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VesatoGo: Redefining Logistics for the Indian Agrarian Community
March 02, 2020The agrarian community in India holds a lot of potential for growth. Over 14% of India’s GDP is attributed to the agricultural sector, along with…
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What we are reading this month
January 20, 2020Good reads, shows, and podcast recommendations from our social entrepreneurs and our team. Good Reads I am currently reading this book, Why We Sleep: The…
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Eradicating Tuberculosis in India with an Alarm Clock
January 07, 2020While the World Bank states that primary healthcare centres can cater to 90% of all health issues, India remains largely underserved with only 1 primary…
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Creating a Safer Cyber World for Children in India
December 10, 2019Information, education, communication, E-commerce, and services are the biggest advantages of the internet. The internet has tremendous potential and has changed the lives and perceptions…
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Leveraging data analytics to solve the problem of overfishing
December 04, 2019The numbers game – What we consider as information overload is what Team Numer8 considers the solution to many real-world problems. Driven by an aptitude…
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Turn your Trash into Treasure with RaddiConnect
November 21, 2019Overflowing landfills with mountains of plastic and rusting metal is a common sight for the urban dweller. With the growing green conscience of the everyday…
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Eliminating Oral Cancer in Urban & Rural India
November 13, 2019Did you know, oral cancer is one of the most preventable cancers in the world? Yet, oral cancer ranks in the top three of all…
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Reforming under-trials at Asia’s biggest jail through a life-skills curriculum
November 08, 2019At Delhi’s Tihar jail, most of the 14, 000 undertrials await their fate with confusion, disappointment, and helplessness. However, for the inmates in jail number…
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Rakesh Kacker
Mr. Rakesh Kacker IAS (Retd.) is an Independent Director at PTC India Ltd, PTC India Financial Services Ltd and Planetcast Media Services Ltd. He has earlier worked as Secretary to the Government of India and held various posts in the Government. After retiring from the Government he also worked as Director India Habitat Centre from 2014 to 2018. While in Government Mr. Kacker was deputed to the Indian Peace Keeping force as a civilian Advisor from October 1987 to May 1988. He also worked on deputation to TERI ( and is now President of the TERI Alumni Association) and the Indian Wind Energy Association. He was till recently an Independent Director on ONGC Videsh. He has also worked as member/Chairman of several committees of the GOI in the power and coal sectors in the past few years.
Sandesh Kirkire
Sandesh Kirkire has 25 years of experience in financial services covering areas Corporate Finance, Investment Banking and Fund Management. Sandesh spent over 20 years with the Kotak Group in various capacities and was the CEO of Kotak Asset Management from 2005-2014. Sandesh is a visiting faculty at JBIMS.
He is an early stage investor with a startup portfolio across Telecom, Big Data, E commerce, Wearable Healthcare devices and Education. He is Business advisor at Opulent Infotech Pvt. Ltd. and Vegayan Systems Pvt. Ltd, ; Director at Ixsight Technologies; Advisory Board Member at Nimbleheart Inc.
Sandesh also supports philanthropic initiatives and Cofounded Apasarjanam Foundation in Dec 2020 to support passionate people and NGOs working in the areas of education and livelihood.
Isha Mishra
Associate - Incubation & Communications
Isha has a Masters in Gender Studies and is an SBI Youth for India fellow. As part of her fellowship, she has worked on addressing the sustainable livelihood needs of tribal communities in Wayanad, Kerala. Isha’s previous work experience includes positions with The Indian Express, and The Times of India where she wrote and curated articles, and managed the SEO friendliness of WordPress. She has also worked as a freelance writer for development research and advisory groups, academic websites and even fashion portals. During her college years, she dabbled in theater, was part of many literary clubs and participted in activities of the AUD Queer Collective.
Geetika Tondon - Higgins
Associate Director, Impact & Engagements
Geetika has a Masters in Filmmaking and is a registered Project Management Professional. She has 18 years of work experience across the development sector, education management, media & content production, and has been an integral member of the founding teams of multiple startups, including Whistling Woods International, ICE – a Film School for Balaji Telefilms, and Kinsane International. With Annapurna International School of Film & Media, in the capacity of VP Academics, she launched India’s first-degree program for Filmmaking and Media MBA, managing student-faculty-industry partnerships and engagement as well. She transitioned from corporate to the development sector in 2017. Prior to UnLtd India, she handled projects at Atma Mumbai under their Remote Accelerator program and Atma Network.
