Vijay Mahajan is CEO of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies.

Guest Speaker for a session during Orientation - The Landscape of the Social Sector in India : Need for Samaj-Bazar-Sarkar and Professionals in the sector

Currently he is an advisor to Login Asia. More recently, he was a consultant with the UNDP in Timor Leste and to the World Bank on centrally sponsored scheme reforms.

Course - Understanding State Capabilities

Ms. Tiwari is the President (CSR & Sustainability) at Ambuja Cements Limited and Director and CEO of Ambuja Cement Foundation. With 37 years of experience in the development sector, Ms. Tiwari is a social development professional having worked in this area across diverse academic, NGO and CSR roles. A post-graduate from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), she completed the Executive Education course in CSR from the Harvard Business School in 2008 and the Management Programme in Sustainability from Stockholm, Sweden in 2010. Pearl joined Ambuja in 2000 and ever since has been at the helm of nurturing Ambuja Cement Foundation that has expanded from a fledgling team to nearly 1000 development professionals it now boasts of today, with a pan-India presence active in 50 districts across 11 states.

Guest Speaker for the course - Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Yamini Aiyar is the President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research. In 2008, she founded the Accountability Initiative at CPR, which is credited with pioneering one of India’s largest expenditure-tracking surveys for elementary education.

Guest Lecture Series - State, Market and Society

B.Tech (Chemical), Nirma University PGDRM, IRMA.

Co-Founder of Dhwani Rural Information Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Guest speaker for the course Technology in Management.

Sujatha Rao is Founder-Director at Viridus Social Impact Solutions.

Workshop - Perspectives on Organizations

Sowmyaa has over fifteen experience in the development sector with expertise and interest in poverty, water, sanitation and hygiene, gender, urban development and rights. An experienced facilitator and a practitioner of participatory approaches, she has been involved in various trainings and capacity building initiatives with a range of communities and groups as well as been part of several participatory research studies, monitoring designs, assessments and evaluations.

Workshop - Participatory Approaches and Processes

Master's degree from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University
Bachelor’s degree from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University

Soma is a development studies researcher, with a specialization in impact evaluation methodologies. Her work is based on empirical research on linkages between gender, education and empowerment.
Before joining IDF, she was a journalist with a focus on issues of development. She held senior editorial positions in Open, The Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, Outlook and The Times of India. She is an alumnus of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.

Course - Impact Evaluation (Qualitative Methodoligies)