Key Speaker | India Life Skills Summit

Dr. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan is the Head of the National Education Policy Drafting Committee. He also holds the positions of Chancellor, Central University of Rajasthan; Chairman, Governing Board, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune; Chairperson, NIIT University, Neemrana; Member, Atomic Energy Commission, and Emeritus Professor at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore. He is also a Member of the Council and Trust, Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore and Honorary Distinguished Advisor, (ISRO).

He was with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for a period of nearly 35 years, including nearly 10 years as its Chairman from 1994-2003. He worked on the design and development of early satellite systems of ISRO and played a key role in the shaping India’s remote sensing satellite capabilities. 

He was also a Nominated Member, Rajya Sabha (2003-2009) and later Member of the erstwhile Planning Commission (2009-2014). More recently (July 2017-December 2018), he was the Chairman of the Committee that drafted the National Education Policy.

Dr Kasturirangan is an Astrophysicist. He completed his Bachelor of Science with Honours and Master of Science in Physics from Bombay University. He received his Doctorate in Experimental High Energy Astronomy in 1971 while working at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. He has wide-ranging interests in space science applications, technologies, national and international science-related policies and legal regimes. 

He has been conferred with the Rajyotsava Prashasthi (2014) from Government of Karnataka, the highest civilian honours Padma Shri (1982), Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2000) by the President of India, and Award of ‘Officer of the Legion d’honneur’ (2002) by the President of the French Republic, France.

Dr Biswajit Saha, Director of Training & Skill Education, CBSE, is involved with the design of the curriculum, and development of student resource books, and training manuals. He also monitors the execution of various teachers' training programmes by 16 CBSE- Centres of Excellence.

Prior to joining CBSE, he was a faculty member of Government Engineering College, Agartala and served as OSD (Technical Education), Government of Tripura. He was also associated with Tripura Central University and National Informatics Centre, Govt. of India in various capacities.

Dr Saha handled the execution of various development projects of the World Bank, MHRD and Ministry of Information Technology, as well as Research Projects of AICTE & UGC.

Dr Saha has actively participated in the drafting of NVEQF – rechristened as National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) – notified by Govt. of India in 2012 and 2013 respectively. He has contributed towards drafting of the Credit Framework for Skills and Education by AICTE, MHRD.

Dr Saha has visited various schools, universities, and other educational institutions and industries around the world to gain an understanding of the best practices which can be implemented in the Indian context.

Panellist | Mainstreaming Life Skills in the Indian Education System

Geeta Goel, Managing Director, Michael Susan and Dell Foundation manage the foundation’s operations in India to transform the lives of urban low-income communities through improved education, livelihoods and financial inclusion. In her role, Geeta manages the strategy and implementation of the foundation’s work in India in two key areas: Education and Family Economic Stability. Leveraging a suite of funding tools – grants, contracts and program-related investments (debt, equity and guarantees) – the foundation has committed over $150 million in India. It has over 50 active projects in the country, which are all anchored around our core thesis of Impact, Scale and Sustainability.

Suchetha Bhat is the CEO of Dream a Dream, a non-profit organization that empowers children from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and thrive in a fast-changing world. Since starting her career in 2001, she has worked both in the corporate and social sectors. After a successful 9-year corporate stint where she worked with MNCs such as Larsen and Toubro and IBM, she started her journey in the social sector as a volunteer with Dream a Dream. The experience convinced her to get a Postgraduate degree in Psychology and join the organization full-time in 2010.

Due to her success in driving the scale and strategic direction of Dream a Dream as COO, she was promoted to CEO in 2018. Her pioneering work in developing their design framework has firmly positioned Dream a Dream as a thought leader in the space of Life-skills in India. Under her leadership, the organization has grown from working with 10,000 young people in Bengaluru to over 1 million children across 5 states. Suchetha is on the Advisory Council of Amani Institute and Kizazi. She is also an advisor to many young women social entrepreneurs and non-profits in India. 

Rathish Balakrishnan is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Sattva Consulting. As part of his role, Rathish has extensive experience in conceptualising and implementing large-scale solutions that bring together leading foundations, corporations, civil society organisations and the government. He has extensive hands-on experience across a wide range of sectors across Education, Skill & Livelihoods, Women Empowerment, Migration and Child Rights.

Over the last ten years, Rathish has worked closely with leading non-profit leaders in enabling organisations in enabling orbit shift change. Together with the non-profit leaders, Rathish has designed and helped implement long-term organisational strategies, operational effectiveness initiatives and rigorous governance structures that enable them to scale their impact. Rathish has contributed at both state and national-level policy discussions across education and skill development. He is a published author and TEDx speaker. Prior to Sattva, Rathish worked across multi-national and international organisations across research, engineering, product management and corporate strategy divisions. He is a graduate from BITS Pilani.

