Founder Members

Full time Farmer and Consultant - 2017 to date Managing a 30 acre farm in the Sahyadri Hills

Development Sector - 2011 to 2017 - 7 yrs. Served as Director, Maharashtra Knowledge Foundation (later MKCL Knowledge Foundation), the CSR implementation and monitoring arm of Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited, Pune. Worked at grassroots on several projects with and for farmers and rural youth. (Details available on 'Past Projects' pages) Founder Trustee of Arthakranti Pratishthan (2004)

Private Sector - 1997 to 2011, 2017 to 2019 - 16 yrs. Served with several Indian and multinational corporations in the fields of Merchant Shipping and Real Estate Operations, namely Teekay Shipping (Canada) Ltd., IL&FS, Goldman Sachs, Supreme Housing and Hospitality and Brookfield Properties (RE fund) Last two assignments were in the role of VP - Asset Management

Indian Navy - 1982 to 1997 - 15 yrs. Served in the Engineering branch, and successfully led operations and maintenance of critical machinery and systems on premier Naval warships.

NARENDRA KHOT

Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune

Visiting Professor at IIT Kanpur

Ex-Professor of management at Symbiosis Center for Management and HRD, Pune. His research and teaching interests are Sustainability and Alternative Economics for a sustainable planet.

PhD in Environmental Management in industry and a post-doctorate as the Endeavour Fellow of Govt. of Australia. He is also the Sir Ratan Tata Visiting Fellow at Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.

Trustee of the Ecological Society and closely associated with Pani Panchayat.

He has authored three books and several research papers in international journals.

Dr GURUDAS NULKAR

Holds a Master's degree in Sanskrit from Mumbai University and B.Ed. from Pune and has over thirty years experience of teaching Sanskrit to School teachers and students. Specialises in Spoken Sanskrit.

She started the Sanskrit Kendra at the Indian Education Society, Dadar, Mumbai, for nurturing Sanskrit language through extracurricular programs. She has designed and conducted the first-of-its-kind Teacher's training course for Sanskrit teachers for almost 30 yrs.

She also runs 'Maharshi Vyas Vidya Pratishthan', a trust devoted to popularising Sanskrit in society. As a leading member of the Board of Studies at Bal Bharati, she played a key role in fundamentally redesigning the curricular Sanskrit text books from std. 8 to 12.

Recipient of several prestigious awards and felicitations for her exemplary contribution to the cause of the Sanskrit language.

TARANGINI KHOT

COL. ANIL GOGATE

Indian Army - 1979 - 2002, 23 yrs. Engaged in Field operations across all terrains along IB AND LC, HQ staff and Instructor at prestigious Military Training institutions. Commanded a specialized Signals Regiment deployed for CT Ops in J&K, including Kargil Ops. Retired in 2002 in the rank of Full Colonel.

Corporate - 2002 to 2016, 14 yrs. CTO Hutch (later Vodaphone) - created some Industry landmarks, successfully led on-ground merger with NOKIA.Ops head/CTO/COO at Essar Tower company - led exemplary fast growth, COO at Ascend Telecom, again led a successful on-ground merger and managed complete business operations with turnover of Rs 600 crores and an asset base of more than Rs 2500 crores.

Business Operations Consultant - 2016 to 2018, 2 yrs. Helped several companies enhance EBIDTA with stronger team bonding.

Teaching Experience - 1977-78 - Lecturer of Physics at Ruia College,Mumbai, 1989-91 - Instructor at the prestigious Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, After completing M.tech (Computers and Communication), served as Instructor at the Defence Institute of Armament Technology, Pune

NILIMA GOGATE

Qualifications - BA (History), B.Ed., PG Dip. in Guidance and Counselling, Certificate course in Dyslexia, Diplomas/Certificate courses in multifarious skills like Textile designing, Food canning and preservation, Flower arrangement, Bakery etc.

Teaching and Coaching experience -

16 yrs. - CBSE Primary and Secondary schools at various Army stations, Colleges of Arts, Science,Engineering and Management,

5 yrs - Personality development and spoken English,

1 yr - Tele University online teaching of verbal ability and soft skills, 1 yr - Corporate orientation programs for Chemists at GVK BIO, new Dentists at DENTY'S, Faculty at CBSE teacher's training Program in CCE,

1 yr - Coaching of senior retiring Army personnel for resettlement in the civilian world

Organisation and Management Experience - Organized several large scale social and cultural events, Served as Business Head at Vivekananada English Training Academy (Malad), Now runs her own firm 'Viva Life Skills' and has been successfully delivering personality grooming and spoken English courses for various audiences since 2014.

Dr SUJALA PATHARE

Dr Sujala Pathare, Ph. D (Zoology) from University of Mumbai is an accomplished Academician, with 17 years experience of teaching Zoology at undergrad and post grad level. She has worked with the pharma industry briefly, and now works as a researcher in the field of stem cell therapy. She also manages a multi-speciality hospital in Mumbai.

She serves as a Trustee on the board of Vasundhara Charitable trust, Palghar district. The main area of work is in the field of medicine, education and farming. She strongly believes in the relationship between healthy soils, healthy food and healthy people. She has been conducting workshops for farmers in the Palghaar region.

Dr. Pathare has conducted a series of educational sessions for adivasi women at “Maherwadi” for 6 months, giving them firsthand experience of best practices in rice cultivation. She has also conceptualised and implemented a “Parasbag sheti” program in 8 Zilla Parishad schools, (Std. 1 to 5) in which the children learn good farming practices, grow their own food, learn their syllabus (maths, environmental science etc) through the farm activity. The food produced is used in their mid-day meal to enhance the nutritional value of the meal.