Ms. Neelam Meheshwari is the Livelihoods Program Director for the Deshpande Foundation. Ms. Meheshwari brings with her over seven years of grassroots experience promoting livelihoods from her work at Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), a leading award winning livelihoods NGO in India. Ms. Meheshwari experiences with livelihoods span from supporting self help groups to building enterprise-based people's organizations. At PRADAN, she worked in Rajasthan, where she led a team of professionals and initiated several livelihoods programs for more than one thousand families. Ms. Meheshwari also worked with PRADAN's New Delhi office, where she assisted in streamlining microfinance program across seven states and where she led and anchored research to assess the impact of PRADAN's programs.

During her stay in United States, Ms. Meheshwari worked with a community-based women's fund in Boston, where she worked with organizations on strategic planning, fundraising and communications. She has written a range of research papers on grantmaking models as well as a critique of microfinance, the latter of which is under publication.

In her PhD thesis, she explored how trends in philanthropy have impacted various organizations working to promote livelihoods and gender issues. Recently, Ms. Meheshwari launched a women's entrepreneurs group in Hubli, which will give a platform, support and networking opportunities to aspiring woman entrepreneurs.

Ms. Maheshwari received her PhD in Gender Studies from the State University of New York in Buffalo and her Masters in International Development from Brandeis University in Boston.

Ms. Sujatha Natajan is the President of the India Family Planning Association. Ms. Natajan has two decades of leadership experience in the strategic planning of policy for projects in the field of sexual and reproductive health.

Ms. Natajan was also elected the Treasurer of International Planned Parenthood Federation, the largest global movement in the field of sexual and reproductive health. She was also elected to the Chairperson of South Asia Region of IPPF post. In that position, Ms. Matajan is responsible to provide leadership for the nine countries in the region– India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Iran, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal.

Mr. Anoj Viswanathan is the first online platform that enables anyone in the world lend to India's working poor. At Milaap, Mr. Viswanathan oversees strategy and operations, building relationships with microfinance institutions, social enterprises, and funders from the development sector.

A Starting Bloc Fellow for 2010, Mr. Viswanathan Co-Founded Milaap after working with SKS Microfinance in energy and water services. He has also worked at ReEx Capital Asia, a cleantech investment boutique in Singapore and served as a fellow at D.light Design, developing consumer financing for rural electrification. A graduate from National University of Singapore with a background in engineering and economics, he is also a founding member of the Microfinance Society in Singapore.

As Executive Director, University Initiatives at the Deshpande Foundation, Mr. Raj Melville develops and channels programs to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation through university partnerships. Previously as Principal at Ambient Engines, Mr. Melville provided marketing and strategy consulting to emerging social entrepreneurs. He founded the annual Forum for Social Entrepreneurs, organized and moderated numerous panels and workshops on social entrepreneurship, and mentors several startups focused on addressing key social issues.

Mr. Melville has over 25 years of product management, marketing and consulting experience including Vice President, Product Management at two MIT spinoffs - nTAG Interactive and mobile software company Vaultus (now part of Antenna Software); Sr. Director, Product Management at e-commerce company Be Free Inc (now Valueclick).; and launched Internet products at Electronic Book Technologies (later acquired by Inso). His early career included working at Microsoft, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Booz Allen & Hamilton.

He is an active member of TiE Boston and the India Society of Worcester and co-founded the TIE Social Entrepreneurship Group. Mr. Melville has a Doctor of Science in engineering from MIT, a Master's in Management from MIT's Sloan School and a Bachelor's from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Mr. Bellashetty is the Deputy Director of Public Instruction for the state of Karnataka. As an education officer, Mr. Bellashetty has the rich experience of working both in southern and northern Karnataka. Mr. Bellashetty began his career in rural Karnataka as high school headmaster. In all, Mr. Bellashetty has more than two decades service in the education sector as Assistant Education Officer (AEO), Deputy Project Coordinator (Dy.PC) of the Mr. Mr. Bellashetty's contributions in the state level Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) and the DPEP have drawn the attention of senior officials in the Education Department. During his term as AEO of Malavalli Education Block in Mandya district and BEO of Byadagi Education Block in Haveri district, he increased the quality of teacher trainings and increased the percentages of students that passed the 10th std. board examination. Mr. Bellashetty has worked with several most reputed officers' of IAS cadre like Ms. Anita Kaul, Mr. T.M. Vijaya Bhaskar and others for more than a decade.

Mr. Bellashetty has a post graduate degree in Teacher Education (M.Ed).

Dr. V. Renganathan is a Co-Founder and Vice-President, Alliance at Vaatsalya Healthcare Solutions in Bangalore. Vaatsalya is focused on building a network of hospitals in semi-urban and rural areas with affordable pricing and quality. There are currently 10 hospitals and 800 beds under Alliance management.

Mr. Renganathan is a scientist turned manager and his interests include healthcare management, innovative healthcare solutions, health micro-insurance and nutrition. Renganathan has spent a good part of his career in academics. He was an Associate Professor in Biochemistry at the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology, Portland, Oregon. He has also worked at Glaxo SmithKline, Pennsylvania, and Intel, Portland, Oregon.

Renganathan holds a PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and an MBA from Portland State University, Portland, Oregon.

Mr. G.S. Javadeva Founded Deenabandhu Trust, a home for destitute, estranged and orphan children, in 1992. Deenabandhu is an educational and rehabilitation center for children. They work for human resource development development, specifically in government primary school teachers who are capable of reaching a large number of students.

