India Water Portal Team Profile

Communications Team

Priya Desai with 5 years of experience in the advertising industry as a copywriter, joined Arghyam with the ambition to use her skills in communications to make a difference. She recently moved back to India from Bahrain with the intention of shifting career paths to the development sector, and Arghyam is her first step in this direction. Priya has a BA in Journalism, Psychology & English Literature and has always been a writer at heart. As a Project Officer with the IWP team, she contributes to developing a communications strategy and the way forward for the next phase of the Portal, and is also involved in the everyday running of the Portal and its associated programmes. She is based at Bangalore.

Content Team

Ashis has about 7 years experience in building and supporting production and marketing initiatives involving farmers and forest-produce collectors in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. He is currently engaged in building a community-based development initiative with farmers in Rajasthan, around work on land and water. He works with IWP as a consultant and is based at Dungarpur, Rajasthan.

Aarti Kelkar-Khambete has over eleven years experience in the field of public health, withconsiderable exposure to health issues among urban, rural and tribal populations in Kerala and Maharashtra. Her work experience and research during her MPhil and PhD was on medical, social and behavioural determinants of health of women. She has a strong interest in exploring the relation between health, water and environment related issues. She works with IWP as a consultant, and is based at Trivandrum.

Amita Bhaduri has over 14 yrs experience in the field of natural resources management with work spanning project design, capacity building, project management, monitoring and evaluation, action research, process documentation and policy advocacy. She has a background in Forest Management from IIFM Bhopal and Civil Engineering from NIT Nagpur. She works as a consultant with SPWD, New Delhi on water, agriculture and forest issues, and was previously a full-time member with SPWD and Society STADD, New Delhi. She works with IWP as a consultant, and is based at New Delhi.

Parineeta Dandekar holds a Masters in Environmental Sciences and a Diploma in Integrated Water Resources Management, from the Asian Institute of Technology Bangkok. She has over 7 years of experience in community-led river basin management, environment education and working on the water-ecology interface, with a particular interest in issues related to environmental flows and river conservation. She was the Joke Waller-Hunter Environmental Leadership Fellow for the year 2009-10. She is associated with Gomukh Trust, Pune as well as with the South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), New Delhi, and works with IWP as a consultant. She loves juggling time between rivers, forests and her family, and is based at Pune.

Sucheethra Srinivasan has over 10 years experience in the ITES industry. She is currently working with children between 2.5 to 6 years of age, as an Montessorian. She completed her graduation in Psychology from Bangalore University and holds a Diploma in Montessori Education. She works with IWP as a consultant, and is based at Bangalore.

Chetana B Muraleedhara has a background in fine arts, with a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting from Bangalore University, and a post-graduation in Photography Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She has a keen interest in understanding social and environment issues through the medium of art and photography. Some of her projects include - 'Tale of a tree', a photographic book that captures different stages of a tree, and ‘Silens’, an award-winning photo-essay that captures Hridayakunj of the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. She works with IWP as a consultant, and is based at Bangalore.

Sunita Sangar has more than 15 years of research experience in inter-disciplinary areas of technological and social change and S&T policy issues related to natural resource management (soil & water) at NISTADS New Delhi and later at Centre for Advancement of Sustainable Agriculture (CASA) New Delhi. She is a recipient of the Professional Development Award (PDA), for her project under Innovation, Technology and Society (ITS), a program initiative of IDRC Canada in 2007. Between 2007-10, at Society STADD, she coordinated a NAIP (ICAR) – World Bank-funded research project on conservation agriculture (bio-fertilisers). Currently, she is associated with ING-SCON, and also does research and documentation work for other development organisations on a freelance basis. She works with IWP as a consultant, and is based at New Delhi.

Chicu Lokgariwar is a civil engineer working in water conservation since 1999. Chicu began by working on participatory watershed management and environmental awareness in Western India. In 2007-08, she was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow with the University of Washington. Here she studied the use of participatory mechanisms for water management with a focus on the stakeholder rights of ecosystems. At present, she continues this work in Uttarakhand by working on environmental flows and studying community-ecosystem interactions, especially in the context of climate change and urbanization. Chicu is also interested in travel and blogs about her experiences here. She works with IWP as a consultant, while also carrying out research and documentation work for other development organizations on a freelance basis. She is based at Sitla, Uttarakhand.

Seetha Gopalakrishnan holds a masters degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice Administration from the University of Madras, where she graduated as a gold medalist and university topper. She has a keen interest in working on development issues at the grassroots. She works with IWP as a consultant based at Chennai, and also freelances as a news presenter with Doordarshan News.

Nisha Thompson has a background in online community organizing. She has worked for the Sunlight Foundation in Washington DC, with online communities to use US government data to hold elected officials accountable. She moved to Bangalore in October 2010 and is currently working on an Open Government Data report for the Centre for Internet and Society and on the Data Project with the India Water Portal as a consultant. The Data Project aims to collect and open up water and related data, so that citizens and practitioners can use it to improve and keep track of projects and progress in the water sector.

Samuel Rajkumar works with Inspireware, and supported Sharada in building and managing the technical work of the India Water Portal and associated Portals, including their migration to the new Drupal CMS versions. He now leads a fresh technology effort to build a data/maps applications platform on the Portal. He has an active interest in social and development issues, and works with IWP as a consultant, based at Bangalore.

