Nidhi Pundhir, Expert, Child Rights

Nidhi Pundhir brings over 15 years of experience and expertise in the area of “Child Rights”, ranging from strategic program development, program management and advocacy, research and networking. She has been associated with a wide range of Internationally renowned organisations that work on “Child Rights” amongst others such as Save the Children, UK, SOS Children’s Villages International Continental Office for Asia and is currently associated as International Program Advisor, Plan-International, UK.

Nidhi has a Masters in Hospital and Health Management from the Indian Institute for Health Management and Research, Jaipur and an M.Phil in Hospital and Health Systems Management from the Birla Institute for Technological Sciences, Pilani.

She advices us on on developing programmes on Energy and Climate Change which is Children sensitive. She also plays a proactive role in helping us evolve overall Governance Structure for the young Foundation.

Smitha Kamath, Expert, Sustainable Development

A wildlife & environment enthusiast and a staunch believer in Sustainable development being critical for us to retain ecological balance for the health and equitable well being of our  and future generations from whom we have borrowed this ecosystem.

She has been on the senior management team of Global Environmental NGO managing organization development.

Studying Environmental law fuelled her passion for exploring structured solutions to integrate Ecological Intelligence with sustainability strategies. After 16 years post engineering career with IT industry driving business transformation initiatives she set up the ‘sustainability solutions’ practice to ICT (information communication & technology) to enable sustainability strategies to effectively minimise ecological footprint of customer organizations.

Smitha has been involved into two key areas:

ICT enabling corporate sustainability program through energy efficiency engineering solutions, Product Governance  and Compliance with Lifecycle management tools, business intelligence and predictive analytics to manage the sustainability goals.

E-governance projects / Public private partnerships – to enable sustainable development of region.

She is currently engaged in exploring sustainable development approach for the developing economies around equitable access to resources and accounting for ecosystem and biodiversity. She advices Vasudha Foundation on precisely these areas.

Abhishek Sharma, Accounts Officer

Abhishek is working in the capacity of Accounts Officer. He has done his post-graduation from Swami Vivekanand Subharti University. He has significant experience in the field of accounts, taxation and other related tasks.

Amar Tomar, Junior Accounts Manager

Amar is an Assistant Accounts Manager by qualification. He has significant experience in taxation, accounting, and other related matters. He has done his post-graduation from IGNOU.

Ashu Rastogi, Research Officer – Energy and Power

Ashu Rastogi has done her Master’s in Renewable Energy Engineering from University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun. Currently She is working as a Research Officer in the Energy & Power Sector of the Vasudha Team. She is currently focusing on career advancement in conventional power generation plants and new and emerging power technologies like RE, EV and Storage. Before joining Vasudha, Ashu has done her Internships from International Solar Alliance (ISA), Gurgaon in Assessment of Solar E-mobility potential and demand aggregation programme and her Master’s Internship from The Celestial Earth, Gurgaon on Carbon Pricing implementation strategy for Bangladesh.

Ajeet Singh Bisht, Assistant Director-Finance

I have more than 15 years of rich experience in finance, accounts & procurement across varied industries. I have worked in various capacities progressively in finance. My area of expertise include Finance & Account Management, Grant Management, Legal Compliance, Budget & Cost Management. I hold a degree of MBA in Finance & HR . My skills & committed work in finance I won ‘Jewel Award’ from Population Services International(PSI).

Ajay Shankar, Manager – Energy Modeller

Ajay Shankar is a sustainable energy professional with an interdisciplinary background and a demonstrated history of working on techno-economic analysis of renewable energy sources, energy trilemma approach based hybrid (PV-BIPV-Wind with BESS) energy modeling & optimization, and smart lighting systems. He is well-versed with PV and BIPV performance evaluation, developing a sustainable and reliable energy solution with optimum cost, writing a proposal/scientific report, and delivering a persuasive presentation. Currently, he is working as Manager-energy modeling at Vasudha Foundation, New Delhi.

He received his B. Tech. in electronics engineering from Shobhit University, Meerut in the year 2012 and obtained his M. Tech. degree in electrical (control and automation) engineering from NIT Rourkela in the year 2014. He was with the energy & power group of the electrical engineering department, Manipal University as an assistant professor for a period of four years between Aug 2014 to Jul 2018. He worked as a research fellow in the energy & power group of IIITDM Chennai from July 2018 to Oct 2021 leading to a Ph.D. degree in energy & power.