Presently, Mr. Jayadeva is working as a member of Karnataka State Border Area Development Committee and is also the Managing Trustee of Shakthi Dhama, an organization committed to the all-around development and rehabilitation of destitute women in Mysore.

Currently, Mr. Jayadeva is the visiting Professor for Vivekananda chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Mysore from Aug 2010.

Patil Sureshgouda is natural organic farmer from Hulikoti, Gadag. He cultivates a variety of crops, like greengram, blackgram, groundnut, onion, chilli, jowar, cotton etc. He also provides consultancy to farmers on organic farming. He facilitates the activities of Art of Living and Dharitri Krishi Parivar for the promotion of organic farming.

Dr. Mallanna Nagarala is well known farmer from Hunagund, Bagalakot. His family has been perfecting soil and water conservation techniques through ongoing research and development on a 28-acre field for nearly 100 years. Sri Mallanna is continuing the efforts of his family. In 2006, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, honored him with a doctorate for his outstanding contribution.

Ms. V.N. Keerthivati has more than 18 years experience working in the education sector as government school teacher, resource team member, trainer and, above all, a great source of inspiration to a large number the education community inside and outside the elementary school level.

Ms. Keerthivati's efforts to transform socially excluded community (Sudugada Siddaru) at Kenkatapur Colony, Dharwad, into first generation learners, has drawn the attention of local community as well as senior officials in the education Department. She has worked as a Block Resource Person (BRP) for about 8 years and spent one year as Nali Kali (an innovative child friendly teaching learning methodology promoted by the Government of Karnataka at elementary education level in the state) advisor to Nali Kali teachers in the district of Nali Kali Helpline in Dharwad. As a resource person, Ms. Keerthivati has worked at block, district and state level in training teachers at different periods of time. Ms. Keerthivati has been trained in developing education related training modules, education resource books and creative school curriculum for elementary school level.

Ms. Keerthivati is also an active member of Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), which directly works with teacher community in the state to develop and strengthen the teacher academic network. Education is both a passion as well profession for Ms. Keerthivati.

Ms. Anu Sridharan is the Co-Founder and CEO of NextDrop, a social enterprise aimed at working with urban water utilities to provide custom water management tools to improve water delivery. Ms. Sridharan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in December 2010 with a Master's degree in Civil Systems engineering, and received her Bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley in 2009 as well. During her time there, Anu researched the optimization of pipe networked systems in emerging economies as well as business models for the dissemination of water purification technologies for arsenic removal in emerging economies. Anu also served as the Education and Health director for a water/sanitation project in the slums of Mumbai, India called "Haath Mein Sehat" where she piloted a successful volunteer recruitment and community-training model.

Mr.Vignesh Chavan is the Chief Executive Officer and Co - Founder of OTRA Technologies Pvt Ltd. Mr. Chavan strives to provide vision and leadership to a social enterprise. He aims to provide employment opportunities in rural India, promote social entrepreneurship and changes societies perception of rural people. His other major objectives are to enable leadership in the rural sector and to encourage the participation of global leaders in rural BPO.

Mr. Vignesh has worked as a Relationship Manager, handling HNI clients at ICICI. He has also done comprehensive research on BPO industry.

He holds a MBA in Finance from Jain College (Vishveswaraya Technological University) and Bachelor of Business Management Degree from Christ College, Bangalore.

Mr. Shree Padre is a farmer and journalist. Under his editorship, Adike Patrike, 24 -year old unique Kannada farm magazine by farmers, has created a niche for itself. It has pioneered farmer to farmer communication with a movement called Krushikara Kaige Lekhani (pen to farmers' hands). The magazine has trained many farmers in farmer-friendly journalism through a series of workshops while also spearheading campaigns on non-chemical farming, rain water harvesting and jackfruit development.

Mr. Padre is also a regular writer for www.indiatogether.org and Delhi based national magazine. He is a member of the Centre for Agriculture Media (CAM) and has been a key resource person for several farm-journalism & freelance journalism workshops. Mr. Shree was also on the forefront of fight against spray of endosulfan in Kasaragod district. Mr. Shree has written 13 books on rainwater harvesting.

Mr. Shree has received Statesman National award for rural reporting twice in addition to many state awards. He is a member of Water Resources Authority constituted recently by Karnataka Government.

Ms. Geetha Ramamurthy is the Director of Business Development at EnglishHelper, a US based software venture, which provides uniquely innovative products to corporations and educational institutions to help address the growing need for English language proficiency around the world. In this role Ms. Ramamurthy is spearheading a new initiative, which will provide both English language training, using EhglishHelper products, and vocational training, with vocational training partners, throughout Karnataka and, potentially, across India. Since she joined the company a year ago, she has successfully lead several NGO partnerships.

Prior to joining EnglishHelper, Ms. Ramamurthy was the Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development of Venus Capital Management, an alternate investment advisory firm, which focuses on hedge funds. She served as the education committee member of 100 Women in Hedge Funds, a leading non-profit organization for professionals in the alternative investments industry. Prior to joining Venus Capital, Ms. Ramamurthy was the founding Executive Director of the Boston chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). Ramamurthy received a B.S. in Biological sciences from Northeastern University, Boston. She currently serves on the Dean's Advisory Council, Northeastern University and as Chairperson of the board of MITHAS (MIT Heritage of Arts of South Asia). She is advisor to several start-up companies.

