Rupesh brings in experience of leading largescale programmes in both the private and public sectors spanning 14 years. Formerly, he led operations for the Piramal Foundation's Aspirational District Transformation (ADT) Program, ensuring programme efficiency and attainment of output milestones. In ADT, he provided oversight for the operationalisation of Model Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Day (VHSND). It earned praises from NITI Ayog and the MoHFW and contributed in refinement of VHSND guidelines. He has also played a crucial role in building the foundations for Aspirational District Collaborative. At Anamaya he works closely with the Regional Operations Managers to support efficient deployment. He worked at Combine Infra Services Pvt. Ltd prior to joining the development sector. He has a postgraduate degree in Business Administration. When not working, he likes to engage in reading history, playing cricket and doing social work.

Tanya Jairaj is Programme Director for Health System Strengthening in Jharkhand. She is a lawyer by training and has worked in the development sector for over 15 years now on social entrepreneurship, impact investing, strategising and deploying programme at scale. Prior to Anamaya, she has with Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, Upaya Social Ventures. She has also worked as an independent consultant. Before joining the development sector, she was a litigating lawyer for a few years with a leading law firm. Tanya is passionate about scuba diving and dreams on to live by the sea and dive every day. She is also an opinionated soul with keen interest in politics.  

Raghavendra Madhu is a public health and development practitioner, curator and poet. He has worked in various capacities over the past decade with Central and State Governments, and international development organizations. He has provided technical assistance, managed partnerships, documented knowledge, and prepared policy reports for many Government departments. He has authored 17 policy papers and articles published in various peer-reviewed journals.   

Madhu has authored three books of poetry, and edited the first English poetry anthology from the Karbi tribe in Assam. He is the founder of Poetry Couture, one of India’s largest voluntary poetry initiatives. He was shortlisted for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship. He conducted over a hundred art and poetry workshops in schools, colleges, juvenile correctional facility, community groups in urban and rural spaces. At Anamaya, he is leading the Centre of Excellence, Tribes of North East. 

Prachi is a CoE Lead for SHGs and PRI members at Anamaya, based in New Delhi, India. She comes with eight years of experience in maternal and child health, sexual reproductive health and rights, and education across India and Africa. For her work with women and young adults, the Swedish Institute recognized her among 60 young gender leaders in South Asia and the MENA region. She has previously worked with Piramal Foundation, Global Health Strategies, Point of View and Gandhi Fellowship.

Prachi holds a Bachelor’s from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, a Masters in Women Centred Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and has been a GRO GEST Scholar at the University of Iceland. An avid consumer of cinema, she loves to explore stationary shops, graffiti lanes and is always on a lookout for crime thrillers.

Nisha Sharma has a master’s degree in public health and 8 years of experience in public health sector. She specialises in setting up and implementing monitoring mechanisms. At Anamaya, she handles the day-to-day monitoring process of Tribal TB Initiative across 100 districts. As part of Piramal Swasthya, she managed the programmatic monitoring for Aspirational District Transformation Programme. She worked closely with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and managed the development of the Sickle Cell Disease portal from scratch. Nisha was part of the team that developed the Compendium of District Factsheets on Tribal Health and Nutrition. She co-authored a paper that received Abhaya Indrayan Best Scientific Paper Award 2020. She also worked with INCLEN, ICMR, and the Delhi government. Nisha likes to play badminton, listen to Kishore Kumar’s songs, and read science fiction in her free time.

Neha Sharma is a medical doctor and a trained public health specialist. She is experienced in provision of primary health care and patient relationship management. Her core competencies lie in communicable diseases, immunisation, reproductive, maternal and child health. She is also skilled in clinical research and health programme management. Before joining Anamaya, she was a post-graduate junior resident at Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi for four years. She has received an MD in Community Medicine. For recreation, she likes to hike and read.

 Aamir specialises in data-driven governance. Over the last 6 years, he has worked on development plans of village and gram panchayats, especially in tribal districts of Jharkhand and Odisha. He has trained communities for microplanning and development of village development plans, worked with PRI leaders and traditional leaders for evidence-based planning at grassroots levels. Aamir was the recipient of the DAAD Scholarship’ 2013 & Chevening Scholarship 2020-21. He has received an M.Sc. in public policy and an M.A. in development studies. In his free time, he likes to cook, work with communities, cycle, and spend time with parents.

