Popularly known as the “Clothing Man,” Anshu Gupta is the recipient of the 2015 Ramon Magsaysay Award, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of Asia. After leaving a corporate career in 1999, he founded Goonj, the world’s first organization to address clothing as a development issue. Over the past two decades, he has transformed India’s culture of giving by channeling unused clothing and urban surplus materials into community-led rural development initiatives.

Through Goonj, Anshu has creatively linked the challenge of growing urban waste with the needs and priorities of marginalized rural communities, enabling large-scale, dignity-driven development work. He is a frequent speaker at global and national forums including TED and the World Economic Forum, and serves as an advisor and board member to several social enterprises and nonprofit organizations. He has also launched Gram Swabhimaan, an initiative aimed at fostering dignity, self-worth, and self-reliance among rural communities.