Dr. L. H. Manjunath, a veterinarian by profession, has over three decades of experience in banking, development, enterprise creation and working with women. Dr. L.H.Manjunath joined Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) in 2001, to expand the Microfinance and Micro-Insurance programme of SKDRDP. He has been instrumental in conceiving the Special SGSY Project to provide livelihoods for the beedi rolling women of D. K. District in Karnataka. He later on became the Managing Director of Sri Dharmashathal Siri Gramodyoga Samsthe ®, a Section 25 of Company promoted under the SGSY Special Project. Dr. Manjunath is also the Executive Director of SKDRDP, the parent organization of Sri Dharmashathal Siri Gramodyoga Samsthe. Dr. Manjunath is widely travelled, having visited the United States, the Europe, Africa and other Asian countries in pursuit of his profession. Dr. Manjunath is on the Executive Committee of the KVIC, High Power Committee constituted by the Govt. of India on SHGs. He is the Trustee of Inafi Asia network.

Vivek Pawar is the Chief Executive Officer (Founder & CEO) of Sankalp Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd, which he founded in 2005. Sankalp has grown from 6 employees in 2005 to 90 today and is focused on the niche area of Analog and Mixed-Signal IC design. Mr. Pawar brings 18 years of industry experience in varied functions like General Management, Operations, Program Management, Customer Relations, Design, and significant experience is Mixed-Signal and Analog Product Design, System on Chip (SoC) Development, including firmware development.

Vivek has a Bachelors Degree from COEP, Pune and a Masters Degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, India.

Dr. Prakash Bhat is a rural development specialist. He worked for 28 years with BAIF Development Research Foundation. His achievements include improving the livelihoods of over 5,000 families, drought-proofing agriculture through models that have been recognized throughout the states and nation, implementing participatory development via non-farming enterprises for the rural poor, crafting organization models, and building a training center on rural rejuvenation.

Dr. Bhat holds a BVSc from the University of Agricultural Studies, Bangalore, and conducted his Post-Graduate research at the Institute of National Agronomique in Paris-Grignon, France. He also participated in the international Program on Development Evaluation Training, conducted by the World Bank and Carlton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Gurumurthy Kasinathan is Founder and Director of IT for Change, a NGO based in Bangalore India. He works on program, research and advocacy aspects in the domains of Education, Public Software and Internet Governance at IT for Change. He has led research to study ICT programs in schools, in Kerala and Karnataka states and the work of the Regional Resource Centre component of the University School Resource Network (USRN) of Delhi University. He has worked on the role of proactive disclosure on the Internet in the context of the Right to Information in India. He leads programs on the adoption and promotion of public software (www.Public-Software.in) in the Indian public sector. He is also part of networks of educationists debating ICTs in education and of FOSS communities in India.

Gurumurthy (Guru) was earlier with the Management Consulting and IT business sectors for over 15 years. Prior that he was at A.F.Ferguson & Co. management consultancy services working on consulting assignments relating to the design and implementation of systems in a variety of industries and areas.

Ms. Maya Menon is the director of The Teacher Foundation, a Bangalore-based organization deeply involved in designing and delivering intensive improvement programs that span all levels of schooling, as well as in-service and continuing professional development for teachers and school leaders for private and government schools.

Ms. Menon's areas of professional experience include conceptualizing, designing and implementing a wide range of school and teacher-related projects and services - including the Wipro Applying Thought in Schools Teacher Empowerment Project initiated in 2001 and the Safe and Sensitive Schools Project in 2009. She has trained several thousand teachers across the past 15 years. She has presented at leading education conferences both nationally and internationally.

Ms. Menon has an MBA (Education Management) with distinction from University of Leicester, UK; a diploma in Journalism with distinction from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, New Delhi; and a B.Ed. and B.Sc. (Botany Honours) from Delhi University.

Mr. G. Kumar Naik is passionately involved in the improvement of government school education as Commissioner, State Project Director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SPD) and Principal Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education. Mr. Naik has helped implement the School Academic Plan (SAP), an action plan "for the teachers and by the teachers" to improve academic performance in schools and remedial teaching program in all Karnataka government schools. Under Mr. Naik, new focus has been given to the Samudayadatta Shale Programme, which brings a fresh, transparent approach to school-community interactions. Similarly, the School Nurturing Programme, a forum for individual corporations to contribute to improvement of government schools, is gaining popularity. Presently he also focuses on quality high school education through effective implementation of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) in the state of Karnataka.

Mr. Naik has served as M.D. of the Karnataka Backward Classes Development Corporation, Joint Director of Food and Civil Supplies Department, and Joint Commissioner of the Intelligence Wing of Commercial Taxes Department. He has also worked as the CEO of Z.P Belgaum, the M.D. of BESCOM, Bangalore, the Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Raichur District, and also as the D.C. & D.M. of Mysore.

He graduated with a Civil Engineering degree from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore.

As the executive director of the Child Rights Trust (CRT), Vasudeva Sharma focuses on fighting for children's rights to every sector. CRT's key issues pertaining to child rights at the Gram Panchayat level is by sensitizing the Gram Panchayat members and providers of services to children—Anganawadi workers, ANMs, school staff, etc., to recognize the inherent rights of children and take meaningful actions to make sure they're carried through. CRT has been working with legislators and government agencies by influencing them to include child rights-related issues in election manifestos.

