INK Studio is an idea accelerator vertical of INK that takes up impact and purpose driven programs and catalyzes the journey of the program to the next level.
The programs are from diverse fields such as art, technology or social development. Each program is different and so is the approach to its management and execution. INK Studio spurs the growth of the idea by connecting the innovator behind the idea to the right set of people. It also provides advisory services and supports fund-raising efforts for the program.
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Community Pure Water (CPW) works with rural communities to build efficient and sustainable water purification centers. CPW provides reliable access to safe drinking water in rural communities of India.
INK Studio is an idea accelerator vertical of INK that catalyzes a program’s evolution to the next level. Currently the Studio team is working with partners on three diverse programs.
#RestartIndia was conceptualized as a means to assist small businesses get used to the ‘new normal.’ We guide, train and provide reference resources to small businesses and equip them with skills to do their business more efficiently.
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Our newsletter brings you up to speed with our leadership programs, partnerships, events and new initiatives of the INK Community.
Acting as an accelerator for ideas and people, the INK Community is a vibrant network of people from across the globe that have come together through our impact-driven programs, engaging events and conferences. The goal of the INK Community is to help people turn their ideas to reality and support each other in their pursuits.
Prior to forming Emotiv, Nam Do co-founded and ran SASme, a pioneer in providing SMPP platforms to telecommunication carriers and content aggregators in Australia and Asia. In 1995, Nam won one of Vietnam’s most prestigious study abroad scholarships. Nam came to Australia’s RMIT University under a full merit scholarship, and started his first technology company in his final year. A regular guest-lecturer at Harvard Business School, HAAS Business School and Stanford University, in 2007, Nam was voted as one of Australia’s Top 10 Digital Entrepreneurs.
UNTOLD STORY: In 2003, Nam Do had dinner with Professor Allan Snyder FRS. They discussed at length about Allan’s work on non-conscious mind with autistic savants. At 4am, Nam told Allan, you know what, the last 20 years have been the era for DSP (digital signal processing), the next 20 years will be the era for ESP (emotional signal processing). Allan loved it and that’s how Emotiv was formed.
Tom Wujec is a pioneer in business visualization, the emerging practice of using images, sketches and data-driven infographics to help teams solve complex problems. Tom�s work has been featured in many international conferences, such as TED, Pop!Tech and the Fortune Innovation Summit. Tom is also the author of three books on creative thinking and is a highly sought after international speaker, delivering visually rich innovation keynotes, workshops and knowledge maps. He has brought several software applications to market, including Autodesk SketchBook Pro, PortfolioWall, and Maya which won an Academy Award for its contribution to the film industry. Tom has worked as a creative director, writer and animator, has designed dozens of museum exhibits, and lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.
BOOKS: Five Star Mind, Pumping Ions, Return on Imagination
WEBSITE: www.tomwujec.com
Simon Lewis is a film and television producer and author. After earning law degrees from Christ’s College Cambridge and Boalt Hall, Berkeley, Lewis moved to Los Angeles where his Hollywood experience includes managing writers, directors and stars as well as producing Look Who’s Talking (1989), The Chocolate War (1988), the Emmy award-winning international co-production for HBO and ITV Central Age Old Friends/A Month of Sundays (1988), and variety specials starring Howie Mandel.
He is the author of Rise and Shine (June 2010), his inspirational autobiography about his journey from near death back to consciousness.
UNTOLD STORY: Simon attributes his belief that life is best lived at the cutting edge to a Swiss friend who showed him how to ski the yellow mogul runs at Zermatt, and achieve balance on the edge of a cliff. He’s been taking creative risks and leaning out over precipices ever since.
BOOKS: Rise and Shine
WEBSITE: www.simonlewis.us; www.riseandshinethebook.com
Sandy Smolan is an award-winning director whose work spans features, documentaries and television. His debut feature film Rachel River was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. 12 Stones, his documentary about the transformation of a group of illiterate women in Southern Nepal, won the jury Prize in 2009 for Best Short Documentary at the Tallahassee and Newport Beach Film Festivals.
Smolan has directed over 50 hours of network prime-time television series, including Brothers& Sisters, Ally Mcbeal, and Northern Exposure. He has begun using the web for both corporate branding and social advocacy, directing the original web series “In Gayle We Trust” and “First Day”, and films about sustainable development for the Gates Foundation.
