Team Janaagraha

Ramesh Ramanathan is Co-founder of Janaagraha. Ramesh has also been working in the Indian microfinance sector for close to a decade, with a special focus on urban microfinance. He is Chairman of Janalakshmi, an urban microfinance institution in India. Prior to these social initiatives, Ramesh worked with Citibank in New York and London. When he left to begin his social activities in India, he was MD and Head, European Corporate Derivatives, and a member of the Global Markets Leadership Team, collectively running a business with an annual revenue of over $1 billion.
Ramesh has an MS in Physics from BITS Pilani, an MBA from Yale University, and a Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) degree from the Association of Investment Management & Research (AIMR).

Swati Ramanathan is Co-Founder of Janaagraha. Swati is also Chairperson of India Urban Space Foundation – a non-profit organization focused on improving the quality of spatial planning in India’s cities and towns. Swati was honoured by the CM with the Rajyotsava Puraskar - Rajasthan’s highest civilian award - for her work on Land Title and the development of the master plan for Jaipur. Swati Ramanathan holds a Master’s degree from Pratt Institute, N.Y., and prior to returning to India, has worked in the United States (Van Summern Architecture, Planning and Design) and the United Kingdom (Gensler and Associates).

Kersi Wadia is the Coordinator of the Citizenship Training Programme at Janaagraha. Kersi has been a senior executive with over 30 years experience in sales, marketing, operations, communication and man-management from the Shipping (Liner and Logistics) industry in India and the Asia-Pacific region. He started his career in the Shipping Industry in 1967 and has worked in various organizations in India and abroad. He retired as Chief Executive Officer for Nortrans Marine Services Ltd (NMS) and Trans Asia Shipping Services Ltd (TAS) in 2003. He graduated from the Indian Mercantile Marine Training Ship and holds a certificate of competency as a Master Mariner from the UK.

Archana Sarathy is a Training Associate with Janaagraha. She joined in February 2010. Prior to joining Janaagraha, she worked at Dell International Services as a Fraud and Credit Analysis Associate. She also runs a Voluntary Social Service Group called Ksiti, which works with differently-abled children, towards slum rehabilitation and animal welfare. Archana did her schooling in various parts of India as her father was a decorated infantry officer in the Indian Army. She holds a B.A., LLB degree from Bangalore University.
She is happily married, and is a proud mother to an adorable baby girl. Also, she has six pet dogs, which form an integral part of her life.

T R Raghunandan is the coordinator of the IPaidABribe initiative of Janaagraha. He has more than twenty six years of experience as a high ranking civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service, holding executive, corporate management and policy making positions in the State Government of Karnataka and the Government of India. He was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj Government of India & Secretary, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj in the Government of Karnataka. He is a specialist in formulating policy with respect to local governments and has a special interest in fiscal decentralisation, local government jurisprudence and training and mentoring on local governance issues. After voluntary retirement from the government while holding the position of Principal Secretary, Government of Karnataka, he also works as a consultant and advisor to international development agencies. He holds a degree in Law from the Delhi University and a Masters in Business Law from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.

Awanti Bele is the Manager (Operations) for the IPaB initiative. She has more than six years experience in business analysis and project management in India and the UK with Motorola and Tata Consultancy Services. She holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management, UK and BTech from NIT, Allahabad, India. She is passionate about leveraging technology in the sectors of human rights and social governance.

Unna Govindrajan is Coordinator of the Research programme of Janaagraha and Co-Coordinator of the WISA programme. She holds an MBA and has a bachelors in Genetics. She comes with experience in project management, business development, HR, Training,Teaching and Research in Life Sciences. She has co-published papers in scientific journals.

Pramod Goni is the Coordinator of the Community Leadership Programme at Janaagraha and Co-Coordinator of the Area Suraksha Mitra programme on neighbourhood security through citizen participation. He has worked in the northern diocese of Karnataka for thirteen years (1983-1996) and also in Government and NGO programmes for over a decade. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Divinity from the Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore and a Masters in Sociology from the Karnataka Open University, Mysore.

Bandana Agarwal is a Coordinator for the Bala Janaagraha program. She joined the team recently and brings with her more than twenty years of experience in working with children of all age groups – developing curriculum, computer aided learning modules, and multimedia activities. The two ‘tools’ she swears by are ‘processes’ and ‘creativity’! Bandana holds a degree in Art and Craft for children and has undergone training in various software and multimedia development tools and methodology. Apart from working in an area where she can make a measureable difference, Bandana is deeply interested in folk art and craft and enjoys making eclectic gifts for friends with Madhubani and Warli as a recurring motif.

Sarmistha Pattanayak works as an Associate for the Bala Janaagraha programme. She hails from Bhubaneswar, Orissa. She has completed her Post Graduation in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from Utkal University, Orissa in 2009. During this time, she also volunteered full time with an NGO in Bhubaneswar called Bakul Foundation. This was when she realised her real calling in life - the social development sector. She believes in the fact - " If I want to see certain changes around me then it has to start with me".

Velu Shiva Shankar is the coordinator of the iJanaagraha initiative. He is a media consultant who was instrumental in launching Channel[V] in India; also launched the first private FM radio Station Radio City in Bangalore and launched 18 Radio stations for Worldspace in 10 major languages and genres and launched 10 online radio stations in partnership with MSN-India. He specialises in media start ups and has a proven record of starting successful projects ground up and hiring and retaining the best talent in a start up scenario where the projects were the first of its kind. He has over 15 years of proven experience in Indian media comprising of television, radio and online media. He has a Masters in Communications from the University of Hyderabad.

Poornima Dasharathi works as a Content Manager for the iJanaagraha initiative of Janaagraha. In her previous avatar, she worked in the software industry for 11 years as a business and a technology consultant. She made a career switch in 2006 and started working as a freelance writer. In her free time, she loves to travel and write about her journeys. Her alter-ego says she's a Pico Iyer in the making.