Dinesh has worked in public health with expertise in program management and stakeholder management for more than two decades. He has worked closely with Union ministries and bilateral organisations including MoHFW, PHFI, NHSRC, and PSI. Currently, he leads the Health Systems Strengthening portfolio of USAID supported Saksham Project with other international consortium partners. He supports the state level teams in contributing towards improving Governance, deploying tech-enabled solutions, and community engagements tailor made to improve maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes. Prior to Saksham, he has led the Aspirational District Transformation Program with close coordination with NITI Aayog and looked after health & nutrition intervention of across multiple states. He has worked in. He has received a master’s degree in population sciences and business administration.

Shweta is a medical doctor and a public health specialist with more than 12 years of experience across public, private and humanitarian sectors. She has managed service delivery, quality assurance and control in healthcare, and design and implementation of innovative solutions at significant scale through her work spread across United Kingdom, Tanzania, and India. As the Lead, Strategic Solutions and Partnerships at Anamaya, Shweta contributes in strategy formulation and building financial and non-financial partnerships to aid those strategies. She has worked with prestigious institutions like WHO, UNICEF, IIHMR before joining Anamaya. She has studied MBBS, MD (Paed), MRCPCH, and received her M.Sc in Public Health for Development from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is a voracious reader with keen interest in writing, travelling, photography and a strong advocate of sustainable living, environmental solutions, and gender sensitisation.

 Dr. Shubalakshmi has over 25 years of experience in public health and social development with expertise in strategic planning and project implementation. She focuses on societal norms, behaviour change communication in health, good governance, liaison and advocacy for policymaking. She supports in developing strategies that help incorporate and improve community processes which are crucial to bring communities and system closer to each other and help improve quality and availability of comprehensive healthcare. Before joining Anamaya, she worked with a large number of national and international non-profit organisations such as ICMR, HRRC, WHO-NPSP, TRTI-Quest/Tribal Development Department of Maharashtra, UNICEF-CACR and public and private hospitals. She has studied BAMS, PGDMLS, MPS, MPH. In her free time, she likes to travel, meet people, cook, draw, and sing.

Devika fosters tribal nutrition innovations, and promotes tribal nutrition knowledge & research. In addition to supporting Piramal Swasthya’s ongoing nutrition programmes, she has worked for tribal nutrition in Vishakapatnam and supported roll out of Poshan Abhiyaan interventions in aspirational districts. She is a member of Indian Dietetic Association, Certified in GCP & ECCD. She has worked for 10 years in public health and nutrition. Before joining Anamaya, she worked with CARE, FHI360, Unicef, Child fund International & Evidence Action. She has a PhD in Nutrition. She is a member of the Blue Cross Society and passionate about taking care of animals.

 Bhawna is a public health professional with 10 years of experience in policy formulation, advocacy, planning and implementation for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. She has spent her career in increasing access to and strengthening the quality of essential public health services in underserved regions. At Anamaya, she collaboratively develops strategies for the refinement of the Public Health System and Facilities. The strategy refinements are aimed at developing more efficient, empathetic, inclusive systems and facilities that are informed by the voice of the community it serves. Bhawna has led the development and implementation of the Aspirational District Transformation Program in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Prior to this, she was involved in strengthening pre-service education of nursing cadre in Bihar, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. She has a master's degree in health and hospital management from IIHMR Jaipur. She likes to travel and spend time with her family. 

Sumeet is a public health professional and with experience in programme operations, internal capacity building, and stakeholder management. For more than 16 years, he has worked with corporate, public, non-profit, and consulting firms in hospital operations, quality initiatives, data analytics, design and execution of various public health programmes. As part of Anamaya, he looks after operations of Health System Strengthening vertical’s initiatives in Chhattisgarh. He has previously worked with the Hinduja Hospital, IMS consulting (now IQVIA), Family Health International, World Health Organization, and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India. At Anamaya, he works with the state transformation programme in Chhattisgarh.