Kiran Advani
Director, Strategic Partnerships
Kiran in her 40 year career, has spent 11 years in Advertising & Sales with Bennett, Coleman & Co where she interacted with advertising agencies, clients/advertisers from all sectors.
Thereafter Kiran specialised in marketing mega-events as an advisor to Wizcraft and other agencies. She managed funding for some of India’s biggest events like the Michael Jackson concert, Deep Purple Show, UB 40 Concert, McDowells Derby, IIFA Awards for the first 4 years since inception in 2000, Mumbai Boat Show etc. In mid-2007, she entered the field of HR and worked independently for 5 years concentrating on senior placements for select clients. Post this, Before joining UnLtd, she raised funds for Agastya International Foundation.
Manasi Sangekar
Senior Manager, Incubation
Manasi has over 14 years of work experience with varied social organisations. She has worked as the Program Lead with Devang Mehta Foundation Trust and as Team Lead- Citizenship programme with SAHER (Society for Awareness, Harmony and Equal Rights). Prior to this, she has also worked with NASSCOM Foundation on software donations. Apart from her program and team management experience, Manasi comes with networking and alliance building experience. She has partnered with a range of organizations like USAID, United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, SDTT, etc and is well-versed with project appraisal, evaluation, resource planning, project estimation, scheduling, tracking and implementation.
HEMENDRA MATHUR
Hemendra has over 23 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, management consulting and investment banking. Hemendra in his career has invested in several early-stage agritech companies and SMEs in food processing and agricultural supply chain. He is working as Venture Partner with Bharat Innovation Fund –investing in deep-tech start-ups across sectors. Hemendra is also co-founder of ThinkAg – a platform for accelerating the adoption of innovations in agriculture.
R. Mukundan
Mr. R. Mukundan, Managing Director & CEO of Tata Chemicals Limited. An Alumnus of Harvard Business School, during his 29 year career with Tata Group, he has held various responsibilities across the Chemical, Automotive and Hospitality sectors of the Tata Group. He serves on Executive Committees of various industry forums viz. Confederation of Indian Industry, Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Employers’ Federation of India, All India Management Association etc.
Sumit Jain
Akhil Shahani
An MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Akhil Shahani’s twin areas of focus are education and entrepreneurship. His family has been in the education sector for over sixty years, and he continues to fly the flag high. As the Director of the Shahani Group, Mr. Shahani is trying to bring international methods of management education to India through the group’s various initiatives. He believes that a good management education involves not only academic learning, but also developing one’s network, personality and values. Apart from his work with the many educational institutions run by the family, he is also involved with the Kaizen Management Advisors Pvt. Ltd., a Private Equity firm investing in education and also mentors young entrepreneurs in his spare time. He is also the recipient of many awards like the Bharat Shiromani Award, the Bharat Gaurav Award and the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award including mentions in notable educational journals.
Nityanand Singh
Sr. Manager, Incubation
Nityanand has spent the first half of his 17-year long career in capital markets. He has worked with Morgan Stanley and Reliance Capital in diverse roles equity research and Institutional sales. He then entered into the startup space which included working with early-stage as well as growth stage start-ups in various senior roles across sales, marketing, strategy and operations. Individual Learning, which got acquired by Reliance Industries, was the most important stint in this phase. He then took a stab at startup consulting and then entrepreneurship in the Fintech domain. He also ran EDUGILD, an ed-tech focused accelerator and consulted with Furtados School of Music for their new business initiatives.
Besides his love for badminton, he has also learned basic Hindustani classical vocals. He likes reading books that explore human psychology.