Amit Yadav, Assistant Manager - Research

Amit holds a Master’s degree in Climate Science and Policy from TERI University and a bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Delhi. He has work experience as an intern in National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee and The Energy and Resources Institute, Delhi on water and glacier using GIS and Remote Sensing applications. He also has field experience in the same. His areas of interest lie in GIS and Remote Sensing, Environment and Sustainable Development, Glacier Hydrology and Watershed Management.

Dr Akinchan Singhai, Manager - GIS

Dr Akinchan Singhai is a GIS professional and has been associated with research and social development sectors for the last ten years and utilized geospatial technology in different projects related to agriculture, natural resource management, monitoring and evaluation, climate change adaptation, project formulation, technical concept note preparation, participatory rural appraisal etc. He holds PhD degree from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India in Remote sensing and GIS and master’s in Geo-informatics from Barkatullah University, Bhopal, India. He has presented several research papers in conferences and published research articles in peer-reviewed journals and also awarded with prestigious Young Scientist Award of MPCST, Govt. of MP. He is a lifetime member in Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS) and Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA).

Prior to joining Vasudha Foundation, he was associated with Gramin Vikas Trust-KRIBHCO, Noida as a Senior GIS Specialist, National Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), MoES Noida as Project Scientist-C, and Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, ICAR, Karnal as Research Associate. His area of research interest includes exploring remote sensing data and geospatial techniques for planning, evaluation and impact assessment of climate change on agriculture and water sector, renewable energy, web GIS and community awareness etc. He is presently working as a Manager- GIS at Vasudha Foundation, responsible for developing new work programs as well as supporting in other ongoing studies and projects through GIS and remote sensing analytics.

Ayushi Bhatnagar - Programme Officer - Strategic Outreach

Ayushi is a humanitarian and development sector professional. Previously, Ayushi has worked as a Training Officer and Learning and Communications Officer for a leading humanitarian non-profit organisation. She graduated with honours in Geography from Kamala Nehru College, Delhi University and is a university gold medallist with a master's degree in Disaster Management from Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Chetna Ahlawat, Advisor - Climate Research and Network Development

Chetna has worked as a development professional with the Government of Andhra Pradesh and Ministry of Home Affairs in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam respectively. She was involved with tribal farmers in organic farming practices and forward-market linkages as well as raising CSR funds for left-wing extremism affected areas of Visakhapatnam. Additionally, she’s been associated with National Institute of Advanced Studies for her research in rooftop solar adoption in Bangalore. Prior to this, she has advocated for women rights while interning with She Says in partnership with the UN Information Centre for India and Bhutan. Most recently, she’s been working as an independent researcher in the areas of sustainable development and environmental laws and has published a chapter in Springer’s Encyclopedia on UN Sustainable Development Goals. At Vasudha Foundation, she is working on the Energy Transition Platform for south-east Asian nations and Climate, Environment and Development Platform aiming to map the state-level action on climate and development.

Divya Singh, Senior Manager, Energy and Climate Finance

Divya has over 9 years of experience in undertaking research and policy analysis on issues concerning environmental and social sustainability, climate finance, climate mitigation and adaptation, renewable energy, energy justice, and public finance for women and children. During the course of her career, she has worked for national and international research institutions and development organizations. The current focus of her work is climate finance, especially finance aimed at renewable energy and energy efficiency interventions in India. Divya has an MSc in Environmental Assessment and Management from the University of East Anglia, UK, and an MA and MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Gunjan Chawla, Human Resources Officer

Gunjan Chawla, a Human Resource Professional with a Masters in Human Resources Management from Banasthali Vidyapeeth along with a Bachelor's Degree in Human Resource from Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).

She has rich experience in HR - Recruitment, Talent Acquisition. Skilled in Recruitment, Strategic Planning, Employee Engagement, and Organizational Development, Performance management, Logistics, and HR operations.

Currently, she heads the Human Resource department and HR operations for the organisation. In the past, she has worked with Third Sector Partners, an executive search firm that provides recruitment assistance for CXOs and Mid to Senior Management levels across the development space.

Harneet Kaur, Research/Policy Associate

Harneet Kaur has done her masters in Natural Resource Management from University School of Environment Management, IP University and bachelors in Life Sciences from Delhi University. She has worked as an intern under the UNDP’s project –BIOFIN (Biodiversity Finance Initiative) and with Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change under the project entitled “Development of 10 Point Action Plan” for future policy concerning the role of community inclusion in the future forest policy of India.