Bharat is a Senior Program Director leading the operations of interventions under Health System Strengthening vertical at Anamaya in the state of Chhattisgarh. He brings 16 years of experience of working in development sector. He has spent significant span of his early career in managing programmes across various domains in Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Pratham, Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute (MGLI) & Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII). In his stint with Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership he has worked in the area of youth development as a mentor to the Gandhi Fellows. Gradually he moved towards leading operations for large scale systems’ change projects. He holds a postgraduate management diploma in development & TIPPs certifications. Bharat is an active practitioner of Non-Violent Communication and enjoys playing different sports. Currently he spends his free time by playing tennis.

Tejas is an information designer. He has worked for twelve years in the development sector to narrate stories of change using mixed approaches. He is also a proponent of open access to information, especially for marginalised communities. Prior to joining Anamaya, he has worked with World Resources Institute, Azim Premji University, and C-STEP. In 2020, he won a grant from Prohelvetia New Delhi to engage with vernacular content consumers about misinformation. He received a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies. In his free time, he likes to engage with urban history and pop culture.

Tathagata has worked across issues of education, youth empowerment, gender, and health and closely worked with children and youth at risk, tribal communities, and vulnerable artists. She developed programme strategies, managed implementation of quality control processes, managed partnerships with national and global organisations across various programmes. She leads the Knowledge Management team at Anamaya, supports strategic decision-making by facilitating exchange of knowledge. Tathagata played a crucial role in developing the blueprint of Anamaya over the last three years. She was part of the core team that developed the Compendium of District Factsheets on Tribal Health and Nutrition. Her prior professional engagement was with Kaivalya Education Foundation and Great African Caravan. She has a master’s degree in Mass Communication and is pursuing an MA in Psychology. She enjoys poetry, volunteering with literary and cultural initiatives, and doodles while listening to podcasts.

Shilpa Ravi is a medical doctor and public health professional with a demonstrated experience in monitoring, evaluation and operations research, especially in the areas of tuberculosis and HIV. She has an extensive understanding of data management and setting up data systems. For the last nine years, she worked with Medicins Sans Frontieres to set up frameworks for monitoring and evaluation of various projects and data management systems. She has co-authored over 11 papers in various peer reviewed journals and also trained medical and paramedical students, and community health workers. She is an MBBS, MD Community Medicine, DNB in Preventive and Social Medicine by training. She takes an interest in music, reading fiction, fitness, and enjoys spending time with her son and family.

 Tafiqul is a project management specialist and looks after operations of initiatives under Communitisation vertical of Anamaya across North Eastern states. Over the last 12 years, he has implemented and advocated quality assurance programmes and implemented government schemes in a collaborative manner. He excels at building collaborations with various stakeholders including government and non-governmental entities. For his contribution, he has received appreciation from the Government of Assam. He has worked with the government of Meghalaya and HCL Technologies before his journey with Piramal Swasthya and Anamya. He has a Master’s degree in Business Administration (finance). In his free time, Tafiqul likes to watch movies, travel, and play table tennis.

Swarnalatha has over 30 years of experience in leading innovation pilots, setting up of quality process and systems for large scale programmes, Six Sigma process re-engineering projects, ISO Certification, etc. She has led capacity building initiatives, mentored, and coached many into independent leaders. At Piramal Swasthya, she led the Tribal health and Nutrition programme Asara, including planning and community development projects, health system strengthening, program design. Development of Anamaya is seeded in Asara’s success milestones. She worked with GE SBI and Pest Control of India Ltd. before joining Piramal Swasthya. She has an M. Com. and MBA from Osmania University, Six Sigma Black Belt certified (Satyam), and is a certified ISO Lead Auditor. Swarnalatha enjoys interacting with communities to gain insights from the ground, loves spending time with her family and cooking especially during traditional festivities.