Lavanya Bhise works as a Content Manager for the iJanaagraha initiative of Janaagraha. After getting an Advanced Diploma in Media Studies, she worked as a Content Manager in WorldSpace, India for three years. She is also a professional hobbyist who loves to learn new things, from basket weaving to playing the piano; she then abandons them when boredom strikes.

Sasank Tatineni is the Technical Associate for Jaagte Raho!. Before joining Janaagraha, he worked on his start-up Ceres Information Systems. He completed his Bachelors from Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
Sasank believes that awareness in youth can trigger a change in the course of the nation, as never seen before. This drove him to become a part of Janaagraha.

Prashant Nanaware is the Outreach Manager (Institutions) for the Jaagte Raho! campaign.
Prashant has a two year writing experience in Loksatta (Daily Marathi Newspaper) in Mumbai. He has completed his Bachelor of Arts from Mumbai University in 2007 and has done his Masters in Governance from MIT School of Government-PUNE in 2008.
He is passionate about making a difference to our country and strongly believes in American Poet Maya Angelo’s quote- “Nothing will work unless you do”.

Asim Siddiqui is an engineer with a Bachelors degreee in Electrical engineering from IIT Delhi. Soon after graduation in 2006, Asim ventured into his own telecom startup and then worked with other startups for the next three years before he took cognizance of his social inclinations. With a career ambition in social entreprenuership and political change, Asim joined Janaagraha as the Research & Advocacy Manager for the Jaagte Raho! Campaign. He sees great opportunity in the social sector as an instrument of change for greater impact.

Uthara Narayanan is a Cost Accountant with a Diploma in Youth in Development- a ‘Commonwealth Youth Programme'. She was initiated into the social sector through an International Youth Exchange programme in 2002, Canada. She joined Janaagraha as the Planning Associate for Jaagte Raho! to be the change she wanted to see.

Gautham Ravichander is Co-Cordinator of the WISA project. Prior to his engagement with Janaagraha, he worked for Amnesty international. He holds a Bachelors in Economics from Drexel.

Anjana Krishnan works as a Planning Associate in the WISA project. She holds a Masters in Environmental Biology from Delhi University. Previously, she worked in a UNEP project which involved developing a Sustainable Development Strategy for South Asia. She believes that governance issues are the major roads blocks stalling the country’s progress and Janaagraha gives her an appropriate platform to gain practical insights.

Indu Kumar is a Administration Manager in Janaagraha. He is qualified as Teacher Certificate Higher class (Primary School Teacher) in Bangalore.

Syeda K Shataj is part of the Administration team at Janaagraha. She is a commerce graduate from Bangalore University. She is currently handles the Accounts work at Janaagraha.

Indira Viswanathan is the Coordinator of the Technology programme at Janaagraha. She holds an MS in Computer Science from SJSU, California, USA. She has ten years of experience in the fields of software development, application programming and web development.

Thejesh G N is a resident geek at Janaagraha. He is passionate about social media, social entrepreneurship and technology. He loves applying open source technologies in social sector. He loves blogging, coding, hacking and backpacking. Catch him at http://thejeshgn.com where he blogs about everything on earth.

Sathish S V is Systems Administrator in the Technology Team at Janaagraha. He has a diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He has prior experience as Line Inspector in Motor companies. He completed a diploma course in e-Commerce. Since then he has picked up experience in the field of Information Technology.

Anil Varkey Kuruvilla is Network Administrator in the Technology team at Janaagraha. Anil has a post graduate degree in Chemistry. He has several years of experience in the IT domain, and has worked as Technical Support Engineer with Hard Soft Technologies Pvt.Ltd.

Himanshu Singh works as a technology Associate in Janaagraha. Prior to this he worked with Infosys Technologies for two years. During his Infosys tenure, he also worked in an organization for the under privileged children. He joined Janaagraha to work in campaigns related to civic issues and to learn the ways in which citizens can synergize with the government, as well as utilize his technical skills to leverage technology to fulfill the motive of campaigns. He looks forward to build an organization, based upon a sustainable economic model, to provide financial help for the welfare and upliftment of the poor.

Cheryl Rebello is Coordinator of the Communications programme at Janaagraha and Co-Coordinator of Area Surakhsa Mitra programme on neighbourhood security through citizen participation called. She began her career as Research Assistant on a project at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Since then she has served several roles – as Research Assistant, Lecturer, and Copywriter. She has several published writings to her credit. Cheryl holds a Masters degree in Economics with a specialisation in Econometrics from the Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, Baroda.

K.K. Nayar is Coordinator of the Janaagraha Working Council. He retired as Technical Director for Unilever. He has more than 3 decades of experience in projects and manufacturing management in FMCG, Food, Paper & Chemicals. He has wide spectrum experience in up-gradation, expansion, building new/green field units and commissioning them. He has served on the Board of Unilever Subsidiaries in India, UK and Egypt as an Executive Director where he has focused on Technology, Profit improvement programs Acquisition and Mergers,He has also worked with one of the oldest Venture Capital Management Companies in India.

Sapna Karim, is the Coordinator of the HR& Volunteer Management Programme at Janaagraha. After a 5 year stint in IT she moved to Janaagraha when it launched. She is a graduate in Arts and has undertaken a certification course in software programming.

Anand Rao coordinates the activities of the Janaagraha Advisory Board. He has been a corporate manager from 1972-86, then a company secretary and financial consultant. He was also involved in economic research with the Ministry of Finance from 1966-67. He is a Fellow member of the institute of company secretaries, member of the All India Management Association and was its former regional Vice-president. He is an Economics graduate with a diploma in financial and corporate management.