Jaideep Saraswat, Senior Manager- Clean Energy and Power Sector

Jaideep has experience in areas like program management and execution, strategy formulation, and implementation in the clean power sector. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering with distinction in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) from BITS, Pilani, and a Master’s level University Gold Medallist at UPES, Dehradun in Renewable Energy Engineering (REE).

Jaideep is an avid climate and renewable energy researcher with interests pertaining to the behavioral aspects dovetailed with technology. He also works on developing AI algorithms that are capable of recognizing their bias. Also, he is a bibliophile and has a keen interest in writing short stories, poems, and limericks.

Jasmeet Singh, Programme Manager - Strategic Outreach

Jasmeet is a media professional with over eight years of media and communications experience, particularly in the non-profit sector. Prior to working in the non-profit sector, Jasmeet has worked as a sub-editor and correspondent for United News of India (UNI). He has a Bachelor's degree in IT and PG Diploma in Journalism and International Law.

Manoj Kumar, Office Assistant

Manoj supports all office activities and is involved in assisting Vasudha Foundation with its daily endeavours. He provides administrative and clerical support to others in the office to maintain an efficient office environment.

Mansi Dalal, Policy Officer – Climate

Mansi Dalal holds an M.Phil degree in Natural Resource Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) Bhopal, and has a Master’s degree in Geography from DAVV University, Indore. Previously she worked with Anaxee Digital Runners Pvt Ltd as Operation Executive, where she conducted training to on-field surveyors through online platform about how to conduct the survey and collect data from the farmers/villagers in the remote areas. Currently, she is working as Policy Officer with Climate Team at Vasudha Foundation. Her subject area interest is Rural Livelihood and Climate Change. She carried out her M.Phil. thesis on ‘Climate Variability concerning the Subjective Well-Being and Quality of Life among selected Rural areas of Madhya Pradesh’, and also an academic project on ‘Community perception towards existing healthcare services & identifying gaps in Pillur village (Tamil Nadu)’, with Keystone Foundation. Apart from academics, she is a volunteer for Animal welfare and further works with a Social Welfare NGOs as a Joint Secretary. Being an Ex-NCC Cadet, Mansi held a position of Under Officer and represented MP & CG directorate in Republic Day Camp, New Delhi.

Monika Chakraborty, Policy Officer- Climate and Energy

Monika has obtained her Master’s degree in Climate Science & Policy from Teri School of Advanced Studies and holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Delhi. Before joining Vasudha Foundation, she was an intern at the World Resources Institute, India where she supported the making of India Climate Explorer, a platform to aid policymakers, researchers and stakeholders on India’s climate progress. She has also gained experience in working with regional climate models as an intern in IIT Delhi, Center for Atmospheric Sciences.

Her professional involvement includes working with research organizations, government bodies, and consultancies and she is particularly interested in policymaking, research & analysis, climate modelling, and environment and sustainable development.

Mohit Mishra, Manager Finance

Mohit Mishra  is a development and management professional with 10 years of demonstrated experience in Finance. He has worked under different projects like Health, Education, and women empowerment etc. He did Bachelors of commerce and also has done CA IPCC & CS Executive 1st group. He has significant experience in respect of  Accounting, Taxation , Budgeting and FCRA rules & regulations.

Nikhil Mall, Manager – Clean Energy and Power Sector

Nikhil holds an MTech degree in Renewable Energy from UPES Dehradun. He has worked in multiple sectors like renewable energy, energy efficiency, E-mobility, power, etc. Previously he has worked with Emergent Ventures India Group, Meghraj Capital Advisors, Fichtner India. He has worked with various clients like The World bank Group, IFC, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, SBI, MNRE, etc.

Parul Babbar, Research/Policy Officer

Parul Babbar has done her Post Graduation in Environment and Development course under School of Human Ecology from Ambedkar University, Delhi and did her Graduation in Economics Honors from Daulat Ram College, Delhi University. She has done her internship in World Wide Fund for Nature-India under Environmental Information System (ENVIS) Centre in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Change. She continued working there as a Consultant for 1.5 Years. She has an experience in doing Research related projects such as preparing analytical reports on nature of questions raised in both the Houses of Parliament viz., Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for all three sessions that are Budget, Monsoon and Winter. She has worked in the preparation of both descriptive and statistical reports on different subjects like Climate Change and Meteorology, Energy Studies, Alternative Technologies, Forest Conservation, Pollution and likewise. Other than academics she is a Gold Medalist National Player in Tae-Kwon-Do (Martial Art).

Preethi B

 

Prince Malla, Assistant Researcher

Prince Malla holds a Master degree in both commerce and business administration from IGNOU. He also holds a diploma in Financial Management and Algo Trading from BSE.