 Debashish has vast experience in designing, planning, and leading multi-million dollar (USD) public health and nutrition initiatives at the national and state level by building alliances with the government, communities, and donor organisations. He has presented a paper at the International Women Deliver conference (Washington D.C.) and been a Packard-Gates Fellow for International Family Planning Leadership Program. At Anamaya, Debashish looks after the deployment of all programmes run under the Communitisation vertical across the states of Jharkhand and Odisha. With a professional experience of 25 years, he worked at various reputed institutions including Piramal Swasthya, JSNM, Ipas, and CINI. He has an M.A. in Sociology and an MBA degree. He likes to read and travel whenever possible.

Davinder has over 21 years of experience working across the telecom sector and development sector. With formal training in Electrical Engineering, he has managed large teams, a diverse pool of stakeholders, and largescale projects in the telecom sector. This enabled him to contribute significantly in scaling up the Community nutrition garden through effective engagement with members of Panchayati Raaj Institutions. He has a keen understanding of the issues at the grassroots through lived experiences. At Anamaya, he looks after various crucial elements of operations including managing vendor negotiation. He also manages and processes a large amount of programmatic data that is crucial for monitoring and course correction. Before starting his journey in the development sector, he worked with Ardom Telecom Pvt. Limited. Davinder likes to travel and listen to music for pleasure.

 Vaibhavi, an MA in Social Work, has worked over 8 years in international and national organisations intervening in the areas of livelihood, skill enhancement, education, health, nutrition and community engagement. She has looked after end-to-end management of projects across diverse sectors and has closely worked with vulnerable people including children at risk and survivors of various violence. At Anamaya, she leads the Centre of Excellence for Engagement with Tribal Healers. She develops and deploy of strategies to engage and work with healers to preserve traditional knowledge, capture and promote safe practices, and include them for improving comprehensive healthcare. She has been an important part of the team that developed Anamaya. Earlier, she worked with SOS Children Villages of India and Save The Children India. In her free time, she likes music, cooking, and dance.

 Sneha has worked in the development sector, addressing a range of issues such as maternal and child health, nutrition, education, child rights and gender over the last 10 years. She has worked with vulnerable and socially excluded groups/ communities, including women and tribal communities. She has participated in direct policy-making, strategy, and partnership through her work with organisations like Piramal Swasthya, NITI Aayog, Government of Delhi, Public Health Foundation of India, RTE Forum, and IPE Global. She received her MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. At Anamaya, she leads the Centre of Excellence for Engagement with NGOs and CSOs in tribal areas which aims at enabling strategic partnership with and among local organisations to facilitate effort consolidation. In her free time, she loves to bake.

 Shelley has a rich experience of working with and living among tribal communities, managing operations of medium to large scale public health projects, and building and maintaining programmatic partnerships with various Government agencies and private organisations. She has worked with various reputed public health organisations including Piramal Swasthya, Population Foundation of India, Public Health Foundation India, Helping Hands Charitable Trist, and the ant for over 12 years. She was also a community health fellow with SOCHARA. Shelley has an MA in Political Science and holds a degree in Public Health Management. At Anamaya, she leads the Centre of Excellence for Engagement with Tribal Youth and Students. Her work aims at enabling future leadership from among the community to help improve health and wellbeing in an intrinsic and inclusive manner. Shelley enjoys music, immersing in new cultures, and spreading joy.

 Shailendra is a medical doctor with 17 years of experience in leading largescale public health care programs, research and providing academic training. Over the last three years, he led the team that co-created and operationalised Anamaya and heads the Knowledge vertical now. As the Senior Vice President of Piramal Swasthya, he led the team that designed, implemented, and tested scalability of new initiatives. He also headed the Clinical Domain providing technical inputs across all programmes. Prior to Swasthya, he worked in various reputed organizations like St. John’s Research Institute, SRM University, Access Health International and United Nations Development Programme. He has co-authored over 40 publications across various peer-reviewed journals. He specialised in Community Medicine from St. John’s Medical College and in Management of International Organizations from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Shailendra enjoys books, movies, music and loves waterfalls.