As a consultant to UNICEF and the Government of Karnataka, Mr. Sharma has coordinated the development of SPAC-State Plan of Action for Children (2003) and State Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking of Women and Children (2005). As a CWC (Child Welfare Committee) Bangalore member from 2004-2007, and Chairperson from 2007-2009, he has worked for effective implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act 2000/2006.

Mr.Sharma was nominated to the newly established Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights as a member in July 2009. Mr. Sharma has also received the Child Welfare Karnataka State Award and the Balavikasa Academy Award, and was a recipient of the Charaka Development Media Award in 2011 for his writings in the field of Child Rights.

Mr. Sharma has his MSW from Bangalore University.

Venkat and his wife Srivalli are co-founders of EFarm, a network of farmers, transport operators and buyers linked through a unique, technology-driven supply chain system. EFarm created ndia's first common, shared platform for the unorganized sector in the vegetables and fruits trade. The program connects over 2,500 farmers across Tamil Nadu , and delivers to some of the leading hotel, catering and food retail chains in Chennai, reaching over 25,000 wholesale and retail customers every day.

EFarm has won numerous awards, perhaps the most significant being the Proto.in Most Promising Startup of the Year 2011 and Intel UC Berkeley's Next Big Idea 2010 finalist. EFarm has the distinction of one of the first agriculture startups in India to get angel funding from private investors, including The Mumbai Angels.

Mr. Venkata has 12 years of experience in IT software development and project management for various global firms. He is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus and completed his Masters in Computer Science from SUNY Albany, NY.

Mr. Ali Asghar founded Roshan Vikas Thrift Cooperative during reif work after the 1990 communal riots in Hyderabad. Roshan Vikas Thrift Cooperative is a livelihood development and financial inclusion program that works to rebuild the economic interdependence between Muslim artisans and Hindu traders, which has been the bedrock of harmonious relations between the two communities for years. Roshan Vikas Thrift Cooperative has reached out to about 18,000 women, and Mahila Sanatkar Cooperative brings together 1,200 women artisans engaged in Zardozi, Embroidery and Dress Making.

Mr. Asghar, a businessman by profession, has worked extensively on various social enterprise models. He has also attended GSBI, a three-week social entrepreneurship program at Santa Clara University in California, USA.

In the past two years, he has freelanced with several organizations across the country, helping them to develop their livelihood programs as self-sustainable enterprises.

In August 2000, Madan Padaki co-founded MeritTrac as a pioneering idea in skills assessment. Today, MeritTrac is India's largest skills assessment company and was recognized as a winner of the NASSCOM Innovation Award & Deloitte Fast 50 India Award.

Upon completing his engineering degree from the University of Mysore in 1995, Padaki joined Wipro Corporation. He soon moved to Infosys Technologies as a Product Manager, then went on to pursue his MBA from the S.P.Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai. Upon graduating, he joined BFL Software (now Mphasis) in a business development role, and was sent to work in Tokyo, Japan.

Padaki is a part of the Head-Held-High Foundation, which works with zero-educated youth from rural areas and transforms them to be knowledge workers.

Madan has presented papers at the IAEA Conference in Cambridge and at the American Society of Engineering Education Global Colloquium in Istanbul. He also serves on the Governing Council of DOEACC, an organization of the Ministry of IT, Govt. of India. He is a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Bangalore and also serves on the Governing Council of TiE Bangalore. He is also an active member of leading trade organizations such as NASSCOM, CII and FICCI-Higher Education Network.

Aravind Chinchure has a Ph. D. in physics and 18 years of experience in R&D, intellectual property, innovation, investment and strategy. He has worked in diverse technology areas in the field of materials, chemistry, physics, electronics, renewable energy and information technology. His resume includes time spent at Honeywell, General Electric, Leiden University, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). He was a visiting Scientist at the University of Oxford, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Southampton University, Institute of Applied Physics (IAPD), Dresden, Max-Plank Institute, Stuttgart & Dresden and Paul Scherer Institute (PSI) Zurich. He is the recipient of international fellowships from the European Union, the Dutch Academy of Sciences and Max-Plank Institute. Dr. Chinchure is a member of the Sectoral Innovation Council of Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Government of India. He has authored 28 research articles published in international journals and has filed four patents as lead and co-inventor in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

N. Shekar has more than 35 years of experience in corporate management at many reputed organizations both nationally and internationally. He has held several senior positions while contracting for companies all over the world. As the chairman and founder of Carnegie Consulting Pvt. Ltd., he has helped more than 40 Indian and multinational companies including ANZ IT, ADSI, AXA Business Services, Ashok Leyland Information Technology, AT&T – NCR Division, Computer Associates, Carl Zeiss, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Software, Digital (India) ltd., Human Factors International, Iflex Solutions, IBM, Microland, Oracle Corporation, Schoolnet, Thomson Financial Research, Tejas Networks, Wipro Information Systems and more to either set up HR systems processes, or build their expertise through provision of competency development programs.

Mr. Shekar has also served as the Chief People Officer for the Tejas Networks, the CEO of Computer Point India Ltd., the Senior Director of International Hospital of Bahrain, the Vice President of HR for UB Group-Liquor Division, the Management Development Manager for Wipro, Deputy Manager (HR )for CMC and Management Development Manager for Dunlop India Ltd.

Mr. Shekar received his B.Sc., B.A. and MMS at the Bajaj Institute of Management.

