Leadership
Advisory Board of Directors
Mentoring us on all programming engagements at TRIF
Ms. Bharti Gupta Ramola (Chair)
Ms Bharti Gupta Ramola has supported industries, government and development institutions in various capacities, and is currently focusing in improving productivity and last mile delivery using commercially available technology. A partner at PwC from 1984 to 2017, she was part of the founding team of varied advisory businesses (Corporate Finance and Recovery, Project Finance, Sustainability) for PwC in India. Ms Ramola has worked extensively on Financial Sector policy, the first Public Private Partnerships and the first loan portfolio sales in India. She also led PwC’s work on sustainability, climate change and project finance at different stages of her career. She became PwC’s India Market Leader and joined the management team in August 2011 focusing on building the brand and the institution. During this stint, she led the firm in identifying and seeding investment in technology led growth areas. In 2015 she took on additional direct responsibility for PwC’s Financial Services practice.
Ms. Ramola co-promoted the Basix Group of Social Enterprises in 1996 in her personal capacity. She serves on the Governing Body of Lady Shriram College, and advisory committee of Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA) at IIT Delhi and is a member of the Board of Feedback Infra Pvt Ltd.
Ms. Ramola holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a Bachelor’s Degree (Hons) in Physics from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.
Ms. Ireena Vittal
Ms Ireena Vittal is an independent director on the board of Tata Industries. A former partner with McKinsey & Co., she is a recognized thought partner to consumer-facing companies looking to build large-scale, profitable businesses in emerging markets. She has also served government and public institutions to design and implement solutions core to India’s development such as inclusive urban development and sustainable rural growth.
Ireena was a founding member of the economic-development practice and the global emerging-markets practice at McKinsey & Co. After 25 years in the corporate world, she is currently working in the urban and the agriculture spaces and is also an independent director on the board of select Indian companies such as Axis Bank, Titan Company, Indian Hotels, Godrej Consumer, Tata Global Beverages and Wipro as well as on the global advisory board of IDEO.org, a non-profit dedicated to applying human-centered design to alleviate poverty. Prior to joining McKinsey & Co., Ireena worked with Nestle and with MaxTouch (now Vodafone).
Ireena graduated in electronics and has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Mr. R. Venkatraman
Mr. R. Venkataraman is Advisor to Reliance Industries Limited. He is former Managing Trustee of Tata Trusts and is credited with redefining the Tata Trusts’ philanthropic approach, with a view to making it relevant and responsive to the current needs of society. He personally led Trusts’ major health initiative that focuses on issues related to malnutrition in young children and pregnant mothers.
Venkat has over 20 years’ business experience in the areas of finance, business support and strategy. From early 2007 to end 2012, he was Executive Assistant to Mr. Ratan N. Tata, the former Chairman of the Tata Group, until his retirement in December 2012. He continues to support Mr. Tata in the office of the Chairman, Tata Trusts. Prior to his association with Mr. Tata, Venkat was Head of Business Support at Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organization engaged in Education, Science and Community Development, based in Doha.
He has worked in Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mumbai (VSNL), India’s former international, long-distance telecommunications monopoly, now known as Tata Communications, and the Gujarat State Finance Corporation, based in Ahmedabad.
Venkat is a science graduate and has received his MBA from the Sri Satya Sai University. He is also a law graduate from Mumbai University and has completed his Advance Management Program (AMP) from the Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Board of Air Asia India Private Limited and a Trustee of several Tata Trusts and other non- profits.
Dr. Sanjiv Phansalkar
Sanjiv has been engaged in development sector as thought leader, grant maker, writer, teacher, consultant for last 30 years. He has worked closely with Dr. Verghese Kurien in his early professional career.
He was Program Director at the Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts and now heads Vikasanvesh Foundation, a research organization supported by the Tata Trusts. He taught at Institute of Rural Management between 1981 and 1994. He was a freelance consultant during 1994-2005. Sanjiv was Team Leader of the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Prorgam (ITP) from 2005 to 2007.
Sanjiv has authored 7 books, over 20 research papers in national and international journals on small industry, water, livelihoods, civil society, and the co-operative sector, and a large volume of teaching material on these subjects. He contributes a fortnightly column in the e-publication Villagesquare.in; and is a visiting faculty at IIM Udaipur.
Sanjiv is a Fellow of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, from where he also completed his PGP in business management.
Board of Directors
Guiding us on all fiduciary matters at TRIF
Dr. Sanjiv Phansalkar
Sanjiv has been engaged in development sector as thought leader, grant maker, writer, teacher, consultant for last 30 years. He has worked closely with Dr. Verghese Kurien in his early professional career.
He was Program Director at the Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts and now heads Vikasanvesh Foundation, a research organization supported by the Tata Trusts. He taught at Institute of Rural Management between 1981 and 1994. He was a freelance consultant during 1994-2005. Sanjiv was Team Leader of the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Prorgam (ITP) from 2005 to 2007.
Sanjiv has authored 7 books, over 20 research papers in national and international journals on small industry, water, livelihoods, civil society, and the co-operative sector, and a large volume of teaching material on these subjects. He contributes a fortnightly column in the e-publication Villagesquare.in; and is a visiting faculty at IIM Udaipur.