Malini Mallikarjun, a graduate of the National Law School of India University of Bengaluru, specialised in transaction taxes for over 21 years working with firms like Arthur Andersen, Ernst & Young and BMR Advisors. She believed in holistic and inclusive development being the way forward for India’s progress. This belief led her to join Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership. As part of the leadership team of the Systems Change Programme at the Foundation, Malini co-led design and deployment of the programme across multiple states. She led large teams, established and managed strategic partnerships with technical partners and state Governments forging agreements on the transformational roadmaps. As part of Anamaya, Malini is leading Health System Strengthening in the state of Chhattisgarh. Respect for nature shapes her life significantly. She enjoys gardening, reading, and cooking and pursues clean living in her day to day life.

Dhaivat Anjaria is a part of Anamaya’s leadership team. He leads the health system strengthening vertical for the state of Jharkhand. His work revolves around process improvement and capacity enhancement that can contribute towards the refinement of healthcare delivery at the last mile in a comprehensive manner. Dhaivat is a Chartered Accountant and an MBA by training. Spanning over twenty-five years in the corporate and consulting sectors, his experience includes setting up and strengthening financial services and financial systems. Before taking up the role of a Core Team Member at Piramal Foundation, Dhaivat worked with various corporations such as PwC and ICICI. His experience with financial systems especially enables him in contributing significantly towards strengthening financial processes underpinning the public health system. Dhaivat is an avid sports follower and enjoys swimming. He also keenly pursues spiritual readings and practices.

 Ashwin is a public policy professional with 16 years of experience in leading largescale projects in the telecom, banking and development sectors. As the Senior Vice President, Advisory vertical in Piramal Swasthya, he has led several strategic partnerships with various central government ministries, NITI Aayog, and multilateral and international organisations. He led the health initiatives of the Aspirational District Programme in close partnership with NITI Aayog. His multi-sectoral experience and entrepreneurial abilities played a crucial role in the co-creation of Anamaya: The Tribal Health Collaborative. Ashwin is an engineer by training and is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Health Policy from the prestigious London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. Ashwin is an avid reader, pursues organic farming and loves long drives. 

 Anuj is a development practitioner with over 18 years of experience in designing and scaling high-impact, large-scale, sustainable solutions for under-served communities. An engineer by training, he is a rural management graduate from IRMA. He is an Amul-Tata scholar and a GSBI fellow. At Anamaya, he works with the state ecosystem towards process improvement and capacity enhancement to ameliorate healthcare delivery in the state of Assam. Earlier, he led scale-up of Piramal Sarvajal, collaborating with various stakeholders to bring safe drinking water to the marginalised communities across India. He also built and spearheaded large-scale education programmes as part of Pratham India. Anuj is a CMO Asia awardee and has been a speaker at various prestigious platforms like The Economist and UN Global Compact Network India. Anuj likes to read on diverse subjects, to travel and enjoys music.

His focus at Anamaya is to work with state machinery to improve processes and help build capacity to deliver better health services to tribal communities.

Aditi Krishnamurthy, MBBS, MD, DNB Community Medicine, is a medical doctor and public health expert. Looking after implementation of largescale programmes like THALI, Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC), Ayushman Bharat – Arogya Karnataka; implementing comprehensive healthcare programme in remote tribal districts of India; leading the 32nd Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica, etc. are some of her major experiences. She won the Pyare Lal Sharma Memorial Award for the Best Paper presented by a young female scientist on Community based Research in the Annual National IAPSM Conference, 2008. With an experience of 15 years, she worked at several institutions including Department of Health and Family Welfare Services (Govt. of Karnataka), Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Swasthya Swaraj Society, Bangalore Baptist Hospital, St John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore before joining Anamaya. Aditi’s leisure is generally filled with sketching and reading.

Mr. Ashwin Deshmukh is an engineer with a passion to improve the health and nutrition status of marginalized communities. Over the last five years, because of his project management expertise, he has been able to build operational excellence in delivering outcomes in large-scale programs with strong governance and accountability. Due to his grass-roots upbringing, his understanding of the public health ecosystem of India is hands-on and hence, he has efficiently led the development of the strategy and operational plan for transforming the health systems of the Government public health delivery in 25 of the most challenging districts of India.