Mr. Srikantha Shenoy is the co-founder and executive trustee of Initiatives for Development Foundation (IDF), which promotes sustainable agriculture and natural resource management as a means of livelihood improvement among the rural poor. Mr. Shenoy is also a farmer who develops agricultural models based on biodiversity and the conservation of natural resources in the Western Ghats. As an entrepreneur, he founded Synergy to Solutions, Gramya TS Pvt. Ltd., and the Syndicate Institute of Rural Development.

Mr. Shenoy has been active in grassroots research on value chains, financial exclusion, the financial needs of the subprime sector, urban horticulture, organizational development in producer collectives, developmental banking and business development services. Currently, Mr. Shenoy is researching Small Producer Agency in a Globalized Market, an international knowledge program supported by Hivos, the Netherlands, ILID, and the UK while partnering with researchers and activists in Asia, Africa and South America.

He studied agriculture and has a postgraduate degree in Plant Breeding. He holds a PG diploma in Human Resource Management.

S.R Hiremath was the co-founder, first president, and board member of India Development Service International, based in Dharwad, Karnataka, India. IDS works in over 100 villages in several districts of Karnataka, and has over 70 full-time staff covering several projects in five districts. The comprehensive programs include Health, Dairy (exclusively for women), Shepherding Community, Appropriate Technology and Integrated Wasteland Development with Watershed Approach, covering nearly 25,000 acres of Common Lands including forest lands.

Mr. Hiremath was also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Samaj Parivartana Samudaya (SPS) in Dharwad, Karnataka. SPS has membership in many different parts of the country, and now concentrates mainly on natural resource management (NRM) and advocacy for the empowerment of rural poor and tribal communities, with a focus on people's actions. The work of SPS has received wide recognition by national and international organizations. SPS received the Indira Gandhi Paryavarana Puraskar in 1989, the highest award of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Government of India (MoEF, GOI), New Delhi ( Rs. 1 lakh Prize citation) from the Prime Minister in 1992. The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), Mumbai, who has supported the work of SPS from 1987, also gave a corpus grant to SPS in 2002 to enable work in a sustainable manner.

Presently, Mr, Hiremath is the President of the National Committee for thebProtection of Natural Resources.

Mr.Hiremath received his B.E. in mechanical engineering from Karnataka University , Dharwad, his M.S. from Kansas State University, Kansas, USA and his M.B.A. from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, U.S.A.

Vijay Kulkarni is a consultant in the development sector. He is the co-founder and chairman of Development Resource Centre Dharwad, which has incubated institutions such as Vidyaposhak, RAPID and SCOPE. He is also a board member for many other NGOs. In his previous assignments, Vijay has worked as Director (Program) of Akshara Foundation, Associate Vice President of BASIX, Director of 3 RUDSET Institutes and Manager of Canara Bank and Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank.

Mr. Kulkarni's interests are mainly in micro-finance and livelihood-related subjects. He has done assignments for World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), UNDP, GTZ, Adam Smith Institute, Government of Karnataka, SIDBI, NABARD etc. He is now a Senior Consultant with Catalyst Management Services and BASIX Consulting and Training Services.

Vijay has a postgraduate degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). He also has a diploma in Gandhian Studies and Management Education Program from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad).

Professor T. R. Chandrasekhara specializes in development, human development, gender studies, decentralized development, and vachana studies. He has researched topics such as AIDS and development and women and development, and performed a series of studies on development in Bellary. Professor Chandrasekhara has multiple publications to his name, including Development Ideas of Amartya Sen. Prasaranga, essays on development in rights language, and Gender Relations and Development. Professor Chandrasekhara won the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Book Award in 2000 for a translation of J.P.Schothen`s Revolution of Mystics, and the Charaka Development Journalism Award for an article on migration instituted by Communication for Learning and Development (CLD) in 2010.

Professor Chandrasekhara has also worked as Director of the Text Book Composition Centre of Kannada University and as Director of the Research Programme, Kannada University, Hampi.

Professor Chandrasekhara has a Ph. D. in economics.

K.A. Raghu is the managing director of Pristine Organics Private Limited. Pristine Organics offers low-cost nutrition to 1,00,000 malnourished children and over 50,000 HIV patients. Pristine also networks with organic collectives and cooperatives to preserve and use food grains that are losing their currency and circulation in our food system, especially millets. Mr. Raghu has developed a range of organic health products using millets and traditional food grains.

Mr. Raghu has almost two decades of experience in food analysis, research and development, and has a deep interest in organic farming, minimal processing and green practices. His passion for food has led him to publish the magazine Food and Nutrition World. Mr. Raghu has been utilized as a resource for government and non-governmental organizations for food policy initiatives, nutrition interventions and advocacy. He has also presented papers in national and international seminars and symposiums, and is a regular contributor of articles to leading magazines and newspapers.

Mr. Ketan Deshpande is the founder and chairman of FUEL (Friends Union for Energizing Lives), a nonprofit organization that strives to provide Indian students with the information they need to succeed. Deshpande started the organization at age 19, and has since used FUEL to work on education awareness of national level examinations while providing training and literature on preparation for the exams themselves.

Mr. Deshpande is the author of Student's Fuel and Entrepreneur's Fuel. He has a background in social entrepreneurship, technology and grassroots initiatives. Currently he is an Indian Action Partner of Oxfam Australia and Level 3 Investee of Unlimited India.

Mr. Deshpande has been recognized as one of Asia's 100 Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs by the Foundation for Youth Social Entrepreneurship (FYSE) in Beijing, China.

