil proposed organic farming using the system of root intensification to a village in Bihar, but no one wanted to try it except for Kunti Devi. She succeeded in growing rice and inspired other women in her village and neighboring villages to try organic farming. Anil founded PRAN, a nonprofit that works with women farmers using the SRI technique. Women farmers are more inclusive in their thinking and when they earn, their social status increases, giving t...
Feb 27, 2023•37 min
Christopher Turillo is the co-founder of Medha , a youth-centric organisation based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Chris co-founded Medha in Lucknow in 2011 to shape the future of the school-to-work transition by bringing a combination of 21st-Century skills education, workplace engagement, and alumni networks to government education systems. Medha is working with state governments to implement their career readiness programs in all colleges, through training government trainers and increasing inves...
Feb 13, 2023•26 min
Rajesh Trivedi is a founder of Alert . Rajesh's diverse background and strong academic foundation have equipped him with the skills necessary to drive complex IT transformations. With a passion for creating positive impact, Rajesh has a deep commitment to using technology for the betterment of society. He continues to seek out new challenges and opportunities to make a difference in the world through his work. Rajesh's commitment to making a difference in the world led him to leave his corporate...
Jan 30, 2023•26 min
TITLE: Bridging The Gap Between Schools & Communities w/Saransh Vaswani Saransh Vaswani is the founder of Saajha . He graduated from Hans Raj College, Delhi University, a Gandhi fellow. Saransh has also done the Young India fellowship program (Ashoka University). He was also awarded the Echoing Green fellowship in 2014 and was featured in Forbes India’s 30 under 30 list of young achievers. Saransh believes that public education is one of the most accessible tools for social mobility, better ...
Jan 16, 2023•21 min
Anusha Bharadwaj is the founder of Voice4Girls. Anusha has been a development sector professional since 2002 and her core expertise is in child education and health, adolescent health, gender, public health and rural development. She holds an MBA in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) and an MA in Sociology from Annamalai University. In her spare time, Anusha is a documentary photographer and she believes that this lends a unique perspective into the communities she...
Jan 02, 2023•30 min
Biplab Paul is the founder of Naireeta Services . Born in 1970 in the small town of Chinsurah in West Bengal, Biplab went to a local school where he engaged in Indian Scouts and Guides. He fondly remembers his scouts training as teaching him to be empathetic to the needs of others. Biplab completed his master’s degree in economics from Jadavpur University of Kolkata (1994) before taking a course on environmental education at the Center for Environment Education, Ahmedabad. Biplab’s time of over ...
Dec 19, 2022•27 min
Ashok Kamath is the founder of Akshara Foundation . Immediately after obtaining his M.Sc. from IIT Bombay, Mr. Ashok Kamath joined Analog Devices Inc., a Boston-based manufacturer of integrated circuits. Later he set up the Analog Devices India, and retired as its Managing Director in March 2004. He opted to leave behind a successful career in the corporate sector and involve himself in the development sector. Ashok believes that children should not be deprived of quality education just because ...
Dec 05, 2022•30 min
Merlia Shaukath is the founder of Madhi Foundation . Merlia is an alumna of Stella Maris College, London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of Oxford. She comes with an experience of nearly 10 years in the development sector with leadership roles in organisations like Teach For India and Athena Infonomics. She envisions a world where every child has a truly equal chance to achieve their potential. She believes that the foundational literacy and numeracy learning gaps a...
Nov 21, 2022•23 min
TITLE: Developing High Quality Public Education Systems w/Madhukar Banuri Madhukar Banuri is the founder of Leadership For Equity . Born to middle class parents in South India, Madhukar began his education being exposed to farming and studying in a government run school in his village for the first 7 years of his life. He has more than 11 years of experience in the education sector, and had previously worked with Pune City Connect and Teach For India. Madhukar has an engineering degree from BITS...
Nov 07, 2022•29 min
Arundhuti Gupta is the founder of Mentor Together . Arundhuti studied Bachelor of Commerce from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore and Master's in Finance, Manchester Business School. As a soon-to-be college graduate in 2007, she had several ideas about how she could make a difference in her city, but needed an initial push and a safe space to explore her abilities. Mentorship she accessed fortuitously helped her get started and discover how empowering working with young people was. At the start of...
Oct 24, 2022•25 min•Ep. 7
Vishwanath S is the founder of Biome Environmental Trust . He is a Civil Engineer from Mysore University and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from CEPT, Ahmedabad. He holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Urban Environmental Management from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He has designed and implemented many water , wastewater , rainwater harvesting and ecological sanitation systems. He has also worked on policy teams for the writing of the State Water Policy, rainwater harvesting policy and by...
Oct 10, 2022•35 min•Ep. 6
Sanjay Sharma is a founder of Manjari Foundation based at Dholpur Rajasthan. He holds a B.Tech in Agricultural Engineering from Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana, Punjab, India and Masters in Sustainable International Development majored in Development Economics from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Waltham, Boston, MA, USA. Over the years he has been instrumental in shaping favorable and socially inclusive policies at the state and centre level with a mission of poverty e...
Sep 26, 2022•29 min•Ep. 5
Sonal Kapoor is a founder of Protsahan . She attended a convent-run school. Through her education, she was passionate about writing and creative arts. After her school education, she went on to pursue Microbiology and later completed her post-graduation, in business management. Soon after, she took up a corporate job in the mutual fund industry, but soon realized this was not the area she felt satisfied working in. She eventually moved to a corporate communication role and it was in this role, d...
Sep 13, 2022•36 min•Ep. 4
Shubhendu Sharma is a founder of Afforestt . He went through several changes of schools while growing up and eventually went on to study engineering. As part of his final engineering project, Shubhendu created a scrap recycling machine which awarded him the annual prize from the Ministry of Higher Education of Karnataka. Later, Shubhendu was one of seven graduates hired by Toyota of 750 applicants. While at Toyota, Shubhendu signed up for a reforestation program conducted by Miyawaki at the comp...
Aug 29, 2022•37 min•Ep. 3
Farmer Samir Bordoloi is the founder of Spread NE . He was born in the northeast state of Assam, in the town of Jorhat. Upon completing school, he enrolled in Assam Agriculture University (of which he is presently a board member). There, he studied genetic modification of seeds and plants and chemical agriculture, among other agricultural concepts. Samir is dedicated to reconnecting youth with their roots while restoring dignity, agency, and choice to the farming profession, making it an attract...
Aug 09, 2022•34 min•Ep. 2
Rita Banerji is the founder of Green Hub Project which is based in Tezpur Assam. She invests her time in engaging and empowering the youth in conservation education, action, climate sustainability, and social change through the visual medium. She created a digital resource bank for wildlife, the environment, and indigenous knowledge. Rita broke the norms of society to become a wildlife filmmaker which led to the founding of Green Hub. As she builds her team to engage and empower the communities ...
Jul 14, 2022•36 min•Ep. 1
