Our Team

Vijay is an internationally known Indian rural development professional, social entrepreneur and a policy analyst. He is the founder of reputed organizations such as Pradan NGO and the Basix Social Enterprise Group.  He has also served on the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India Rangarajan Committee on Financial Inclusion and the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms. He has published over 20 papers in prestigious Indian and international journals, contributed chapters in 15 academic books and has authored over 70 papers/articles in the area of rural development, livelihood promotion and employment, microfinance, financial inclusion, social innovations and entrepreneurship. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi, and was mid-career Fellow at the Princeton University, USA.

Prof Chang has a PhD in Material Science from the Cambridge University, 1978. He was a Professor at the National Tsing Hua University of Taiwan, a top University in Taiwan. He began as a research scientist, and then moved to being a telecom technologist, leading work globally, first in satellite and later in mobile communications, filing many patents.  Later, he led Motorola IP Assets division in the US, commercializing over 5000 patents.  He then became a serial tech entrepreneur back in Taiwan. In 1991, Prof Chang became a member of the Legislative Yuan (Parliament) of Taiwan and served for two terms and then has remained active as senior KMT Party Advisor. He was deeply involved with the policy for making Taiwan internationally competitive in hi-tech manufacturing in the 1980s.

Dr Mungekar is an Economist, Educationist, Social Worker and a former Rajya Sabha member. He specializes in agricultural economics and is an expert on Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. He has been a Vice-Chancellor of the Mumbai University and has served in the Planning Commission, the Agricultural Price Commission of India. He has also been the Chairman and President of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla.

Somnath recently retired as Professor & Founding Dean (Academics) at Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur. He held regular faculty positions at three other Indian Institutes of Management at Lucknow, Bangalore and Indore, as well as other management institutes. He worked as a Consultant to the World Bank, Government of India, large corporate organizations like NTPC, Coal India, Union Carbide and social enterprises like Mahila Abhivruddhi Society, Andhra Pradesh (APMAS), and the Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN). He was Visiting Fellow, Cornell University (USA) where he worked with Professor William Foote Whyte, the legendary researcher, scholar and author in Cornell’s Program for Employment and Workplace System (PEWS). He carried out his doctoral work on comparative industrial relations of Germany and India. He is associated with India’s Place in the World theme at RGICS.

Vijay worked with the State Bank of India for 27 years, taking early retirement while he was Regional Manager, in Maharashtra. Since then, he moved to the rural development sector. He served as the Managing Director at the Krishna Bhima Samruddhi Local Area Bank and later Indian Grameen Services. He has also provided development consulting services to TATA Trusts and Credibility Alliance of NGOs. He is an expert in development banking and participative planning with communities. He is a Post Graduate in Commerce and leads the policy lab work in Chattisgarh.

Jeet has been working as a policy advocate and researcher for last more than 12 years with different organizations. He has worked with many organizations including ABC-Active Aid, Sweden; National Centre for Advocacy Studies and Indian Social Institute. Jeet has been awarded with ‘Gandhian Eco-Philosophy Fellowship’ by the Department of Environment, Government of Madhya Pradesh and Sahapedia-UNESCO fellowship by Sahapdedia, Delhi. With his keen interest in cultural documentation, he has co-authored a book ‘Lok Nanda’, describing and analyzing cultural and traditional ecological dimensions of a sub culture in Uttarakhand. A Post Graduate in Sociology and Social work from HNBG University, Sringar, he leads Environment, Natural Resources and Sustainability theme at RGICS.

Yuvraj has worked on policy advisory for International Finance Corporation on promoting sustainable housing in India. He has also worked on a governance project aimed at enhancing property tax revenues and increasing citizen participation for Tumakuru Smart City Limited. He holds a Master of Public Policy degree from National Law School of India University, Bangalore and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Thapar University, Patiala. He leads the Governance and Development theme at RGICS.

Meeth is a Post Graduate in Physics from Germany and an alumnus of Delhi University. He is associated with the Policy Lab in Chhattisgarh and will be involved in the Sadbhavana through Science Education Program for schools in the state. He is associated with for Governance and Development theme at RGICS.