Untold Story
Sandy directed his first documentary in North Africa. Although robbed of all his film and cameras (later recovered) the night of his 21st birthday, the experience kindled a deep love of travelling which remains undiminished.
Rives is a poet and multi-media artist from Los Angeles, who applies new technologies to ancient art forms. He has appeared on Romanian billboards, in Scottish pubs and inside a 1964 Cadillac with a supermodel for the Bravo TV special Ironic Iconic America. He is the co-host of the annual TEDActive conference and his hobby is rooftops. Offstage, Rives designs and writes pop-up books. He has appeared on multiple seasons of HBO�s Def Poetry Jam and was a member of the Def Poetry international tour group.
Untold Story
I was kicked out of college for attending too long. I should have been kicked out for forging my high school transcript, but I never got caught.
“I like to open the doors to people’s brain.”
Philippe Starck is an internationally acclaimed French creator, designer and architect. This tireless and rebellious citizen of the world, who considers his duty to share his ethical and subversive vision of a fairer world, creates unconventional objects whose purpose is to be ‘good’ before being beautiful. Most of his designs have become cult objects and his hotels have become timeless icons, adding a new dimension to the global cityscape.
Being an enthusiastic advocate of sustainability, this visionnaire recently developed the revolutionary concept of ‘democratic ecology’ by creating affordable wind turbines for the home, soon to be followed by innovative prefab ecological wooden houses and solar boats.
Untold Story
He lives with his wife Jasmine, mostly on the airplane and in Paris, Burano and his oyster farm in southwest of France.
WEBSITE: www.starck.com
Since 1988, Nancy Duarte’s firm has created over a quarter of a million presentations. As one of the largest woman-owned businesses in Silicon Valley, her experience working with global companies and thought leaders has influenced the perception of some of the world’s most valuable brands and many of humanity’s common causes. Fascinated by presentations as the most powerful persuasive medium, Duarte determined to crack the code on why some presentations are riveting and others are unbearable. In Fall 2010 she released Resonate—Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences which identifies hidden story structures inherent in great communication.
Untold Story
Nancy does her best thinking about 40 minutes in to a demanding 3-hour hike in the foothills of the Silicon Valley. At the summit, she sits on a bench and gushes over the valley because it has been like the land of milk and honey for her.
BOOKS: Slide:ology, Resonate
WEBSITE:www.duarte.com
If Michael Foley’s behind a product, expect a technological marvel that is strong on both form and functionality.
Michael Foley first made his mark with stunning designs that gave a contemporary makeover to Titan Industries. He joined Titan Industries in 1995 as a product design intern, grew to head the Titan Design Studio in less than a decade, and later became Titan’s Chief Creative Advisor. Michael’s design experience ranges from wrist watches, sunglasses, and fashion jewelry to retail design and visual merchandising. In 2006, Michael felt the need to take design on to an even bigger platform and the studio – ‘Foley Designs’ – was incorporated with specializations in product design, packaging, graphics, space design, brand identity and more. ‘Intuitive design’ is a focus for the studio.
Untold Story
Michael draws an innate association to the purity and wonder of nature. The implicit simplicity, with which natural entities are created, inspires him infinitely.
BOOKS: A compilation across books on the creations of Leonardo da Vinci
Mami is a well-known singer in Mizoram. Her debut album, Damlai Par, released in 2007, was rated as the top selling album of the year and led to a hat-trick of awards at the Mizoram Music Awards; Best Female Singer, Best Music Video and Song of the Year for the title track. Her following three singles reached the top 10 leading to another prestigious MMA in 2008. Mami recently released her new music video Hmangaihna Vanduai Maw with her second album to follow next year.
UNTOLD STORY: I was recently invited to a school year function, I had a television appearance later on in the evening, so, feeling guilty, I made my excuses and left early, telling them to be sure to watch the telecast live on local cable that night. I got home, changed, did my make-up and waited to be collected, and waited, and waited… Eventually, I called them. The date was for the following week! I was totally embarrassed – the worst part is that when my mom got home – her advice was “Drink a glass of water and sleep on it!!”