Srikanta Prasanna has about 6 years experience in the telecom software industry, and has a Masters degree in Computer Applications. Before joining Arghyam, he worked at Cisco Systems, Nokia Siemens Networks and with various start-ups. Currently as Project Manager, he manages the technology work of the India Water Portal and associated Portals and supports the Data and Applications team, and is based at Bangalore.

The Technology team's work is supported by Azri Solutions, Hyderabad and E2E Networks, Faridabad.

Schools Water Portal Team

Reena Pinto joined Arghyam as a Network Associate for ASHWAS – Karnataka Water and Sanitation Survey in 2008 and presently works with IWP as a Project Officer, and manages the work of the Schools Water Portal. She was associated with the content team and supported the daily operations of the India Water Portal, including organising of events, managing community content, coordinating with the Grants and other teams within Arghyam, and with vendors and consultants for content support work. She holds a Masters degree in Social Work and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management. She enjoys working in the non-profit sector, and before Arghyam, was working with the Ashraya Children's Adoption Centre. She is based at Bangalore.

Hindi Portal Team
 Minakshi Arora has 12 years of experience in writing on development issues after completing her MA and MPhil. She is a gold medalist and university topper in Political Science. She has worked as the Executive Director of a social media and news agency - People’s News Network (PNN), and has been associated with leading social activists like Dr Vandana Shiva, Advocate Prashant Bhushan and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. At present, she is the Chairperson of Water Community India (WCI) and Executive Director of the Trust for Research on Earth and Environment (TREE). She supports the overall work of the Hindi Water Portal as a consultant, including work on sourcing and editing content, participating in events, and networking with media agencies and various people and organisations in the sector. She is based at New Delhi.

Siraj Kesar has 18 years of experience with social movements like Azadi Bachao Andolan, Sarvoday, and Narmada Bachao Andolan. After completing his education from Allahabad University, his work with various movements, helped develop his leadership, organizing and journalism skills. He has authored books on social causes and convened several social campaigns. He coordinates the overall work of the Hindi Water Portal as a consultant, including its content sourcing, editing and technical work. He is based at New Delhi.

Amarnath Jha supports the typing and editing work of the Hindi Water Portal, and provides technical hardware, software and computer maintenance support, as a consultant. He is based at New Delhi.

Ramesh Kumar has completed his Masters in English, and has worked previously with the People's News Network, an alternative social media and news agency. He supports the typing work of the Hindi Water Portal and its regular outdoor work requirements. He is based at New Delhi.

India Sanitation Portal Team

Shilpi Jain has over 13 years of experience in the software industry after a Bachelors in Economics (Hons) degree from the University of Delhi and an internship with a leading daily, The Asian Age as a socio-political sub-editor. She has initiated & managed several key projects in different domains, last at NIIT Ltd. As a consultant based in New Delhi, she supports Water Aid India's team, and in collaboration with Arghyam and India Water Portal, manages the India Sanitation Portal, which has been setup to address equity and sustainability issues in the sanitation sector. At present, she is actively involved in ensuring the regular sourcing, updating and maintenance of the Portal's content and services.

Alumni

CS Sharada Prasad came to Arghyam with about 5 years of experience in the IT sector. He started his career as a Java developer and his most recent role before joining Arghyam was as a pre-sales consultant. He is the co-founder of Mukta Foundation, an NPO that works towards streamlining volunteerism. His passion for working in the development sector coupled with his IT skills, helped him contribute to Arghyam's objectives. CSP was the technical point person on the India Water Portal team and for a long time managed Arghyam's internal IT and telecom infrastructure, and coordinated the work of the Kannada Portal. He made waves in the sector in 2008 with a 19000 km bike ride across the country - "In Search of Water", where he visited NGOs and communities across the country to learn about local water problems and solutions. Sharada is currently pursuing a MS-PhD course in Energy and Resources at University of California, Berkeley.

Arun Patre spent 4.5 yrs in the corporate finance world which included a three year stint at Reuters and the rest at a financial consulting firm. His interest in environment and community issues, which developed while traveling across stretches of India led him to join Arghyam in 2008. He was part of the advocacy efforts through the ASHWAS – Karnataka Water and Sanitation survey and later worked with the Communications function of the India Water Portal, and later with the Ask the Expert service, as a volunteer. He is also associated with the Acara Institute, where he manages an education program on social entrepreneurship in universities in India & USA. He is based at Bangalore.

Rashmi Gopal is an instrumentation engineer with 9 years of experience in the engineering and software services industry. She moved to the development sector in 2002 and worked with TERI for 6 years in the field of environment education and environmental policy, including intensive work with schools and colleges across the country. As a member of the technical committee, she participated in the development of the rainwater harvesting policy for Karnataka and authored a training manual on rainwater harvesting for engineers and other practitioners in urban Karnataka. She coordinated the work of the Schools Water Portal, as a consultant based at Bangalore.

Samir Nazareth is a Post Graduate in Development Economics from Pondicherry University, and has worked for about 15 years with various national and international environmental organisations, last at Greenpeace. After a stint at freelance research and writing work and teaching, he now works with Dainik Bhaskar (English edition), at New Delhi. He worked with the content team as a consultant, based at Nagpur, and blogs here.

Anita Doval is a faculty with the Department of Political Science, at Gargi College, University of Delhi and supported the Ask the Expert service of IWP, as a consultant. She holds MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University; her PhD research work was related to International Relations. She has over 8 years of research and teaching experience in political science, apart from development sector experience related to water and environmental sanitation, and natural resource management with work spanning content development, training, research and advocacy. She is based at New Delhi.