Nita Aggarwal is a programme manager at Porticus Asia. She is an experienced development sector professional and has been in the space for close to two decades, with a wide range of experience in education. She has been a key stakeholder in the design and creation of the Life Skills Collaborative.

Panelist | Importance of Life Skills for India's Young People

Abhishek is Chief Operations Officer of YuWaah and has 22 years of work experience across the development and corporate sector. Prior to YuWaah, he was the Advisor to the Deputy Chief Minister of the Government of Delhi on Skills Development & Higher Education. He has also worked with McKinsey Social Initiative, Basix Academy for Building Lifelong Employability Ltd and Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd) where he has worked for unemployed youth and underprivileged young children.  He quit the Corporate sector in 2006 after having worked for 8 years in companies like Oracle Ltd & Reliance Ltd in areas like ERP, corporate finance and accounts.

Abhishek holds a PG diploma from Indian School of Business and lives in Delhi NCR with his wife Sarika and two children Palaash and Khushi.

Panelist | Importance of Life Skills for India's Young People

Richa is the CEO & Co-Founder of Labhya Foundation. She is a Harvard Ministerial Leadership Fellow & Harvard Equity & Inclusion fellow. She holds a degree in Education Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

While being a DRK entrepreneur, Richa has also been recognised as a ‘Rising Talent 2020’ by the Women’s Forum & ‘Best Entrepreneur 2019’ (Takeda Foundation). She is an AVPN Impact Leader, and served on the Board of YuWaah, UNICEF India. She is also on the Steering Committee of Karanga.

Richa was awarded the prestigious recognition “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Young Leader" award by the UN Secretary-General and UN Youth Envoy office. She is among only 17 other leaders globally to receive this award.

Panelist | Importance of Life Skills for India's Young People

Jigyasa Labroo is the co-founder and CEO of Slam Out Loud (SOL), where she leads program development, fundraising and partnerships. SOL is a for-mission, non-profit that uses the transformative power of performance and visual arts to build Creative Confidence in disadvantaged children. Slam Out Loud currently works with 75000 children across four states in India through their in-person programs and through their low-tech response to COVID has been able to create a footprint in 19 countries, reaching 4.7 million children. She has been an Emerging Education Leader with WISE, a global 30 Under 30 nominee of the International Literacy Association and in the 2022 class of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia. Jigyasa studied education as a KC Mahindra scholar at Harvard University and is one of the 2021 winners of Falling Walls, Berlin. Most recently she was awarded Innovator of the year by HundrED, Finland which recognizes innovative education organizations. She deeply believes in the power of finding one’s own voice and engages with music, travel and coaching to constantly evolve hers.

Dr Prerna Kumar has over 18 years of experience in the development sector. As a gender specialist, she is leading economic empowerment programs for adolescent girls and women at ICRW. She is also leading ICRW’s work on gender-integrated life skills through various initiatives. In her current role, Prerna also works with corporate clients to develop gender-responsive strategies and make workplaces inclusive. 

Throughout her career, she has designed and managed large-scale quantitative surveys and qualitative studies for impact measurement and generated insights to develop programs and social and behaviour change communication campaigns. She has strong multisectoral experience specifically in gender, economic empowerment, public health, education and climate change. In her work profile, she has always been responsible for translating research findings into actionable insights. Dr Kumar is also trained in human research ethics and is on the research ethics board.

Sarah Misra is the Chief Operations Officer at Reap Benefit and works with the community to create and nurture champions across the country. She has been the Founder and Director of Chrysalis High and worked as a Chief Learning Officer at Hippocampus Learning Centres. Sarah has completed her PG Diploma in Special Education, Autism from Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

Anurag Hoon is the co-founder and CEO of a Delhi-based band and music non-profit Manzil Mystics. He looks after the organisation's training & development, fundraising, partnerships, accounts and M&E. Anurag is an ex-CEO of Manzil and is an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in the music and development sector for the last 10 years.

Aakash Sethi has over 20 years of experience in education and youth employment programs. He has been engaged in developing networks for knowledge creation and policy advocacy in corporate responsibility and technology for development. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Quest Alliance, an organisation that promotes the use of technology in schools and vocational training to develop self-learning pathways for children and youth.