Leonie Casanova is a London-based singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Zambia to an Italian father and Zambian mother, and schooled in Swaziland, England and the USA where she studied Economics and French Literature, Leonie�s colourful and almost nomadic background has deeply informed her approach to songwriting and to the intrinsic and essential story-telling element of this process. Leonie crosses and fuses genres and musical textures fluidly which allows exploration of what she calls �an endless work playground�.
UNTOLD STORY: Leonie thinks her obsession with mangoes and her ability to sit and �observe the world� may have something to do with days spent climbing and sitting on mango trees as a child in Zambia!
In the early days of Disney in India, he was MD with responsibility for setting and driving The Walt Disney Company’s strategy, coordinating all business efforts in India including overseeing Disney global franchises in the market, expanding existing businesses, and creating new business opportunities.
Samat originally joined Disney in 2007 from Johnson & Johnson, where he was the Managing Director, Southern Europe, J&J Vision Care, based out of London.
Pampa is a private equity investment firm and a pioneer in agribusiness and food investing in Latin America, one of largest and most dynamic agricultural regions in the world. They serve clients worldwide.
Mr. Trujillo has more than 21 years of experience in private equity, agribusiness investing and financial markets.
To this end, his company provides innovative and sustainable solutions in the power sector that includes metering solutions, turnkey power projects that include rural electrification, and established manufacturing facilities.
Their renowned R & D Center has been recognized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.
This has enabled them to be a leading force for the development and implementation of new technology across the board.
As the Co-Owner and CEO of ByQuest, Ingrid has been a leading trend setter in brand creation and expression in packaging by continually innovating glass design and environmentally safe 100% recycled glass packaging to enhance brand value for their customers by its impactful visual identity.
Gurpreet Sandhu is a Senior Director, Client Platform & Systems (CPS), CCG. He has 23 years of industry experience in all aspects of system/product hardware design and has been leading platform & system hardware design teams at Intel for the last 15 years.
He also leads Platforms & Systems Center of Excellence (CoE) initiative that has led to collaborative development of platform, reference and product designs across various business groups.
As the Founder and CEO of Myelin Foundry, a deep tech product start-up, Dr. Gopichand Katragadda brings a wealth of experience as an innovator in developing pioneering products, collaborator of strategic technology and research, and facilitator of company growth.
Dr. Gopichand was Group CTO and Innovation Head of Tata Sons, MD of GE India Technology Centre, Independent Director at Bosch India Ltd and VP of IET, Board of Trustees, UK.
As Chief of Commercial Officer at EOS Energy Storage Balki Iyer puts his passion for renewable energy into action, affecting millions of LIVES every day.
He is a leading advocate of renewable energy and has run several organizations and promoted the use of wind and solar panels in India which has resulted in the lighting up of millions of homes across the length and breadth of India.
This Walt Disney quote best describes Atul Jalan. Atul shifts between his roles as an entrepreneur, a technologist, and a thought leader with the greatest of ease and is equally comfortable in all his avatars.
He has been fascinated by the many ways that life and technology converge and feels fortunate to have grown up in an era where science fiction is fast becoming reality.
As the MD of Patni Financial Advisors, during his leadership, the firm is in charge of managing deployment of assets across listed securities, debt instruments, real estate and other alternate assets in India, UK and the US.
As the Founder of Design Dimensions, Aparna’s Kakrania’s passion for design led her to create Design Dimensions in 1997.
Today, Design Dimensions is a full-fledged design company that provides graphic design, customized branding, logo design, website design, web development, stationery, wedding card design, interior and space design and printing and publication services in multimedia formats.
As a third generation member of the Patni family, Amit began his career in the family business.
He was involved with Patni Computers, a promoter and shareholder and former Director of PCS Technology, Co-Founder of Nirvana Ventures, Director at Campden Family Connect – a wealth management agency that is relevant for first-generation entrepreneurs as well as individuals who have inherited wealth.
Vineet Agarwal started his career in 1996 and is currently the Joint Managing Director of TCI, India’s largest logistics company. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and the Owner President Management program from Harvard Business School. He is currently serving as a Member, Governing Council of All India ManagementAssociation (AIMA) and is a Member of the CII National Logistics Committee and CII National Retail committee. He is also serving as the Chairman, Urban Infrastructure Committee in Assocham and as the Regional (South Asia) Education chair for Young Presidents Organziation. He is involved in various social work through his family’s foundation and is an avid reader & a marathon runner.