Riddhi Mastakar
Associate - Incubation
Riddhi has a Masters in Development Economics from the University of Sussex, UK, where she also worked as a Teaching Assistant, conducting seminars for undergraduate economics students. She loves all things numbers and thrives on analysing data. As a certified mountaineer, she has conducted many hikes in the Sahyadri mountains. In her free time, you’ll find her on her yoga mat or on a slackline at the beach. Her love for fitness activities has also led her to work as a Sales Assistant at Decathlon during her college days, a stint that she immensely enjoyed.
Swati Mankar
Senior Operations Manager
Swati is the backbone of UnLtd India and has been with us since 2008. She looks after the smooth functioning of the organisation from an administrative perspective. No one gets on the team until they have had a thorough conversation with Swati.
Sonu Daga
Finance Manager
Sonu has been a Chartered Accountant since 2011. Extremely meticulous and organised with her work, Sonu handles all things finance flawlessly; reporting and handling of Tax matters, Finalisation of accounts and preparing financial statement, Review and monitoring all tax compliances, computation of Income Tax and filing of Income Tax Returns etc. She loves to keep up with the latest movies, music and books.
Roshan D’souza
Associate Knowledge Director
A veteran of UnLtd India, Roshan is the go-to-person for all information related to boosting your power to creatively think. He has a ton of fun activities up his sleeve that helps you discover different perspectives and colour outside the lines (literally as well). He provides knowledge support to our social entrepreneurs enabling them to achieve maximum impact. Prior to joining UnLtd India, Roshan has been a teacher, a marketer and a product developer. When he isn’t imparting information, Roshan loves to doodle and make objects of lego blocks.
Pradnya Shinde
Associate, Operations
With a total experience of + 10yrs, Pradnya takes care of the overall office management, logistical planning along with a pot load of things. Prior to joining to UnLtd India, Pradnya was a Secretary and Administrative Exec. at Fabdecon Engineers. She loves to spend time with her kids, reading novels and listening to music.
Shilpa Lingayat
Associate, Accounts
Shilpa has all the know-how on managing accounts and administration. Apart from being a numbers wizard, Shilpa has worked as a stage artist in Marathi Cultural Programs for 4 years. She loves dancing, singing and cooking.
Girish Agarwal
Director, Incubation Program
Girish is a Chartered Accountant and has over 17 years of experience in financial services. Earlier as Managing Partner of Finoventure Capital Services, Girish has aided and advised a number of new entities to raise funds and build a cohesive narrative of their entrepreneurial journey. Besides work, Girish uses his creativity and optimism to organise fun community activities for people of all age groups to unlearn unhappiness. He loves reading, running and travelling.
Amitabh Vyas
Senior Manager, Scouting
Amitabh has 15 years of experience in Corporate Social Responsibility aligned with Project Management, Stakeholders Management, Business Development, Alliances and Government Liaison. He has previously worked with Marico Innovation Foundation and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Anshu Bhartia
CEO
With 23 years of working seamlessly in non-profit and for-profit global organisations, Anshu has been providing strategic advisory guidance to promoters of social enterprises. Prior to UnLtd India, she was the CEO of Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network (RRAN) and Friends of WWB. When her calendar isn’t too busy, Anshu loves to take a silent walk amongst the remains of our city’s illustrious past, and unwind with a good diving session.
Pankaj Jain
Pankaj Jain is the Founder at Impact Law Ventures. A corporate lawyer by profession, Pankaj specializes in venture capital and private equity matters, especially in the impact investing and venture philanthropy sector. He is also an ardent advocate of building bridges between law, development and entrepreneurship. He currently advises a number of start-up entrepreneurs, small and growing businesses, social business enterprises, non-profit organizations, impact investors and donor organizations on a range of legal, regulatory and corporate governance issues in India by providing affordable access to a trusted and competent legal counsel.
Jayesh Parekh
Jayesh Parekh is a Managing Partner at Jungle Ventures, a Pan-Asian Venture Capital fund. He was one of the Founders of Sony Entertainment Television and a board member of Sanctum Wealth Management, One Animation, Aavishkaar India II Fund, and Milaap. Jayesh is an active impact investor, and has investments in various Venture Capital funds in Silicon Valley and start-up enterprises across technology and digital media space.