He is transforming classrooms and skill training programs into vibrant hubs of self-learning; role-modelling teachers as 21st-century facilitators and re-designing education technologies (both traditional to digital). These efforts will put young people in charge of their own learning and career pathways. And, also empower unemployable youth to become motivated self-learners and build 21st-century skills with purpose, choice and confidence. By doing so, he is enabling excluded youth to become ready for the future of work in India. He was an active member of AIESEC the world's largest youth organisation for 5 years. He is an Ashoka fellow and an Asia 21 fellow.  And also serves on the board of children's movement of civic awareness and Dalit Shakti Kendra.

Anurag Hoon is the co-founder and CEO of a Delhi-based band and music non-profit Manzil Mystics. He looks after the organisation's training & development, fundraising, partnerships, accounts and M&E. Anurag is an ex-CEO of Manzil and is an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in the music and development sector for the last 10 years.

Dhanashri Brahme is a postgraduate from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has more than 24 years of rich experience in gender and rights-based programming as well as in the areas of health, micro-finance and adolescent empowerment, at the grassroots, in the government and with the UN alike.

Dhanashri’s recent employment was with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), as National Programme Specialist, Gender. She was responsible for leading overall programme coordination with a specific focus on gender and rights portfolio management that also included government and partner management. Before UNFPA, she worked with the World Bank and IFAD and assisted the Swa-Shakti Project in association with the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Govt. of India. As an individual consultant, she has worked with clients such as the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude and Seva Mandir, Udaipur. The latter was her first exposure to grassroots development, helping to build a keen sense of programming with an eye to ground realities.

Meghana Desai comes with 16 years of experience in the non-profit and corporate sectors. She has diverse experience in leading the design of assessments, impact evaluation, programme design and strategy, educational research, capacity building, government engagement and documentation. She currently leads the monitoring & evaluation of SMF’s initiatives in the education, health and water sectors. She has closely worked with the NCERT, New Delhi in developing a Common Minimum Program for Values Education in schools. She holds a PG Diploma in Business Management (Finance and Mktg) and is an Electronics engineer from NIT Nagpur.

Monal Jayaram is the program director and Faculty at the Piramal School of Leadership, a leading institute in India that specialises in researching and providing leadership development programs for nation-building.  Ms Jayaram is trained as an art historian and has been practising in the field of education for twenty years.

Nikita has over 15 years of experience and has been working with Quest Alliance since its inception. She has worn multiple hats through this journey in areas including strategy, program design & execution, content & facilitation, fundraising, and using technology for learning.  She currently leads the Youth Program which engages with large-scale government systems and networks of civil society partners across the country. She is passionate about systems reform towards enabling career journeys for youth, for that to thrive in 21st-century livelihood spaces.

Suman Bhattacharjea is Director, Research at ASER Centre, the research and evaluation unit of Pratham Education Foundation in India, where she leads a variety of large- and small-scale research projects examining different dimensions of schooling and learning. She holds an undergraduate degree in Economics with Honours from Delhi University, and a Master's and Doctoral degrees in Education from Harvard University.

Mr Vidyadhar Shukla was Deputy Director, MSCERT, Pune. During his tenure with the state government, he served as the head of training programs for SSA in MSCERT and Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad, and as the principal of the State Institute for Audio-Visual Education. He has been a consultant for several agencies including UNICEF. He has authored two books for the D. Ed. course, led the development of curricula and written many training modules and manuals. He advises SMF on programme content, training and working in the government school system.

Vyjayanthi is the founder and executive director of Centre for Science of Student Learning (CSSL); one of the leading providers of diagnostic assessments across South Asia. CSSL is recognized as a thought leader in educational assessments. Their work on measuring Social Emotional Learning is pioneering globally. The organization works in India and globally on diagnostic educational assessments and building institutional capacity for the same. 

A Fulbright Humphrey fellow and an Ashoka fellow, Vyjayanthi regularly consults at the global level for the Brookings Institution, The World Bank, and UNICEF. She also consults for several national governments across South Asia and about 21 governments in Eastern and Southern Africa.  In India, Vyjayanthi is a member of MoE’s technical committees for National assessments and learning outcome indicators, Government of India's SSA Joint Review Missions. She has also served on the advisory board of the Educational Survey Division of NCERT, India. Vyjayanthi also advises the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) in its efforts of improving teacher quality across the country through TET and other reforms. 

Vyjayanthi specializes in psychometrics, modern Item Response Theory, and diagnostic assessments in multiple languages for academic and social-emotional learning domains. In the last two decades, she has pioneered several large-scale assessment studies in India and South Asia. Her insights are derived from over 150 large-scale assessment projects covering more than 25 million students. 

LinkedIn | Ashoka Fellow | Fulbright Humphrey Fellow