Trishla grew up in India and attended the American Embassy School – her worlds mixed the east and the west together to enrich her worldview. She majored in English literature at Stanford and learned how to teach English to high school students at Teachers College, Columbia. She is also a self-taught artist and makes huge, textured paintings inspired by the impressionist masters Van Gogh, Klimpt and Monet. She is a spiritual enthusiast – the path of self-realization has always compelled her. Yaoga, pranayama and meditation are constant companions in her life.
Susan Wojcicki is Vice President of product management at Google responsible for the design and innovation of all of Google’s advertising and measurement platform products, including AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick and Google Analytics. She has managed AdSense product management since inception in 2002, and has led all advertising programs on Google.com and its advertising network since 2006.
Susan joined Google in 1999 as the company’s first marketing manager and worked on the initial viral marketing programs as well as the first Google homepage doodles. She also led the initial development of several key successful consumer products, including Google Images, Google Books and Google Video.
Before joining Google, Susan worked at Intel and was a management consultant at Bain & Company and R.B. Webber & Company. She graduated with honors from Harvard University, holds a master’s in economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and an MBA from UCLA.
A teacher by profession, and a mentor at heart. Sunita Devadas has worked at Yokohama International School (YIS), Japan, for the past 13 years. As an English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher at YIS, where the language of instruction is English, she considers it a privilege to have worked with students from various language backgrounds from around the world, and to have guided them in their journey of acquiring proficiency in academic English.
A valuable learning for her from this journey has been the ability to look for strengths, as a starting point in any teaching/learning situation, and to realise that mentorship is at the heart of teaching. After over two decades of living in Japan, Sunita has recently moved to Hong Kong.
After 23 years in the US, Sanjay Parthsarathy moved back to Chennai, India, with his family in 2009. He is now a very early stage startups investor in India while working on starting up a consumer Internet business. Of his 23 years in the US, 19 were at Microsoft and four at MIT. Sanjay’s last role at Microsoft was as corporate Vice President of the Startup Business Accelerator, a new division he created to focus on building startup businesses within Microsoft. He was corporate Vice President of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group from 2000 to 2007. He built the D&PE division from 0 to over 1,500 people worldwide and grew Microsoft’s software development tools business from $500 million to $1 billion. Sanjay was the regional director of Microsoft’s South Asia Region from 1996 to 1998 and directed Bill Gates’ first ever visit to India in 1997. This hugely successful visit led to a massive expansion of Microsoft’s activities and investments in India. It also had a catalytic effect on the Indian software industry. Sanjay ran www.microsoft.com and the Internet security product unit, and started out at Microsoft on Windows multimedia and then the Interactive TV effort.
Sanjay is on the Executive Board of the MIT Sloan School for the Europe, Middle East, South Asia and Africa Region. He has a master’s degree in engineering from MIT, a master’s degree in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Anna University in Chennai, India.
Sanjay captained the Anna University cricket team in 1985 and have represented Tamil Nadu state and the South Zone in under-19 cricket (1982) and under-15 cricket (1980). He has also represented Tamil Nadu in under-22 cricket. He was the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) junior school cricketer of the year in 1980 and a recipient of the S.W. de Allwis Trophy (L. Sivaramakrishnan won this in 1979 and 1981). Sanjay has played for the Madras Cricket Club and Young Men’s Association in TNCA first division cricket. Sanjay loves photography and carries a camera where ever he goes.
Radha Kantipudi is the chief trustee and CEO of the The Taara Collective a non-profit Social Enterprise that identifies and enables entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for women and girls in developing nations by offering skills development and incubation support to gain economic independence. She also serves on the board of 2 educational institutions in rural Andhra Pradesh in india. These institutions offer undegraduate programs in science, business management, liberal arts and engineering (EE, CSE, IT, Civil, Automobile). She was the key promoter in setting up an institute for paramedical sciences offering diploma courses in nurses and medical diagnostics to economically backward women.