Ms. Aishwarya Suresh is the founder of Banna Creations, an organization committed to promoting hand-made Indian arts and crafts. Aishwarya has always taken a keen interest in India's rich cultural heritage and vast repertoire of hand- crafted products and textiles that are the livelihood of millions of people across the country. She has a deep understanding of the issues faced by artisans and of the need for creating larger awareness of their products and their utility, then highlighting the story behind them.

Banna Creations has been featured in magazines such as Femina, mainstream publications such as The Hindu and independent forums such as The Better India.

Ms. Suresh has an electrical engineering degree and a decade of experience with Fortune 100 IT/ITES companies, including IBM, Williams Lea and leading sales and marketing teams.

Mr. R.N. Tikot is the CEO and founder of Vidya Poshak, an organization working towards empowering the impoverished, meritorious student community to pursue their post-10th education, increase their employability through skill enhancement, and transforming them into contributing citizens.

Mr. Tikot is a senior grade lecturer in statistics and computer science at the KLE Society's Sri Mrityunjaya Arts and Commerce College, Dharwad. He has 28 years of teaching experience. He is also a well-known student counselor and career guidance expert. Mr. Tikot has trained more than 1,00,000 students so far, and is committed to all-around development of the educational community.

Mr. Tikot has a PG Degree in statistics and a PG diploma in computer applications.

Mr. Gururaja Budhya has worked with the development sector since 1992. Currently, he is the secretary at the Urban Research Centre (URC). Using research on urban areas, URC facilitates the creation of spaces for the mutual interaction, networking and enhanced relationship of civil society with the local governments.

Prior to his work at URC, Mr. Budhya was a team leader at the Urban Governance at Technology Informatics Design Endeavour and a Research Associate at Technology Informatics Design Endeavour.

Mr. Budhya has his M.A. from Karnataka State Open University and a bachelor's of commerce and postgraduate degree in ecology and environment.

When he was just 22 years old, Roshan N. Raykar founded Artashastra Creative Studios, a one-of-a-kind creative studio in North Karnataka that does animation, vfx and web development. Artashastra's mission is to explore the "nooks and corners" of creativity, not only in terms of art, but also in thinking and execution. Artashastra focuses on giving the best creative solution to its customers while also striving to help society.

Mr. Raykar aims to start a "School of Passion" where children are given a platform to explore their passion and interest in creative fields. The school will also provide further help to the children to help them to make their passion their profession.

Mr. Raykar graduated with a bachelor's of computer applications at Oxford College, Hubli, and has a degree in animation education from Ants Institute.

G. Krishna Prasad is the founder and executive director of Sahaja Samrudha Organic Producers Company Ltd. Sahaja Samrudha was formed to bridge the trade gap by eliminating the middlemen and bringing consumers and producers closer together. The producer company enables farmers to exhibit and sell their produce with a good ear-marked price. The produce, procured directly from the farmer, is supplied to networked outlets that bring produce within easy reach of consumers.

Mr. Prasad has published multiple papers including Ten Steps Towards Organic Farming, An Introduction to the System of Rice Intensification and more than 150 articles on organic farming, traditional seed conservation, indigenous knowledge and developmental issues.

Mr. Prasad has also been recognized for his efforts. He has won the Sristi Sanman award from Honey Bee Network at the Indian Institute Of Management, Ahmadabad and the Best Environmental Journalist Award in 2008 from the Government of Karnataka. He was also nominated for the Suvarna News 24x7 channel Man of the Year.

Ashish Gawade is the CEO and co-founder of Bottom of the Pyramid Innovations, a triple bottom line venture, which tries to serve the bottom of the pyramid using clean technology, a venture inspired by his professor, C K Prahalad. Mr. Gawade was part of the Ford team that delivered North America's hottest products, including the Ford Fusion All-wheel-Drive and F-150. He has successfully led several large, transnational, cross-cultural teams composed of members from North America, Europe, Japan, China, and India.

Ashish is also an accomplished speaker on business strategy, social innovation and Manashakti Philosophy. He has spoken at prestigious forums such as the CII Annual Innovation Summit 2010 (Bangalore), Maharashtra Economic Development Council, Gitam University, Pune Management Association, Sinhagad Institute, Rotary Club and more. He has also spoken at various corporate and educational institutions.

Mr. Gawade graduated from the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business with a MBA. He also attended Wayne State University, where he received his M.S. in mechanical engineering, and the University of Pune, where he received his B.E. in mechanical engineering.

Mr. Chandrasekhar is the founder and CEO of Forus Health Pvt. Ltd., a company that develops affordable technology solutions that can easily be used by a minimally trained technician, thereby making health service accessible and scalable. Forus strongly believe that by democratizing wellness, they can play an active role in addressing India's healthcare issues.

Mr. K Chandrasekhar has a successful track record of over 22 years in the semiconductor/software industry, handling strategic management, alliances and partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, operations management, business development, business strategy and sales management. He has also developed complete software ecosystem for companies in India and Asia.

Shravani Hagardi is the founder and CEO of Safe Hands 24/7, a for-profit business aiming to create a safer environment for the public while benefitting destitute men and women. Safe Hands 24x7 originated as a business plan created through the Deshpande Fellowship Program (DFP). The original mission was to construct a safer world by creating opportunities for hard-working men and women in the security and housekeeping fields. Safe Hands focuses on promoting gender equality and independence, especially focusing on underprivileged women around Karnataka.