Shalaka Joshi
Shalaka Joshi is the Gender Lead, South Asia for the International Finance Corporation (IFC)- the private sector focused arm of the World Bank – where she works on gender in the private sector. Shalaka has over 17 years of global leadership experience in early-stage investing, social venture, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, livelihoods and market-based solutions to poverty in emerging markets, especially in Asia.
Her social enterprise career began with UNICEF where she worked on micro-planning and building public- private-nonprofit alliances. She also worked with Ashoka, a global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. Her private sector experience includes ICICI Bank – India’s largest private sector bank – where she led the process of integrating private sector partners into the Bank’s initiatives in health, education and micro finance.
Shalaka’s investment experience includes being part of the early team at the IFMR Trust and serving as a Managing Director of Unitus Impact (now Patamar Capital)- an early-stage fund which supports the growth of scalable livelihood ventures in Asia. Shalaka also served as Managing Director, Asia-Pacific for Toniic- the world’s most active network of portfolio investors, supporting ventures and funds across 28 countries. She led Toniic’s expansion into the Asia-Pacific region and as its Chief Investment Officer globally, across asset classes.
A Chevening scholar and an Aspen Global Leadership fellow, Shalaka serves on the Boards of Toniic Global (which seeks to move millions of dollars into impact investing globally), the IEF Entrepreneurship Foundation (which works with Indian State governments to mainstream entrepreneurship) and UnLtd India. She also serves as part of the Investment council for Niti Aayog’s Women’s Entrepreneurship platform and as part of CII’s National Committee on Women’s Empowerment in India. She is based out of Mumbai, India and enjoys poetry, travel and dance.
Richard Alderson
Richard is the co-founder of UnLtd India. With a passion for education, leadership and technology, he has helped start a number of social enterprises in UK and India such as Journeys for Change which takes leaders on immersive journeys to help them make more impact in the world; and Careershifters, which is reinventing career education for professionals moving into more fulfilling work. While not working, he can be found scouring the world for hats, cocktails and the perfect mango. He lives between Mumbai and London.
Pooja Warier Hamilton
Pooja is the Chief Customer Officer at Apolitical, a peer to peer learning and knowledge network for governments and a Board member of Apolitical Foundation supporting the next generation of elected leaders. Prior to Apolitical, she was the Founding and Managing Partner of Conduit Connect, an impact investing platform. She was the co-founder and former CEO of UnLtd India for 11 years, an incubator for social entrepreneurs. She also co-founded Bombay Connect, a co-working space, and Journeys for Change offering immersive experiences for global leaders to learn from entrepreneurs. Pooja is a member of Educate Girls’ UK Advisory Council and Greenwood’s Advisory board. Pooja was selected as a TED India Fellow in 2009, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2013 and an Aspen India Fellow in 2016.
Pooja Warier Hamilton
Pooja is the Chief Customer Officer at Apolitical, a peer to peer learning and knowledge network for governments and a Board member of Apolitical Foundation supporting the next generation of elected leaders. Prior to Apolitical, she was the Founding and Managing Partner of Conduit Connect, an impact investing platform. She was the co-founder and former CEO of UnLtd India for 11 years, an incubator for social entrepreneurs. She also co-founded Bombay Connect, a co-working space, and Journeys for Change offering immersive experiences for global leaders to learn from entrepreneurs. Pooja is a member of Educate Girls’ UK Advisory Council and Greenwood’s Advisory board. Pooja was selected as a TED India Fellow in 2009, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2013 and an Aspen India Fellow in 2016.
Richard Alderson
Richard is the co-founder of UnLtd India. With a passion for education, leadership and technology, he has helped start a number of social enterprises in the UK and India including: UnLtd India, a launchpad for social entrepreneurs in India; Journeys for Change, which takes leaders on immersive journeys to help them make more impact in the world; and Careershifters, which is reinventing career education for professionals moving into more fulfilling work. While not working, he can be found scouring the world for hats, cocktails and the perfect mango. He lives between Mumbai and London.