Prior to this Radha worked for over 14 years at INTEL in the US, Asia Pacific Region(including China), Japan and India covering various business functions in strategic planning, business development, deal making, program management and operational management. As Director of Business Development for Intel’s New Business Initiatives she was responsible for identifying, structuring deals and raising capital for new ventures in the areas of High Frequency Retail and Online Advertising, Rural Data Services (Affordable WiFi to rural areas to enable businesses) and Consumer Infotainment/Kiosk Based Content Distribution. In her role as Business Development Manager for Intel’s Digital Home Group she developed the business strategy, gives/gets, contract negotiation/support and relationships for enabling Fellow Travelers on Viiv platforms with broadcast companies (DIRECTV), Content Companies, Gaming Solution Providers,technology providers for content management and Carrier Companies. Prior to that Radha was the Head of the Customer Business Solutions for the APAC/Japan and her team was responsible for re-engineering and implementing solutions related to Order Fulfillment, Demand Creation, Logistics, Finance and DistributioniSupply Line in Asia for Intel products delivering over $100M in business value. She influenced the industry to implement various eCommerce standards and developed the strategy and vision for the Channel and Marketing areas in support of the channel growth goals of the Sales and Marketing Group with no increase in supply chain and distribution costs.
Radha has a masters degree from Arizona State University in Finance/Accounting and Information Systems and a commerce degree from Osmania University.
Pramod established Genpact (formerly GE Capital International Services) in 1997. Under his leadership, Genpact pioneered the Business Process Outsourcing industry in India. Genpact has also been the pioneer in this industry in China and Eastern Europe. Today, it is acknowledged as a leader in the globalization of services and technology and manages business processes for companies around the world. Genpact serves its customers from over 35 operations centers in 13 countries, with over 42,500 employees across a wide range of business processes, technologies and industries. Genpact is now a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘G’.
Pramod was earlier an Officer of General Electric (GE). His career with GE and RCA spanned 25 years across the US, Europe and Asia. He was most recently the head of GE Capital in India and in Asia, having earlier worked with GE Capital’s Corporate and Finance Group in Stamford, Connecticut, USA.
Pramod is a Chartered Accountant from Thomson McLintock & Co., London, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Delhi University. He was the past Chairman of India’s National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM), and is also a member of the Board of Trustees of NASSCOM Foundation. Pramod is the current Chairman of the CII Services Council. He serves on the boards of NDTV and SKS Microfinance. He is also Chairman of the Junior Achievement India Founders Board, and is on the governing boards of several educational institutions, including IIM Lucknow, Lady Shri Ram College, and Shri Ram School.
Nikhil Kumar is the founder and chief executive of TD Power Systems (TDPS), manufacturers of large electric generators for turbine driven power plants. TDPS currently has an 80% Indian market share and exports to 35 countries worldwide. TDPS supplies hydro-electric, solar thermal, bio mass or coal fired power plants, and also builds thermal power plants on an EPC basis up to a size of 150 MW.
Nikhil enjoys a competitive game of badminton; in his teens he was in the Asian Games squad for India as well as State Champion of Karnataka. He loves outdoor sports – scuba diving, trekking, skiing are his favorites. Another hobby is to import and sell gourmet beer from all over the world in Bangalore. Beer brewed by Trappist monks from Belgium, or from small artisanal microbreweries in America and the Netherlands – Bangalore now has a choice of the finest brews.
His wife, Lavanya Sankaran, is an accomplished literary fiction writer. They have one daughter, Aarya, and live in Bangalore.
K Nanda Kumar is the Founder President and CEO of SunTec Business Solutions, the Revenue Management and Business Assurance company, trusted by professionals across the globe, with a suite of innovative products that empowers Financial Services Firms and Communication Service Providers to create real time personalized offerings through datadriven decision making, ensuring a proactively managed customer experience. He has been active in the software realm for over 26 years as a technology evangelist for customer-centric software platforms and solutions, specifically for transaction-intensive verticals.
Relationship-based Pricing, a concept pioneered by him, has been endorsed by leading industry analysts and thought leaders as a principal enabler for balanced pricing dynamics in the agile world. Under his leadership, SunTec has grown to a 600+ employee company, with its geographical footprint spanning across four continents. He has also led SunTec to win several prestigious global awards, including the Red Herring Global 100, Deloitte Technology Fast India – 50 and Deloitte Technology Fast Asia-Pacific – 500, and to secure its position among the top contenders in the Operational Excellence category at Billing & OSS World.
He holds Master’s degrees in Management and Physics.