Shravani Hagardi is a young social entrepreneur from Dharwar, India, with a bachelor's degree in social work. After college, Ms. Hagardi joined the Deshpande Fellowship Program (DFP). Through this program, Shravani learned management concepts and the potential of new social NGOs to better the situations of women in India through the implementation of business plans.

One of the key architects of the Right to Education Act 2009, Dr. Raina is a physicist by profession. He resigned from Delhi University in 1985 to devote himself full-time to grassroots work in education, and to co-found Eklavya. The organization develops and field tests innovative educational programs while training resource people to implement these programs. Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, an organization that attempts to bridge the three divides of knowledge, economics, and society through developments programs in education.

Mr. Raina is one of the pioneers of the People's Science Movement in India. It attempts to empower people to plan and implement their own developmental ideas and needs so as to reverse the trickle-down paradigm of development. He is presently a member of the Apex educational body of the Government of India, the Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE) and the National Advisory Council for Right to Education.

He has been a Homi Bhabha Fellow, a Fellow of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi, an Asia Leadership Fellow in Japan, and an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Science Writers Association. Dr. Raina has worked with Bhopal Gas Disaster victims and the anti-Narmada dam campaign. He helped conceptualize the Victims of Development project and co-edited the subsequent volume The Dispossessed.

Dr. Raina is also a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum.

Dr. Sanjeeve Kulkarni is the president of Baala Balagaa, a non-governmental, alternative, child-friendly and eco-friendly school. As a working gynecologist and obstetrician, Dr. Kulkarni is one of the directors of the Tavargeri Nursing Home and has campaigned tirelessly against Pre-Natal Sex Determination and Female Fetus Abortion. Dr. Kulkarni is also the president of Atmadeepa, a partner organization of SIRIKRISI( Siridhanya Kriya Samit), which is working to popularize millets. Dr. Kulkarni is also interested in organic farming and is currently farming in Suman Sangan, a forest outside of Dharwad.

Dr. Kulkarni is from Satti, a small village in north Karnataka, and earned his Bachelor's of Medicine and Bachelor's of Surgery (MBBS) at KIMS Hubli. He has also studied and worked in Davangere, Mumbai and Bangalor. He passed the Diploma of National Board (DNB) in 1989.

Rajesh Bhat is the co-founder of the Head Held High Foundation and also manages Magic Wand, the training arm of the foundation. On one of his many visits to his village, the idea of starting a rural Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) in his village struck him, primarily as a way of creating knowledge economy jobs in the villages. Rajesh and his team started by recruiting a group of zero-educated village youth, and demonstrating that it was indeed possible to transform such youth into employable individuals in just eight months. The team designed and executed the breakthrough training from scratch, creating a blueprint for rapidly scaling the program.

In 2011, Rajesh represented the Head Held High Foundation at the CNN-IBN Real Heroes Award 2011, where he was recognized as one of the people responsible for driving the transformation of rural youth. Rajesh has been invited to share his experiences in several forums, and is an active speaker at international conferences.

Born and brought up in a remote village in Karnataka, India, he went on to complete his engineering education in Mysore, and then worked as a software developer with OnMobile, a mobile applications company.

Mr. Y. G. Muralidharan is an activist at the Consumer Rights Education & Awareness Trust. He works to build awareness about the legal instruments and rights of individuals as they pertain to protecting the environment. Specifically, Mr. Muraliaharan's area of work is in public participation, decision-making related to environment, capacity building of NGOs and civil society groups in articulating before the state agencies. He is also involved in good governance in general, with special reference to citizen's charters, ombudsman, right to information and regulatory bodies. He has been writing extensively in the mainstream media about all these issues, and also has experience in consumer protection.

Mr. Subhash Bhat is an independent animator, filmmaker and educator, and is the Center Director of Frameboxx Animation. Frameboxx offers a wide array of training programs aimed at producing high-quality trained manpower to fuel India's rapidly growing animation & visual effects industry. Mr. Bhat introduced rotoscoping, an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films, to Karnataka. The studio has worked for movies like Ra-One, Canon the Barbarian and Nokia TVC.

Mr. Subhash Bhat is an independent animator, filmmaker and educator, and is the Center Director of Frameboxx Animation. Frameboxx offers a wide array of training programs aimed at producing high-quality trained manpower to fuel India's rapidly growing animation & visual effects industry. Mr. Bhat introduced rotoscoping, an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films, to Karnataka. The studio has worked for movies like Ra-One, Canon the Barbarian and Nokia TVC.

Mr. Bhat attended Picasso Centennial Animation Institute in New Delhi, where he earned his B.Sc. in multimedia. After graduation, he enrolled in AnimationMentor.com and worked as a multimedia lecturer at IBMR.

Mr. Sandeep K is a Program Coordinator at Millet Network of India, where he is focused on preserving millet farming. Millet farming is threatened by modern forms of agriculture that rely heavily on chemicals and hybrid seeds. These techniques benefit large urban companies while destroying the environment and small villages.

Previously, Mr. Sandeep K worked for three years at the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), on issues related to common land governance. His interest lies in conducting research on natural resource management. Specifically, he is trying to work with and understand village-level institutions—customary and modern—that aid in the sound management of these resources. He's working on having women, dalits and aadivasis in managing these resources.

