A room of builders.
The leaders, founders, policymakers, and practitioners turning ideas into action
Sabina Dewan is the Founder and Executive Director of the JustJobs Network, a global institution that produces cutting-edge, actionable research on good job creation and workforce development. Under her leadership, the organization has become a key voice shaping global discourse on employment and labour market governance.
Ms. Dewan has served as a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in India and as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire. Previously, she was Senior Fellow and Director for International Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.
Her research explores how forces such as technology and climate change are transforming employment, emphasizing the need for dynamic education and skills policies. She works closely with governments, businesses, multilaterals, and grassroots organizations to advance inclusive and sustainable economic growth through better employment and employability outcomes.
Ms. Dewan’s experience spans institutions including the World Bank, International Labour Organization, and European Commission, as well as grassroots organizations in Sierra Leone, India, and Western Samoa. She serves as an advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister’s Global Deal initiative, a member of the Global Challenges Foundation’s Climate Governance Commission, CII’s National Committee on Skills and Livelihoods, NITI Aayog’s Vision 2035 advisory committee, and the Work Fair and Free Foundation advisory group. She also contributed to integrating vocational education into India’s National Education Policy 2020 and National Curriculum Framework 2023.
Her commentary appears regularly in leading international media such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Mint, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and NDTV.
Samar leads the foundation’s education work in India, partnering with organizations to improve schools, expand career opportunities for young people, and enhance learning with technology.
Before joining the foundation, she spent more than a decade as a consultant with Boston Consulting Group and Ernst & Young, advising companies in media, consumer internet, and retail. With a background in understanding consumer behavior, she now applies those insights to strengthen education.
Samar studied economics at Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, and earned a dual master’s degree in public administration from the London School of Economics and Sciences Po Paris.
Samik Sundar Das is a senior rural development specialist with extensive experience in rural transformation, livelihoods, and financial inclusion across India, Africa, and Central Asia. He has led large-scale World Bank–supported programs on rural prosperity, women’s economic empowerment, and enterprise development, blending policy design, institutional reform, and innovative finance. Samik works at the intersection of government systems, private sector engagement, and global knowledge exchange, with a strong focus on inclusive growth, resilience, and job creation. His efforts have immensely contributed to flagship initiatives such as NRLP, TNRTP, and the emerging Rural Prosperity and Resilience Program.
Sanjoy K. Roy, an entrepreneur of the arts, is Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces over thirty highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals across forty cities in countries such as Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA, including the world’s largest literary gathering: the annual Jaipur Literature Festival.Roy is a founder-trustee of Salaam Baalak Trust, which provides support services for street and working children in the inner city of Delhi. He works closely with various industry bodies on important policy issues within the cultural space in India and is co-chair of the Art and Culture Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry; he is a former president of the Event and Entertainment Management Association and Earth Day Network’s official Global Advisory Committee and is the current co-chair of Catalyst Now. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate by York University, UK.
With 28 years of experience with multinationals, foundations and family offices, Saumya has built a successful career in corporate sustainability and strategic philanthropy.
After a decade at General Electric USA in various technology-related roles, Saumya’s passion for inclusive growth and social impact led her to relocate home to India in 2007. Since then, she has operationalized and led global Corporate Social Responsibility platforms at conglomerates like Genpact and Godrej Industries, and advised UHNI donors across the lifecycle of philanthropic portfolios. Under her leadership, 360 ONE Foundation has reimagined traditional philanthropy and pioneered a more catalytic approach powered by blended finance and outcomes-based financing, to maximize social returns and generate higher leverage on grants. Throughout her tenure in this sector, Saumya has been a change agent to optimize giving: making philanthropic capital more outcome-oriented, efficient, and effective.
Saumya began her career in 1997 with General Electric USA, through the Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP) - a fast track, rotational program designed to develop high potential candidates for GE's leading management positions. She is an Aspire Circle fellow (Cohort 4, 2017), and a winner of the Women Director of The Year Award (Not for Profit) at the MentorMyBoard Women Directors Conclave in December 2023. After having lived, studied and worked in four continents, she is currently based in Mumbai.
Saurav is a seasoned strategic finance and business transformation leader with over 18 years of experience across industries. He actively contributed to Swiggy’s IPO, demonstrating his expertise in navigating complex financial landscapes. His core strengths include strategic planning, operational excellence, as well as driving businesses toward sustainable profitability. Throughout his career, he has played crucial roles in leading brands such as Ola, Flipkart and Tata Communications.
In June 2025, he was appointed Senior Vice President and Head of Swiggy’s Driver and Delivery Organisation. In this capacity, he leads delivery operations and spearheads initiatives aimed at empowering Swiggy’s delivery partners—one of the key pillars of its ecosystem—while continuing to oversee Business Finance until a successor is appointed.