Gopal Srinivasan is the Chairman & MD of TVS Capital Funds Limited, that has launched an India focused growth private equity fund. The vision is to develop and nurture India’s mid-cap businesses into world class companies.
Gopal, a member of the TVS family, is the founder and Chairman of TVS Electronics Limited, Director in Sundaram-Clayton Ltd., TVS & Sons Ltd. Sundaram Industries Ltd. and several other TVS Group businesses. Gopal was the Chairman of the CII Tamil Nadu State Council for the fiscal year ‘07-‘08. He chaired the ‘India@75’ Mission (www.indiaat75.in) and is currently chairing CII National Committee for Private Equity & Venture Capital. He has also served as the President of Manufacturers’ Association for Info. Technology (MAIT).
Gopal earned a B.Com degree from Loyola College, Chennai, and an MBA from University of Michigan, USA. A passionate entrepreneur, he is also actively involved in the promotion of entrepreneurship as an angel investor as well as through organizations, including TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), Great Lakes Institute of Management.
Sharath M. Gayakwad is an Indian Paralympic swimmer who has over 30 international and 40 national medals to his credit, one of them being a bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Para Games. Sharath is also the first Indian swimmer to qualify for the Paralympics and competed in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. At the 2014 Asian Games, he broke P.T. Usha’s record for most number of medals by an Indian at any multi-discipline event by winning 6 medals.
Pavitra Mohan started MASALA CHAI, a blog that showcases South Asian or ‘desi’ art and design from around the world. The idea was to scour the web for sub-continental art that was innovative and broke the ‘brown’ mold. She refers to this new breed of art and design as ‘desihip’, and has showcased over 450 artists and designers.
She has also worked with retail giant Harvey Nichols on an Indian themed exhibition, where she curated the up and coming designers under fashion and interiors.
An emerging artist whose skill and imagination is at once striking and impressive, she describes her own art as self-reflexive, introspective and thought-provoking. The conflict and fragility of the mind is a constant theme that pervades her body of work.
Benitha completed her MFA from the Government College of Arts & Crafts, Chennai, in 2002 in painting and printmaking.
Arshiya Bose is a conservationist and coffee addict who founded the Black Baza Coffee Co, a social/environment enterprise that supports coffee growers in India to follow biodiversity-friendly farming practices by providing incentives and guaranteeing a buy-back of coffee harvested from participating farms. Black Baza Coffee’s vision is to have a world where coffee farms support biodiversity and all producers have secure and stable livelihoods.
She completed her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2014 on markets for sustainable coffee and continues to do impact-oriented research that can enable sustainable coffee production either through her own enterprise or voluntary policy mechanisms.
Angad Singh is a cofounder of Lemonade.io, a Silicon Valley startup that is building groundbreaking technology to measure and improve creativity. He believes that creativity is the most important skill for the 21st century workplace, where technology is rapidly eating jobs. Lemonade is supported by some of the world’s most prominent venture capitalists, angels and academics.
Some of Angad’s formative experiences include learning to program at age 10, teaching design at the Stanford d.school, getting invited to meet the Dalai Lama, learning 6 languages and working for startups on 4 continents.
Alexandru Ionut Budisteanu is a young innovator and a computer geek born and raised in Hackerville – the cybercrime capital of the world. Alexandru puts a lot of passion and dedication in creating all kinds of software and devices in order to improve people`s lives. He won the $75,000 Gordon E. Moore award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, for a low-cost self-driving car that was using Artificial Intelligence. He also received the $10,000 IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship for a device that was trying to help blind people to see with their tongue. TIME magazine listed Alexandru as one of the Most Influential Teens of 2013.
Sheetal is a public health expert, disability specialist and social entrepreneur. She currently works as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member for one of India’s leading non-profits, Maharogi Sewa Samiti (MSS), Warora. She operates from one of the most backward districts of Central India, building livelihood capabilities of most marginalized people, especially those with disabilities like- the leprosy afflicted, orthopedically handicapped, vision and hearing impaired and primitive tribal populace for last 67 years.
She is also a member of various policy level education, agricultural, entrepreneurship development and healthcare innovation committees that include governmental and non-governmental apex committees.
