Meet the speakers behind charcha 2025


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Anushree leads the social finance team at the Trust and brings over 15 years of experience in corporate social responsibility, public policy and not-for-profit sectors in India and the UK. Prior to joining British Asian Trust, Anushree led impact advisory at Waterfield Advisors, a boutique multi-family office designing philanthropic, social finance and impact investment strategies for clients. Before that, she spent eight years at Samhita Social Ventures, a leading social impact consulting firm in India, establishing and leading its impact assessment and strategy verticals. She spent four years in public policy research at New Policy Institute in London. Anushree is passionate about leveraging the role of the private sector to achieve sustainable development by facilitating symbiotic relationships between society, government, and markets. She holds an MSc. in Development Studies from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and BA (Hons) in Economics from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.














Aparajita is a Founding Partner of TQH and co-founder of Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC), which works with young people to increase their engagement with democratic processes. Before starting these two organisations, Aparajita was Manager, Corporate Affairs and Communications at Snapdeal, where she was responsible for managing media messaging while engaging with policy and legislative issues that affect the digital commerce sector. Aparajita holds an MPP degree from Oxford University, and her work cuts across the domains of gender, tech policy, and integrity of India’s democratic institutions.
Aparajita started her career in public policy as a Legislative Assistant to Mr. N.K. Singh, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and was one of the four Indians selected for the Faiths Act Fellowship by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in 2011. In her undergraduate years at the College of Business Studies, Delhi University, Aparajita was instrumental in starting ‘Manthan’ – an annual congregation of street theatre societies to spread social awareness. Manthan has now expanded to several towns and cities across India. She is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper from the New Delhi hub


Leading Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Advisor, Corporate lawyer with 20+ years experience. Founder of Samāna Centre for Gender, Policy and Law, a consultancy focused on DEI for all segments of diversity, she brings her unique multi-themed experience across workplace DEI; impact investing, ESG; entrepreneurship development; GESI in projects/policy; gender mainstreaming in philanthropy/CSR; anti-discrimination/anti-harassment frameworks. Prior to Samāna she was Partner, Corporate Law/ Mergers & Acquisitions with India’s Tier I corporate law firms, where she worked for 13+ years.













Aradhana Rai Gupta is the Co-Founder of Baala, a social enterprise driving menstrual and reproductive health equity across India and beyond through awareness, access to sustainable menstrual products and policy advocacy. Under her leadership, Baala has reached over 1 million women and girls across rural and low-income communities, combining research-driven interventions with local innovation to create long-term behavioral change.
Prior to founding Baala, Aradhana worked with Procter & Gamble, EY and University of Cambridge. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from St. Stephen’s College and an MBA from Cornell University.
Recognized among Forbes India 30 Under 30, Vital Voices GROW Fellows, BMGF Goalkeepers, and Harper’s Bazaar India Trailblazers, Aradhana is known for her empathetic, data-led approach to social entrepreneurship and her advocacy for gender equity, youth engagement and sustainable development.













Aranya is an Indian filmmaker based out of Mumbai. He studied Direction at FTII, Pune. He went on to assist Imtiaz Ali and Patrick Graham as an Associate Director & Director’s Assistant.
He has directed five short films, of which Songs for Babasaheb and Chait have screened at Mumbai International Film Festival, Signs Film Festival and Jaffna Film Festival. In 2021, his film Saaya was selected as a Film Bazaar Recommends project. He was a participant and grant winner in the Museum of Imagined Futures Impact Fellowship Programme in 2023 of which 'Humans in the Loop' was born.
'Humans in the Loop' garnered immense audience and acclaim- winning the FIPRESCI Award for Best Indian film. Most recently winning the prestigious Sloan Distribution, previously won by Oppenheimer.














Arindom Datta has over 30 years of work experience with the last 17 years at Rabobank where he was Head of Asia for Sustainability Banking initiatives on knowledge, risk management and business development. He also oversaw the development finance projects in blended finance, AgFinTech, and climate financing in the agriculture sector. His previous experience was with NABARD, IDBI Bank and CARE. Arindom has been honoured with the ‘India Sustainable Leadership’ award at the India Sustainability Leadership Summit in 2017. Arindom is a Mathematics honours graduate from St. Stephen’s College and has an MBA with a specialization in Finance and Strategy from IIM Kozhikode. Currently he is the Senior Advisor to Omnivore (India’s largest Agtech VC Fund) and FinReach. He is on the Board of GIFGworth, London and Samunnati Foundation.
Current Affiliations: Investment Committee Member of the SIDBI sponsored Assam Start up Venture Capital Fund, the Tripura Start up Venture Capital Fund; Member, Working Group on Financial Linkages under10,000 FPOs scheme constituted by Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India; Member of the FICCI Task force on Agtech; Member of the FICCI Task Force on Agri Finance; Expert Committee Member – Food Innovation Hub, India – World Economic Forum; Task force Member, Water Resource Group, World Bank; Steering Committee Member – ‘Sustainable Landscape Management for Transforming Agricultural Systems in India’, Rainforest India; Steering Council Member – The Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture Innovation (AI4AI) – World Economic Forum; Member of the Advisory Board of NAFPO (The National Association for Farmer Producer Companies); Advisory Panel of the India Livelihood Summit.
Past Affiliations : Steering Committee member of SAFIN (Small holder and Agri SME Finance & Investment Network); Expert Committee Member of “Green Bonds”














Arjun Venkatraman serves as the Senior Officer for Artificial Intelligence at the Gates Foundation, based in New Delhi. In this role, he leads initiatives focused on leveraging AI and digital technologies to promote inclusivity and social good, particularly in the areas of public health and gender equality.
Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, Arjun worked as a Freelance Open Solutions Architect and Consultant specializing in ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development), social impact, and CSR projects. He has also held advisory positions at CGNet Swara, a community media platform, and served as a Technology and Innovation Consultant for Internews.
Arjun holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University and a Master’s in Business Law from National Law School of India University.














Ms. Arti Ahuja is a retired IAS officer from the 1990 batch of Odisha cadre with a distinguished career in public service spanning over three decades. She has held several high-level positions in both central and state governments, demonstrating profound expertise in policy framing, social security, public health, and skills development. She holds a Master's in Public Policy from Princeton University, where she was a World Bank Robert S. McNamara Fellow, and a Master's in Public Health from Harvard University, where she received the Harvard Presidential Fellowship.
As the Union Secretary for the Ministry of Labour and Employment, she focused on strengthening social security and addressing skill gaps for India's workforce, spearheaded initiatives to provide agency to 300 million unorganized sector workers through the e-shram portal, linking them to skilling, entrepreneurship, and job search opportunities. On the international stage, she successfully represented India in the ILO Governing Body, chaired the Asia Pacific conference of the ILO, was a key negotiator for the country in BRICS, and chaired the G20 Employment Working Group during India's presidency.












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.