He works as an Assistant Researcher.

Raghav Pachouri, Senior Manager - Energy Modeller Power Sector

Raghav has over 11 years of experience in the Indian power sector. During the course of his career, he has worked for Reliance Power and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). At TERI, Raghav worked on the decarbonization of the Indian power sector under TERI’s flagship program, The Energy Transitions Commission India (ETC India). The current focus of his work is energy and power sector modelling, especially aimed at renewable energy integration and decarbonization of the Indian power sector.

Raghav graduated from Uttar Pradesh Technical University with a bachelor's in Mechanical engineering. He has post-graduation degrees in Business Analytics from BITS-Pilani, and Thermal Power Plant Engineering from National Power Training Institute (NPTI), Neyveli.

Rahul KP, Manager – Climate Change

After completing his PGP in Policy, Design and Management from the Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP), Rahul was associated with the Programme Management team of The Urban Learning Internship Program (TULIP) at the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs. He has earlier worked with Swaniti Initiative, as a SPARC Associate, on formulating and implementing constituency development projects for the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. He was also a part of the founding team at Gold Farm, an agro services startup that was building an Uber model for farm mechanization services, largely piloted in Karnataka. During his time as an SBI Youth for India Fellow, he worked with the NGO Seva Mandir on formalizing a concept of an enterprise with locally trained technicians and entrepreneurs that provides decentralized energy solutions to remotely located households in Udaipur.

Rahul Patidar, Assistant Manager- Research and Policy

Rahul is an Energy Professional with experience in executing projects in the area of Energy and Climate Change. He holds a Master’s degree in Energy Management from School of Energy and Environmental Studies, DAVV, Indore. Prior to joining Vasudha Foundation, he was associated with The Celestial Earth, Gurgaon, conducting Energy Systems Analysis and developing long term low carbon pathways for countries and states using quantitative techniques and Energy systems model. He has closely worked with NITI Aayog, Govt. of India in development of national energy planning tool (forthcoming IESS 2047 Version-3). He has working experience with various research organizations and government bodies.

He is presently working as an Assistant Manager- Research and Policy (Energy & Power sector) at Vasudha Foundation, responsible for deepening the foundation’s work in research and analysis of policies and regulatory issues in energy and power sector.

Raman Mehta, Policy/Programme Head

Raman Mehta has worked on different facets of sustainable development, climate change and natural resources management during his career. He currently focusses on issues relating to equity in the context of climate change, integration of climate change concerns into development strategies, plans and programmes in India, and how to overcome barriers in accelerating the deployment of renewable energy sources in the country. In the past, he has worked in the Indian Institute of Public Administration, World Wide Fund for Nature - India, ActionAid - India and the British High Commission/Department for International Development. He has been involved in several research efforts and has a long list of reports and publications to his credit.

Priya Kalia, Senior Manager - Communications

Priya has done her Masters in Advertising and Marketing from Amity University and Bachelors in Commerce (Honours) from Gargi College, Delhi University. She has over six years of work experience in Communications and Project Management. She also has expertise in Graphic Designing having worked on various branding, social media, publishing and marketing projects.

Rini Dutt, Senior Manager-Programmes-Climate and Energy

Rini has work experience in the areas of climate change research; water security for rural communities; and documentation-communication of national as well as international assignments on different aspects of climate change and water supply sector. She has worked for greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory preparations using IPCC methodology and has co-authored the Technical report “Study of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Gujarat State”, published by GEER Foundation, Forest Department-Govt. of Gujarat. She has some other published work and popular articles to her credit too.

Previously, Rini has worked with India's National Communication (NATCOM) to the UNFCCC, Project Management Cell of the MoEFCC as well as with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) for the Co-Chair of IPCC-Working Group III. She is a Chemistry graduate from St. Xavier's College, Ahmedabad and holds a Master's degree in Climate Change Impacts Management from Gujarat University.

Richa Malhotra Sood, Head of Accounts-Finance and Administration

Richa holds a Chartered Accountant degree from the Insitute of Chartered Accountants of India along with a B.Com (H) degree from Delhi University and also a Post Graduation Diploma in Business Administration from Symbiosis Centre of Distance Learning. She has an experience of almost 10 years in the field of accounting, auditing, taxation and other related matters.