Vishal Talreja
Vishal co-founded Dream A Dream – a 15-year old professional organization that impacts the lives of 100,000 young people from vulnerable backgrounds through the active support of over 2500 volunteers. Vishal has co-authored a paper along with Dr. David Pearson and Dr. Fiona Kennedy titled, “The Life Skills Assessment Scale: Measuring the life skills of disadvantaged children in the developing world” and published in Social Behavior and Personality: An international journal. Vishal has been recognized as an “Architect of the Future” by the Waldzell Institute in Austria. He is also an advisor and mentor to The YP Foundation and Reap Benefit and is deeply committed to mentoring start-up NGOs and young social entrepreneurs.
Vishal Talreja
Vishal co-founded Dream A Dream along with 11 others. Dream A Dream is a 15-year old professional organization that impacts the lives of 100,000 young people from vulnerable backgrounds through the active support of over 2500 volunteers. Dream A Dream is acknowledged as an innovator in life Skills development amongst young people from urban slum communities, creating innovative ways for community volunteering and setting very high-standards of transparency, accountability and impact. In 2015, Dream A Dream was recognized amongst 10 Champions in the world that are “Re-imagine Learning through Play” in the 21st century by Ashoka and Lego Foundation. Dream A Dream has also being recognized as the Winner of the Outstanding Annual Report Awards; Amongst 8 Regional Finalists at the Apeejay India Volunteer Awards 2011; Winner of the silver award at the Global Sports Forum Barcelona; Awarded the Football For Hope Award from FIFA to support our Dream Life Skills through Sport Program; Runner-up of the Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project. Vishal has co-authored a paper along with Dr. David Pearson and Dr. Fiona Kennedy titled, “The Life Skills Assessment Scale: Measuring the life skills of disadvantaged children in the developing world” and published in Social Behavior and Personality: An international journal, Volume 42, No 2 (2014). Vishal is an Ashoka Fellow, an Eisenhower Fellow and sits on Boards of Unltd India and India Cares Foundation. Vishal has been recognized as an “Architect of the Future” by the Waldzell Institut in Austria. He is also an advisor and mentor to The YP Foundation and Reap Benefit and is deeply committed to mentoring start-up NGOs and young social entrepreneurs. Vishal believes that if we can re-imagine learning to develop empathy, creative thinking, problem solving and collaborative working skills amongst young people, they will be able to overcome adversity and flourish in this fast-changing world.
Manmohan Malhoutra
Secretary-General of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation from 2001 to 2007, ‘Moni’ Malhoutra was formerly Assistant Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and later, a member of the Board of Directors of International IDEA – the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Stockholm. Educated in Delhi and Oxford, he was a member of the Indian Administrative Service (1961-1978) and served in the Secretariat of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from 1966 to 1973. He then moved to London to the Commonwealth Secretariat, where he played a leading role in Commonwealth efforts to end apartheid in South Africa.
Utsav Baijal
Utsav Baijal is the Head of India Private Equity and responsible for the firm’s private equity business in the country. He joined Apollo in its New York office in 2008 and has worked actively on private equity, mezzanine and credit investments across the US and Asian markets. In 2012, he helped Apollo establish a joint venture with ICICI Bank and helped raise one of the largest India dedicated funds, AION Capital Partners. Prior to Apollo, Mr. Baijal was with the private equity team at Bain Capital in Boston, where he worked extensively in the consumer and retail sector. He is on the Board of several companies, including IGT solutions, Clix Capital and PlanetCast Media Services Limited. He is an Aspen Institute Fellow and the recipient of the 2018 IIMA Young Alumni Achiever Award.
Akhil Shahani
An MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Akhil Shahani’s twin areas of focus are education and entrepreneurship. His family has been in the education sector for over sixty years, and he continues to fly the flag high. As the Director of the Shahani Group, Mr. Shahani is trying to bring international methods of management education to India through the group’s various initiatives. He believes that a good management education involves not only academic learning, but also developing one’s network, personality and values. Apart from his work with the many educational institutions run by the family, he is also involved with the Kaizen Management Advisors Pvt. Ltd., a Private Equity firm investing in education and also mentors young entrepreneurs in his spare time. He is also the recipient of many awards like the Bharat Shiromani Award, the Bharat Gaurav Award and the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award including mentions in notable educational journals.
Contact
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