Team

Ramesh Ramanathan is a social entrepreneur who works on urban issues in India.

Prior to his social initiatives, Ramesh held leadership positions with Citibank in New York and London, in the bank’s capital markets business. Ramesh has an MS in Physics from BITS Pilani, an MBA from Yale University and a CFA from AIMR. In 2007, he was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Swati Ramanathan is a Co-founder of Janaagraha, as well as the Founder of Jana Urban Space. Both institutions are founded with the aspiration for positive transformation in India’s cities and towns.

A passionate believer that all change begins locally in neighbourhoods where people live, Janaagraha’s grassroots community work was strengthened multi-fold with the early adoption of technology for civic change, with platforms like “I Paid a Bribe” and “I Change my City” that resulted in a host of other online initiatives.

Ms Ramanathan has been relentless in promoting the need for better urban design and urban planning in India. She has worked closely with governments – both national and state, on urban policy reforms such as integrated master planning, heritage conservation, and guaranteed land title. Her pioneering advocacy and work on progressive master planning – detailed in the “Smart City Spatial Planning and Development Guidelines”, has catalysed centrally supported schemes for city planning, and multiple states undertaking the revision of their plan documents. She has also worked with local governments for the design and delivery of projects with multi-agency complexities. Her brainchild, Tender S.U.R.E. (Specifications for Urban Roads Execution), is revolutionising the way urban roads are designed for all users, and laying clear standards for procurement.

Ms Ramanathan has been recognised at several forums: named a Young Asian Leader by the Asia Society; received the Rajyotsava Puraskar from Rajasthan State Government; presented the Democracy and Civic Innovator Award by Madeline Albright for the National Democratic Institution in Washington, DC; honoured (along with Ramesh Ramanathan) by Forbes India as the Social Entrepreneurs of the Year in 2013.

Swati Ramanathan holds a BS from India and an MS from Pratt Institute, N.Y.

KK Nayar has been associated with the organisation since 2004

He has over three decades of experience in projects and manufacturing management in FMCG, food, paper, and chemicals. His expertise includes the building, commission, expansion, and upgradation of new and green field units.

He was the Executive Director at Unilever subsidiaries in India, Egypt, and the UK, where he focussed on technology, profit improvement programs, and acquisitions and mergers.

Vidya Shah’s name has been synonymous with the field of Finance and has a career spanning over 20 years to mark her merit. She serves as one of the board members of Janaagraha where she offers her valuable understanding of grants and management to better the organisation’s operating system.

Vidya earned an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and spent the first 11 years of her career in investment banking with companies like ICICI, Peregrine and NM Rothschild. She subsequently was Chief Financial Officer of Edelweiss for 7 years and now serves as the Executive Chairperson at EdelGive Foundation.

Her contribution has caught the eye of several people and organisations. She is the recipient of the ‘She The People 40-over-40 Award’ celebrating women achievers in 2022 and the Woman Achiever of the Year Award by ABP BFSI Awards in 2017. She was recognised as India’s Top 100 Women in Finance by the Association of International Wealth Management of India, in 2019.

Vidya continues her stride to make a difference and believes that mid-sized, grassroots NGOs have great potential to address India’s development concerns.

A retired IAS officer, S K Das served as Secretary to the Government of India. He was also a member (finance) of the Department of Space and is known today as a distinguished author. 

Speaking about Janaagraha, he said, “I am fascinated by how Janaagraha has emerged as a dominant voice in shaping India’s urban agenda by getting the nation to recognize the need for a City-Systems approach to fix its cities.”

PKH Tharakan is a former DG and IGP of Kerala. He has also served as the Chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s external intelligence agency. 

He has played a crucial role in supporting and handholding Janaagraha through some of our key programs, including Community Policing. 

“I was drawn to Janaagraha because I could see that they were doing a good job of trying to do good things. It is gratifying to be associated with an organization which is trying to change things for the better. The commitment of the leaders of Janaagraha to the pursuit of uphill tasks they have undertaken is admirable,” he says. 

Ireena Vittal is among India’s most recognized consultants and advisors. She served as a Partner for McKinsey & Co. for 16 years. She has co-authored books on agriculture and urbanization and served government and public institutions to enable inclusive urban development and sustainable rural growth. She is also recognized as a valuable mentor for leaders and helps emerging and established leaders develop opportunities on different aspects of decision-making and empathetic leadership.

Ireena is currently an independent director on the board of some of India’s best-known companies.

Ireena has a graduate degree in Electronics from Osmania University and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Dr. Vivek Mansingh is a global leader, entrepreneur, author, technology visionary, and innovator, he is also one of the General Board members of Janaagraha.

Dr Mansingh graduated from NIT Allahabad with a gold medal and then went on to pursue his PhD from Queen’s University, Canada and Executive MBA from Stanford University.

On the professional front, he has served as the President of Cisco and Head of Dell R&D. Currently, he is incubating and mentoring several start-ups and is a General Partner at YourNest VC Fund. He has contributed towards 100s of technical papers, six US patents including vital contributions to two technology books. His recent book “Achieving Meaningful Success: Unleash the Power of Me!”, is a National bestseller.

Due to his excellence, he has been recognised on several national and international forums. He is a recipient of India’s highest Chanakya Innovative Leadership Award in 2012 from the Public Relations Council of India and has also been named the IT Man of the Year 2016 by Enterprise Connect, USA. In addition, he was listed in the “National Who’s Who for the United States” in the year 2000.

He passionately talks about mentoring, success, innovation, leadership, and various technologies.

Babu Jacob is one of the board members of Janaagraha.

He pursued civil engineering and then joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS, Kerala cadre) in 1968. A Hubert H. Humphrey fellow, he pursued better governance by addressing gaps between policy intent and policy practice. During his 35 years of service in the government, he has served as the Chief Secretary to the Government of Kerala and also worked at the Agricultural Ministry and Personnel Ministry, Government of India.

Post retirement, he was affiliated with the Centre for Development Studies (CDS, Trivandrum) where he researched urban governance.

Babu Jacob continues to be involved in matters of public interest.