Our Advisors

Prof Ashoke Chatterjee

Prof Ashoke Chatterjee received his education at Woodstock School (Mussoorie), St Stephen’s College and Miami University (Ohio). He has a background in the engineering industry, international civil service, India Tourism Development Corporation, and 25 years in the service of the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad) where he was Executive Director, Senior Faculty, Distinguished Fellow and Professor of Communication and Management. He has served a range of development institutions in India and overseas, particularly in the sectors of drinking water, sanitation, disability, livelihoods and education as well as working with artisans in many parts of the country.  He was Hon President of the Crafts Council of India (CCI) for over twenty years and continues to serve CCI. An author and writer, his books include “Dances of the Golden Hall” on the art of Shanta Rao and “Rising” on empowerment efforts among deprived communities in rural Gujarat. Prof Chatterjee continues to assist design education in India and Pakistan. He lives in Ahmedabad with his son Keshav, daughter-in-law Prativa and grandchildren Kabir and Alisa.

 

Harshita Pande

Harshita is serving as Group Head, Human Resources at Apollo Tyres Ltd, a leading tyre manufacturing company with global office in London. Until recently she was heading the Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability efforts of the company for several years. Apart from leading the HIV-AIDS awareness and prevention programme for the truckers, community engagement and environment initiatives of Apollo, Harshita had been instrumental in making sustainability a key business parameter in Apollo Tyres. Harshita has also led the income generation and women’s empowerment effort in the local communities around the manufacturing locations of the organisation. An Arts graduate from Delhi University, she holds a diploma in CSR from Swedish Institute of Management and a MSc in Sustainability & Responsibility from Ashridge Business School, London. Harshita’s other passion includes classical dancing. She is a student of Birju Maharaj Parampara in New Delhi.

 

Panneer Selvam

Panneer Selvam has over forty years of global experience in managing environmental and social risks and impacts from development projects in diverse sectors. He recently retired from the World Bank as Lead Environmental Specialist after working for over 20 years in different departments in various capacities. Prior to that, he worked with the National Productivity Council for over 15 years in different capacities. In between he worked for the Ministry of Environment’s Ganga Action Plan for over two years. He has Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Annamalai University, India and Masters in Sanitary Engineering from IHE, Delft, Netherlands.

 

Snehanand (Ravi) Sinha

A graduate in Economics from Allahabad University and a PGDBM from XLRI, Jamshedpur – 1977 batch, Snehanand, also known as Ravi by friends and associates, specialised in Marketing and Human Resources during his MBA program. The first phase of Ravi’s career path lasted over 33 years in the corporate world with stints across the functional areas of Sales, Marketing, General Management, Corporate Affairs, and CXO roles in Consulting across several industry verticals and domains in India and overseas. His last assignment was as a Director with Mercer Consulting for South Asia and as a member of the Asia Pacific market development team. In the second and current phase of his career, Ravi has been associated with academia and social enterprises as a visiting / adjunct professor and in various advisory roles. He has been teaching courses around Sustainability, CSR and Social Business and Enterprises. He is a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management and Entrepreneurial Development Institute of India – Gandhinagar.Ravi was also the Founder Chairperson of the Centre for Social Innovation at BIMTECH, Greater Noida. Currently, he is a resource person with Centre for Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad (CIIE, IIMA) and a resource expert at Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, New Delhi. Ravi is a network partner and mentor with Global Social Business Incubator (recently rechristened as the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship) at Santa Clara University, USA, and with the Sustainability Business Model initiative of MART–GIZ. Ravi’s formal association with social enterprises are with Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital, Bihar and SoCHE Foundation, Delhi.

 

Dr Sunita Chakravarty

Dr Sunita Chakravarty is a development professional with over two decades of experience in development sector in South and Central Asia. She has undergraduate in Political Science (Hons) and Masters in International Politics from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. Dr Chakravarty also has Doctorate in Development Communications from the Institute of Communication Research, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA. She has worked with the World Bank and UN as a Social Development Specialist, both as a staff and as a consultant in rural and urban sectors for nearly a decade and a half.  Most of her work was confined to sectors such as water and sanitation, poverty, and environment. She also spent six years with Swedish Government in development assistance to India (SIDA). As a Senior Program Manager, she was responsible for all development assistance from Sweden to India in the urban environment sector. Through her work she has traveled extensively and have experienced, first- hand, the intricacies of development in many of the South and Central Asian countries. Her multi-disciplinary education and training helped her immensely to analyze the challenges of development within a larger and complex socio-economic, political and cultural context than to view them within the simplistic and narrow disciplinary boundaries of economics and politics.