LEAD India

Read LEAD India's 2006 Highlights

LEAD India was one of the first Member Programmes founded in 1991 when the organisation started and is based in New Delhi. It has a national network of 136 Fellows and Associates and five resource centres – that are coordinated on a voluntary basis by our members. LEAD India has focused its efforts in the last year on the National Training Sessions and Regional Training Session of Cohort 11. LEAD India’s first Young Leader, Priyanka Kochar also graduated in August this year.

Preparations are ongoing for the Global Training Session (GTS) to be held from 21st February to 1st March 2006. The theme is Environmental Governance and it promises to be a dynamic and path breaking event, exploring the theme from a multi stakeholder perspective in a global frame work. The GTS provides a unique opportunity for 150 LEAD Associates to share their diverse learnings, experience complex local issues, place them in a global context and develop skills in consensus building on natural resource management issues.

Our LEAD Fellows continue to excel in diverse fields and their contributions have been significant in the field of environment, media, government, non-government and the public sector.

Notable LEAD India Fellows

Shailendra Kumar Joshi is a Director in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India at New Delhi. His current charge includes coordinating national preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

Shrikant Prakash Gathoo is general manager of Project ENTRANS (Enterprise-wide Transformation) at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., a national oil company with an annual turnover of 6 billion US dollars. In this capacity, he is responsible for the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions in the corporation.

Aditi Chadha Kapoor presently works as Media and Advocacy Adviser, OXFAM and is a well-known journalist and development consultant. As founder trustee of Alternative Futures, a development research and communications group, she works with the United Nations, the Indian government and several non-governmental organizations. She is currently on the Board of World Resources Institute, Washington D.C., the first LEAD Fellow on the board of an international organization.

Gurjot Kaur is presently Adviser in the Planning Commission at Delhi. Ms. Kaur is interested in gender issues, sustainable development, and human resource development.

Mugdha Dhananjay Karnik is director of extra-mural studies at the University of Bombay in India, where she also earned her master's degree in sociology. As director, she has organized many educational projects and science-oriented activities for rural children and women.

Dinesh Agrawal is General Manager and Head of Corporate Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Cell at National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. (NTPC) in New Delhi, India.

Dr. Asolekar is an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at the Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. Dr. Asolekar is also a member of the “Dahanu Taluka Environmental Protection Authority” entrusted with conservation of the eco-fragile region of Dahanu Taluka and surroundings constituted by the Honorable Supreme Court of India. He is also serving as the President of the Indian Environmental Association (IEA) for 2003-2005 term.

A.P Singh is the Senior Vice President in the Division of Corporate Personnel and Administration of Indian Petro chemicals Corporation Ltd. now with Reliance Group, the largest petrochemicals company in India's public sector.

Rajiv Bharti is presently working as Conservator of Forests, Bhagirathi Circle. He is currently involved in developing a framework for eco-tourism in Corbett-Binsar-Nainital region of Uttaranchal in Himalayas through a Multi-stakeholder and participatory process as a LEAD Fellows Project.

Saroj Dash is a Director of Action Aid in Sri Lanka overseeing Tsunami work.

Vimal Garg is Deputy Chief Engineer with Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS), a government undertaking under the Ministry of Water Resources in India.

Anil Prabhakar Tambay has taken over as the new Country Director of Oxfam GB in Bangladesh.

Vinayak Rao is Academic Project Coordinator at the United Nations University (UNU), Tokyo.

Ganesh Vithhal Pangare is Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Network on Participatory Irrigation Management, New Delhi and The Technical Director Of World Water Institute. One of India’s leading experts on water he is on the National Civil Society Group on River Water Linking.

Yedla Padmavathi is a Zonal Director for Save the Children UK, an organization working for Children.

Pallava Bagla is a photojournalist and is the Chief Correspondent (South Asia) for SCIENCE and also represents Corbis Sygma the news photo agency of New York, Paris, London and Los Angeles, California (USA) and India correspondent for the magazine Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C.

Pankaj Sekhsaria works with the Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group in Pune where his main responsibility is editing, publishing and distributing the Protected Area (PA) Update, a bimonthly newsletter that carries news from wildlife sanctuaries and national parks from India and South Asia.

Deepak A. Apte is the Conservation Officer at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), a 123-year-old NGO with a focus on wildlife research, environmental education and conservation.

Pushkin Phartiyal works as Executive Director in Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA).