India at the Crossroads

Speakers

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  Rohini Nilekani

  Chairperson, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies

  Rohini Nilekani is a philanthropist and author dedicated to sustainable development in India. She is the Chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Co-founder and Director of EkStep, a non-profit education platform. As Chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, she oversees initiatives in gender, mental health, justice and climate action. In 2001, she founded Arghyam, a foundation funding water and sanitation projects across India. From 2004 to 2014, she was the founder-chairperson of Pratham Books, a children’s publisher that reached millions of young readers. Rohini serves on the boards of ATREE Environmental Think Tank and Dakshin Foundation. She has advised government agencies on issues of competition, accountability and transparency. In 2017, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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• 
  Rikin Gandhi

  Co-Founder & CEO, Digital Green

  Rikin Gandhi is Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Green. Rikin Gandhi is the CEO and co-founder of Digital Green. He began his career at Oracle, where he received patents for linguistic search algorithms that he helped develop. Later he joined Microsoft Research India’s Technology for Emerging Markets team, where he researched ways to amplify the effectiveness of agricultural development globally. He has published a number of articles and books, including co-authoring Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems Transformation, which constitutes the most authoritative study on the future of local and global agri-food systems. In addition, he has been honored as a TED Fellow, and Ashoka Fellow, and won numerous awards from MIT Technology Review TR35 and the Stockholm Challenge. He holds a Master's degree in aeronautical and astronautical space engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

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• 
  Tim Hanstad

  Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors, Chandler Foundation

  Tim Hanstad is the Vice-Chair of the Chandler Foundation’s Board of Directors, where he served as CEO for five years. Prior to this, Tim co-founded and was the long-time CEO of Landesa, the world’s leading land-rights organization. He led its growth from a two-person team to a leading global NGO with more than 20 offices around the world. He launched Landesa’s programs in China, the former Soviet Union, and India, where he lived for many years and currently resides. Tim is a Skoll Social Entrepreneur Awardee and a WEF Outstanding Social Entrepreneur. He has authored books and book chapters on economic and social development. He holds two law degrees from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific University. He has completed certificate programs at Harvard. However, his greatest learning has come from spending time with those on the socioeconomic margins in more than 20 countries. Tim is the proud spouse of Chitra and father to four adult children.

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• 
  Neera Nundy

  Founder & Partner, Dasra

  Neera Nundy is the Co-founder and Partner at Dasra India, a strategic philanthropic organization that started in 1999. Her overarching goal is to enable social entrepreneurs and funders with the support they need to achieve big goals in areas such as gender, urban resilience, and sanitation through system change and collaborative philanthropy. Neera plays a crucial role in bringing capacity building, knowledge, funding, and networks to the sector. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a fellow of the third class of the Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellowship of the Ananta Aspen Center and a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She is a Board Member of The Hunger Project, American School of Bombay, and Aangan Trust. She is Canadian, has lived in Mumbai for 21 years, runs Dasra with her husband Deval, and busy raising feminist sons – Ayush, Laxman, and Akbar – all teenagers!

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