Shivika Solanki, Manager - Climate Change

Shivika holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay and a Bachelor’s in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. She has diverse experience in the field of sustainability having worked in the corporate sector as well as grassroot level development programme implementation. She has worked as a SPARC Associate for the then Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) in Sikkim, delving into socio-economic and environmental research at State level while working on programmes such as SAGY and RIDF (NABARD). Her last stint at IORA Ecological Solutions saw her working in climate change adaptation research and policy analysis spanning across climate change mainstreaming, SAPCC, ecosystem services and GHG inventory.

Shubhi Gupta, Research Officer - Climate Change

I am Shubhi Gupta. I hold a Master’s degree in the field of Environmental Sciences from Tezpur University and a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science from Central University of Rajasthan.  Prior to joining Vasudha Foundation, I have worked at The Celestial Earth as  Research Associate where I worked on creating a Union territory Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. I was an intern at the World Resources Institute, where I contributed in collecting relative data for the Urja Dakshata Platform and Carbon Simulation project.

Sonam Sinha, Research Officer - Energy

Sonam holds an M.Tech degree in Energy Engineering from Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi. Currently, she focuses on the power mapping of conventional and renewable power plants. Previously she has worked in VIBGYOR Energy- a Solar EPC Company. Her research interest area is the transition from conventional to renewable energy in India.

Srinivas Krishnaswamy, Chief Executive officer

Srinivas Krishnaswamy, an economist by training, has over a decade of experience working on the issues of economic reforms, sustainable development and the environment. He set up Vasudha Foundation in January 2010, with an aim to promote environment -friendly, socially just and sustainable models of development by focusing on alternative technologies and lifestyle solutions. The foundation is currently working on a wide range of projects around renewable energy, energy efficiency and policy-related campaigns, and lobbies both at the national and international level, while promoting green and alternative technologies at the grassroots level creating the crucial link between energy and poverty alleviation in a short span of four years, Srinivas helped steer Vasudha Foundation in implementing a wide range of projects that include facilitating a few states in the preparation of their State Climate Action Plans, preparing a detailed institutional strengthening plan for the nodal agency implementing the State Climate Action Plan of Madhya Pradesh, which has been accepted by the Madhya Pradesh Government and is being implemented.

Srinivas also led the Vasudha team in the preparation of detailed energy plans for the districts of Moradabad, UP and Mandla, Madhya Pradesh. The district energy plans also include a detailed economic viability plan and also an implementation plan, that focuses on making these districts self-sufficient in meeting their energy needs with the entire district’s electricity supply coming from clean and renewable energy.

Srinivas was also a member of a small consortium of individuals/organisations that successfully initiated the setting up of a multi-stakeholder platform for Renewable Energy in India, which is scale and technology-neutral and caters to both grid and off-grid renewable energy solutions. The platform, which is known as the Indian Renewable Energy Federation is now up and running and has a governing council comprising of imminent people from India in the Green Energy Space. Srinivas is also a member of the Governing Council of the Indian Renewable Energy Federation (IREF) and is also a member of the core governing team of IREF.

Swati Gupta, Policy Officer – Climate

Swati Gupta holds a master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi. She previously worked as a Research Associate at Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED). Where she focused on the role of decentralised renewable energy in empowering Bihar’s health sector. Her current research interests include climate change, sustainable development goals, and ecological restoration.

Tanya Goel, Programme Officer - Strategic Outreach

Tanya has a PG Diploma in English Journalism from Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC). Prior to that she graduated with a Bachelors and a Masters in Political Science from Maitreyi College (Delhi University) and from IGNOU, respectively. She has worked as a Lifestyle and Entertainment Sub-Editor with India Today Digital. When not working, Tanya enjoys her me-time reading fiction and non-fiction, The Kite Runner being her favorite novel. She enjoys dancing, and law of attraction and mental health are amongst her favorite topics of conversation.

Vasundhra Khanal, Assistant Administrative Officer

Vasundhra Khanal has done her B.Com from Delhi University. She has expertise in handling events and managing administration related tasks. She is pursuing post-graduation from IGNOU.

Varun BR, Senior Policy Officer - Power Sector

A Mechanical Engineer turned policy student, Varun graduated from the National Law School of India University with a Master’s in Public Policy. His dissertation revolved around business models to improve the financial viability of distributed energy resource projects. In his previous role with the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy, he was involved in projects revolving around behavioural energy efficiency and market transformation of electric two-wheelers. He was also part of the Public Affairs Index team, which is a data-based framework that measures the quality of governance imparted at the subnational level, and worked on an Impact evaluation project in association with the Government of Karnataka. Varun’s primary areas of interest include renewable energy, sustainable mobility, and development economics.