Adhik first visited Kashmir in 1997 to study the political conditions and local problems. His initial efforts were centered around volunteering, working for various NGOs from Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Jammu and Srinagar, and UNICEF supported projects.
After countless visits and a deep understanding of the ground realities, he took up the cause of upliftment of the Kashmiri children and women especially orphans and widows. On 12th May 2002, Borderless World Foundation launched its first project; Basrea-E-Tabassum (Abode of Smiles), a Home for girl-orphans in the frontier district of Kupwara (Sulkoot village) in the Kashmir Valley. Though he faced stiff resistance and threats to his life from religious heads and clerics, he refused to abandon the project and work in a safer place.
Today the NGO is running four orphanage homes for girls in the four districts of Jammu and Kashmir . From just 2 girls in 2002, today BWF has more than 180 girls across the 4 centers. BWF is also one of the winners of the CSO Partners Outstanding Annual Report Awards 2009, for transparency, accountability and best documentation process in NGO sector in India.
Suhail Yusuf Khan is a classically trained sarangi player. Suhail has been training and performing since he was 7 years of age. Suhail’s career highlights to date includes appearing in Forbes India 30 under 30, being awarded an honorary scholarship at Wesleyan University in the US in 2016 and being an Indian ambassador for ‘Arts for the British Council’. Suhail is a part of the GIMA award winning band ‘Advaita’ and is currently signed with Domino Record label band ‘Yorkston Thorne Khan’ and also touring with Indo- Welsh folk/jazz band, ‘Khamira’, Indo-Korean collab ‘Hauz Khas Connction’.
Apart from creating worthwhile music, Suhail’s aim is to take sarangi to new audiences and celebrate its tradition, emotion and vibrancy.
Shravya works as the Director of Transformation and Strategy for a school in a tier-2 town in Telangana. In addition to transforming the learning process, Presidency School has leveraged on innovation in process automations, people and talent management and customer support management to build schematics for school operations.
Her immersive experience in a tier-2 town over the last 3 years has helped her understand the fundamental problems and challenges to successfully implement innovative programs in education in rural India. Her vision is an open source blueprint – Schools 2.0, that schools across the country may use to upgrade their existing systems and processes ensuring sustainable education reform and get on an equal footing as the best schools in the world.
Before relocating to Nizamabad, she worked in Oilfield Operations and Business Development in Africa, US, Mobile East and India.
Sandith is the chief naval architect and Founder of NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats that aims to make water transport more efficient. His team has built India’s first solar ferry, a 75 pax boat efficient, powered by the sun with no fuel on board. Sandith has completed MU graduation in Naval architecture from IIT Madras in 1999. After working in Gujarat and leading shipyards in South Korea, he completed MBA from INSEAD, France.
After that, it was time to start Navgathi, a venture aimed at designing and building better boats and ships. In 2013, along with two French co-founders, NavAlt was born to build solar and electric boats with focus on the Asian market. After proving their technology in passenger ferry sector, the next step was to develop hybrid solution to extend speed and range thereby offer better solution in other markets like RORO ferries, cargo vessels and fishing boats.
INK is India’s leading platform for exchange of cutting-edge ideas across a wide spectrum of science, technology, community and culture. INK accelerates the journey of game changers that includes people with transformative ideas by helping them build their personal brand and narrate their stories on the global arena.
Community Pure Water (CPW) believes that people like Gurupal deserve better access to clean and safe drinking water. Community service holds a special significance in the Sikh religion. However, for Gurupal Singh, a resident of village Chahal in the Faridkot district of Punjab, operating a Community Pure Water (CPW) plant is an act of Sewa, […]
Continue ReadingBabar Ali, Founder, Ananda Siksha Niketan INK Fellow Babar Ali’s school completes 20 years this year. With humble beginnings under a guava tree, the school has come a long way having imparted free education to more than 7,000 students. At a tender age when many children are initiated into a formal school system, Babar Ali […]
Continue ReadingIndia’s largest platform to accelerate women’s careers. JobsForHer has worked with over 2 million women, 7500+ companies, 1000+ mentors and 500+ reskilling partners across India
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Ixoraa Media has created the brand INK, India’s foremost platform for the exchange of cutting-edge ideas and thought leadership.
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The purpose of INK Global Foundation is to drive and support the INK Fellows Program and other such programs in the future, primarily supporting the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.
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