Sanjiv is a Fellow of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, from where he also completed his PGP in business management.
Mr. Ashish Deshpande
Mr. Ashish Deshpande is Chief Finance Officer at Sir Ratan Tata Trusts, and is primarily responsible for support to the programme team in the overall management of grants. He has more than 24 years’ experience in building and leading finance teams with significant operating scale and complexity.
Before joining Tata Trusts, Ashish worked in different capacities at Tata Communications, the erstwhile Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL). He served as Head of Finance at Tata Communications Lanka (TCLL), Colombo, Sri Lanka. At TCLL, his key priorities included supporting the company’s growth, managing critical finance functions, and adhering to regulatory and compliance requirements. He led various projects in implementing automation systems and financial restructuring.
Originally from Nagpur, India, Mr Deshpande is an alumnus of the University of Nagpur.
Mr. Harish Hande
Mr. Harish Hande is an Indian social entrepreneur, recognized as a pioneer of rural energy services across the globe. He is the co-founder of SELCO Solar Light Pvt Ltd and is presently the CEO of the SELCO Foundation. He has received many national and international awards including the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2018) and the Asia’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (2011) for his pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor. Mr. Harish is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Kharagpur.
Ms. Roda Mehta
Ms. Roda Mehta, is doyen of Indian advertising who played a legendary and pioneering role in establishing scientific media planning and buying in India, was the first lady to receive the AAAI Lifetime Award. Roda Mehta joined Hindustan Thompson Associates (now JWT) in 1971 and became the first MBA and first woman in the Media function of an advertising agency in India. She moved to Ogilvy Benson & Mather (now Ogilvy & Mather) in 1975 and rose from Media Group Head to Managing Consultant – the Media Network in 1996. She was Founder Member of the Market Research Society of India (MRSI) and Founder Member and Chairperson – Technical Committee of the Media Research Users Council (MRUC). Currently she is associated as a Trustee of the Lila Poonawalla Foundation and Board Member & Treasurer of Nagrik Chetna Manch.
Ms. Rashmi Shukla Sharma
Ms Rashmi Shukla Sharma joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1984. She is an alumnus of Delhi and Princeton universities from where she earned M.Phil. (Psychology) and a Master’s degree in Public Administration, respectively. She has held senior positions in the Union Government and Government of Madhya Pradesh, apart from various field-level posts in the early part of her careers. Rashmi is known for thought and research leadership in School Education and Local Government. She is the author (with Vimala Ramachandran) of The Elementary Education System in India: A Field Based Investigation of Institutional Structures, Processes and Dynamics (2009), Routledge Press, New Delhi, and Local Government in India: Policy and Practice (2009), Manohar Publications, New Delhi, besides many papers on related subjects in the Economic and Political Weekly and reputed journals. She is deeply engaged with research and teaching in areas related to governance and public policy.
Mr. Anirban Ghose
Anirban Ghose is part of the lead team at Transform Rural India. He has been on the leadership team at India’s leading non-profit PRADAN, working on rural transformation.
Anirban joined PRADAN in 1995 and led the field-based teams in Lohardaga and Khunti districts of Jharkhand. He was Director, Operations, in PRADAN, and was responsible for integration of all activities across the organization, involving planning and implementation of programs, monitoring progress, setting systems, design of strategies, staff development and managing key grants. His role included raising funds and building linkages with multiple stakeholders. As part of PRADAN’s Leadership Group, he was responsible for institution building and positioning PRADAN with stakeholders.
Anirban is recognized as the pioneer of automated book-keeping systems in women’s Self-Help Groups and numerous technologies for development programmes.
Anirban graduated in Business Studies from University of Delhi.
Mr. Anish Kumar
Anish Kumar is part of the lead team at Transform Rural India. He has been on the leadership team at India’s leading non-profit PRADAN, working on rural transformation.
Anish joined PRADAN in 1994. He has been part of the senior management team, looking at overall organization strategy and institution-building. He integrated the finance function, involving raising resources, statutory compliance, and building and managing linkages with stakeholders.
His areas of expertise include creating business organizations run by poor communities and facilitating participation of small-holder farmers in modern value chains. Anish developed and piloted the small-holder poultry prototype; was the CEO of the first poultry co-operative; and then scaled up the model across new geographies. He is a Board member of the National Smallholder Poultry Development Trust, an advisory and policy advocacy body.
Anish has been a member of the Planning Commission Working Group on disadvantaged farmers, and has been involved in designing of policies on producer collectives.
Anish has a post-graduate degree in Forest Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.
Dr Sanjiv Phansalkar
Dr. Sanjiv has been engaged in the development sector as a thought leader, grant-maker, writer, teacher, and consultant for the last 30 years. He has worked closely with Dr. Verghese Kurien early in his career. Dr Sanjiv was the Program Director at the Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts and now heads Vikasanvesh Foundation, a research organization supported by the Tata Trusts.
Dr. Sanjiv has authored several books and has published research in national and international journals on small industry, water, livelihoods, civil society, and the co-operative sector, and also a large volume of teaching material on these subjects. Dr. Sanjiv is a Fellow of Indian Institute of Management, (IIM) Ahmedabad, from where he also got his PGP in business management.
Mr. Anish Kumar