Mr. Sandeep K has a M..A. in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Mr. F.C. Chegareddy is the co-editor of Teacher Pathrike, a publication created exclusively for teachers. Mr. Chegareddy, a government science teacher in Belavanaki Village in Raichur District, has been a member of numerous education quality improvement initiatives in Karnataka since 1989. He has also conducted hundreds of training camps for teachers, students, mothers, and other stakeholders of the Karnataka primary education system.

Mr. Chegareddy was a trainer at Abdhul Nazir Saab State Institute of Rural Development Institute (ANSSIRD), Mysore, and has trained Zilla Panchayet members and officials. He has written two books for teachers and children: The Flying History and Origami.

Mr. Chegareddy was the coordinator of Vidyankura, a district quality education improvement initiative, in the Chamarajangar district, Karnataka. The initiative was supported for two years by Sir Ratan Tata Trust. He has worked with BGVS (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti) full-time as the State Secretary for eight years. He is currently engaged in furthering and strengthening the implementation process of the Right to Education Act.

Ragavendra Bhat is the project coordinator of the UNICEF-sponsored District Child Protection program at Raichur District in Karnataka. A joint initiative of UNICEF and the Government of Karnataka, the project aims to eradicate and prevent child labor, child marriage and the trafficking of women and girls in the District.

Ragavendra Bhat led a model Child Labor eradication program in Davanagere District as the District Project Coordinator from 2003 to 2005. The project was named the best district-level program in the entire south India. Around 10,000 children were enrolled and re-enrolled in mainstream schools, and 80 village panchayets became child labor free. The Government of Karnataka has initiated the program implementation in all the districts of Karnataka.

Ragavendra Bhat was the national coordinator for the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) from 1999 to 2002, and wrote related resource books like Children and Law and Child's Rights and Us. He conducted training programs in 19 states in India. He has been part of the resource teams of ILO, UNICEF and Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Mysore.

Mr. Vir Kashyap is the Chief Operating Office at Babajob.com, a Bangalore-based startup that uses the web and mobile technology to connect employers and bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) informal sector workers (i.e. maids, cooks, drivers, etc.) with the goal of creating a scalable, replicable and profitable solution to combat poverty.

Previously, Mr. Kashyap was a partner at Indavest, a venture capital and incubation firm focusing on early-stage investments in India. At Indavest, he generated deal flow and raised capital for deal execution. Mr. Kashyap started his career at Morgan Stanley in New York, where he assisted the firm's alternative asset management clients in raising capital from a global base of investors. More recently, Mr. Kashyap was a member of the business development team at Vega Asset Management. Based in Madrid, he evaluated fund managers for inclusion on the fund platform while managing relationships with the fund's global investor base. His other experience includes a stint in Silicon Valley, where he helped launch the enterprise-computing vertical at Epinions.com (now part of eBay).

Mr. Kashyap received a Bachelors of Arts in Economics and Religion from Bowdoin College, Maine, U.S.A.

Professor Nirmala Yenagi is an Associate Professor at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharward, Karnataka. From 2008 to 2011, Professor Nirmala was the Head of the Food Science and Nutrition Department.

Professor Yenagi has received funding from many sources over the years for projects based on food security and livelihoods. In 2012, she was funded by the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, IDRC, Canada to research strengthening rural families through empowerment by introducing food security through production, processing and value addition of regional staple food grains. She has also received funding from Sesa Goa for a project on Alternative livelihood opportunities for rural community residing around a narain mines in the Chitrdurga District.

Professor Nirmala's degree is in Home Science and Allied Agriculture, and she has her MHSc in Food and Nutrition from the University of Agricultural Science in Bangalore. She received her Ph.D in Food Science from CFTRI, University of Mysore, Mysore.

Mrs. Chitra K. Vishwanath is the Managing Director for Biome Environmental Solutions. The Biome incorporates water harvesting and water treatment, as well as waste management, throughout all construction stages. Mrs. Vishwanath is also working with the NGO KILIKILI as an advisor. KILIKILI works with the City of Bangalore and parent groups to further the cause of inclusive play in public parks and spaces. She also conducts accessibility audits and advises schools and institutions in how to make their premises universally accessible.

Mrs. Vishwanath has her Bachelors of Architecture from the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology Ahmedabad, India and a Nigerian National Diploma in Civil Engineering.

E.S. Ramamurthy is the Founder of Sikshana Foundation, a program aimed at improving the quality of education in the public school system and creating a sustainable and replicable model of modern management concepts in education for the empowerment of schools. Sikshana presently covers more than 650 schools with 75,000 kids in three states, making it one of the largest programs of its type in India. Sikshana received the prestigious Namma Bengaluru Award for 10 for the 'Best Venture in the Social Sector'. Sikshna was also shortlisted for the Top Three Voluntary Sector Initiatives in Education in India by the Times of India in 2011.

Keeping with current management trends, Mr. Ramamurthy relinquished operational control of the Sikshana Foundation to a group of young professionals, and is now functioning as the chief mentor. He is actively engaged in developing new concepts and extending the program to high schools.

Mr. Ramamurthy had a distinguished career in industry spanning more than 30 years. Towards the end, he had many senior positions as an Expert in the Field of Renewable Energy under the Government of India and UN Agencies. This brought him into contact with remote rural communities and their needs. Sensitized to these conditions, he quit his career at its peak to involve himself in the socially productive cause of providing quality education for the deprived.

Mr. Ramamurthy holds a master's degree in physics from Madras University.