Sayantani Gaddam currently leads the British Asian Trust, India as Head of Programmes, leading BAT’s programmes on Digital Skilling, Mental Health and Conservation, including the flagship CSR partnership with BT Group on empowering adolescent girls and women in safe digital skilling. She is a social sector practitioner with multi-sector experience leading strategy, operations and advocacy in not-for-profit and social development consulting organizations. Proven track record of 25+ years in guiding sizeable cross-functional teams across geographies in programme design, execution, monitoring and evaluation, and stakeholder management. Her focus is mainstreaming community concerns, participation and their active role in public systems development. By education she is a geographer and regional planner and a certified educator.
Sharad Sharma is a technology entrepreneur and evangelist with over three decades of experience in the Internet, enterprise software, and digital infrastructure sectors. He co-founded iSPIRT Foundation, a non-profit think tank focused on building India’s software product ecosystem, and has been a prominent voice in shaping India as a product nation. He also co-founded Teltier Technologies Inc., later acquired by CISCO, and has actively invested in over two dozen technology startups.
Mr. Sharma has held senior R&D leadership positions at leading technology companies including Yahoo, VERITAS Software, Symantec, Lucent Technologies, and AT&T. Recognized with the R&D Visionary Award by Zinnov in 2008, he has also contributed to national policy as a member of the National Startup Advisory Council, SEBI’s Financial and Regulatory Technology Committee, and RBI committees on MSME and digital payments. An electrical engineering graduate from Delhi College of Engineering, he began his journey by creating India’s first Student Minicomputer Club and leading the IEEE Student Chapter.
Shaveta is the CEO & Managing Director at Central Square Foundation. She has been part of the founding team at CSF since 2012. Shaveta leads CSF’s work on FLN (Foundational Literacy & Numeracy), Early Childhood Education (ECE) and EdTech, and oversees the organization’s institution building. She is passionate to bring to life CSF’s vision of quality learning for all children and government-led system reform for scale and sustainability.
Shaveta is on the advisory board of Language and Learning Foundation Foundation (LLF), Madhi Foundation and Saarthi Education. She is also on the advisory board of India Leaders for Social Sector (ILSS) in line with her commitment for high-quality leadership for the social sector. Another passion area for her is gender, and she is a founding mentor to The Udaiti Foundation that is working on women economic empowerment.
Prior to CSF, she worked at The Boston Consulting Group and Citibank. She has also been a visiting faculty member in the Human Resources and Organizational Behavior disciplines at many business schools. Shaveta earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi, and holds an MBA in Management from IIM, Bangalore.
She is a proud parent to two young adults (a boy & girl) & furry-boy. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching Hindi movies & listening to music, solving Sudoku & Kakuro puzzles and traveling with her family.
Shifali Thakkur serves as the Chief of Staff at Samagra, where she leads the organization’s central functions including Organization Development, Outreach, and Recruitment. She has been with Samagra since 2019, beginning her journey as a Consultant with the Saksham Haryana team, working to improve learning outcomes for over 1.4 million students in government schools across the state.
Prior to Samagra, she has worked with Teach for India for 5+ years and after a brief stint at Sattva Consulting in 2021, Shifali returned to Samagra in 2022 to lead key organizational building initiatives. She holds a Master’s degree in Education from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Amity University, Noida.
Ms. Shilpy Kochhar is heading the Strategic Partnerships and Entrepreneurship Development vertical at BIRAC, a Section 8 Public Sector Unit under the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. She holds more than 15 years of experience of leading large national level grant programmes, implementing policy initiatives focused at promoting startups and building strategic national and international relationships. During her tenure at BIRAC, she had led several new initiatives, scaled processes through gap identification and developed relationships with key stakeholders.
She is a post graduate in biotechnology from IIT-Roorkee and has studied Public Policy from ISB. She is currently an Executive Fellow at IIM Lucknow in the area of Economics (Business Environment).
Shobhini Mukerji is the Executive Director of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia, which she has led since 2011, overseeing partnerships across 20 Indian states, central government agencies, and regional training initiatives. She works with governments, civil society, and development partners to strengthen data-driven policymaking and scale evidence-based social programs across India and South Asia, advising donors and multilaterals on high-impact policy investments.
Prior to joining J-PAL, Ms. Mukerji worked with Pratham, one of India’s largest non-governmental organizations focused on improving primary education outcomes. Her research interests span education, gender, and employment, and she has co-authored several large-scale randomized evaluations on foundational literacy with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. This body of work has contributed to programs currently scaling to reach more than 60 million children across India and Africa.
Ms. Mukerji serves on the advisory boards of Community Jameel and Indus Action, is a Board Member at Helvetas, and is a Steering Committee Member of the Jameel Arts and Health Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organization. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Research Methods from the London School of Economics and initially joined J-PAL in 2007 as a Research Associate.
There’s a lot happening at charcha 2025
Exciting programming in play - marquee speakers, extensive CSR and CSO network participation, thought-provoking panels and workshops, curated networking, and more.