Arun Jain is the Founder of Polaris Group and Chairman & Managing Director of Intellect Design Arena Limited, the world’s first full spectrum Banking and Insurance Technology Products Company. Intellect powers over 240 leading Global Banks and Financial Institutions, with a revenue of INR 1351 Crores (USD 191 Mn) and an employee base of over 4500. Arun commenced his entrepreneurial journey by setting up Nucleus Software Workshop in 1986, Polaris Software in 1993 and Intellect in 2011. As an evangelist of Design Thinking, his brainchild – FinTech 8012, the World’s First Design Center at Chennai dedicated to Financial Technology came into being. With the constant drive to better the community around him, he instituted Mission Samriddhi – a social impact enterprise dedicated to holistic human development in India, Ullas Trust – a social impact organisation working towards igniting less privileged young minds into realizing their true potential and START-UP Nukkad – a unique initiative for budding Entrepreneurs to understand their purpose and nurture and mentor their innovative thinking using 10X model.

Arun has been nominated as the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Information Technology Ranchi, Jharkhand, India recently by Hon’ble President of India. He is entrusted with the responsibility of the Chief Mentor of the FinTech Centre of Excellence at STPI, Chennai set up by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt. of India in association with the ELCOT, Govt. of Tamil Nadu. He holds/ has held prestigious positions in various other forums like National Software Product Mission (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology), National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Madras Management Association (MMA), and the Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC).

Arun has been bestowed with numerous accolades including the Dronacharya Award 2019 by TiECON Chennai, ‘CII Lifetime Achievement Award’, ‘Lifetime Achievement Award at the Design Thinking Conclave & Awards 2018’, ‘Indo‐ASEAN Business Initiative Award’, Rotary Club’s ‘For The Sake of Honour Award’, Lions Clubs International award for “Youth Empowerment” ‘Pathfinders – Award for Excellence in IT & ITES recognized by Times Group’, ‘ICICI Venture – CII Connect Entrepreneur Award’, ‘Lions Clubs International award for Youth Empowerment’ and Business Mentor Award by Vikatan Group, one of South India’s leading media powerhouses. With a legacy of 93 years, Vikatan Group has been a pioneer in the media space in South India.

Arun holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering.

Manju Jain is an Executive Council member of Mission Samriddhi. She is a psychologist by education, System designer by profession and Social worker by heart. Way back in 1997, Manju and Arun conceptualized the Ullas Trust Workshops for empowering talented children from less privileged communities. Today Manju is the Chief Advisor and is on the Board of Ullas Trust which is igniting young minds year on year from last two decades and touched lives of close to 20 lacs teenagers from Municipal, Corporation, and Government schools across the nation.

She has a strong belief in family systems and values. She is an author and published a book for families to record their family stories, heritage and traditions - 'HUM - Our Stories, Our Roots, Our Heritage' with her friend Padmini S in 2007. Till date more than 25000 copies of HUM book are distributed.

With her commitment and innate abilities of system designing, she is a member of the founding group of School of Design Thinking. School of Design Thinking is committed to creating awareness in the society at large about Design Thinking as a Human-centered Approach for problem solving, thus enabling ordinary people to do extraordinary things. She is a deep listener with very high empathy and asks innocent but deep questions to bring clarity on the problem being solved.

Manju is deeply interested in empowering rural people to take control of their destiny as responsible Gram Panchayat members and has developed specialized training modules for the same.

Manju completed her graduation in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, Delhi university. After graduation she joined Nucleus Software and participated in designing technologies for the Banking industry. She was a key member of the team that designed First ATM technology as well as a member of the first Credit card system design team in india.

Yogesh Andlay, an Executive Council member of Mission Samriddhi mentors the organization with his unflinching zeal and passion for social impact enterprise projects. Being one of the promoters of Nucleus Software, Yogesh truly understands entrepreneurship and mentors several IT startups, and actively participates in several community activities.

An engineer from IIT Delhi, Yogesh has been Past-President of IIT Delhi Alumni Association and MD of Nucleus Software Exports Ltd. Currently, Yogesh mentors and provides his leadership skills to organizations such as the School of Inspired Leadership, Innoflaps Remedy Pvt. Ltd, Grow Talent Company Pvt. Ltd, Nucleus Software Engineers P Ltd to name a few.

Ajay Kumar, an Executive Council member of Mission Samriddhi is passionate about empowering our farmers through his expertise in Agriculture policy and advocacy. Ajay is an Advisor to the Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA) and was an IT consultant to the Department of Agriculture, Madhya Pradesh Government.

Though his background is in Electrical Engineering with a B.Tech and M.Tech from IIT Delhi, Ajay’s core interests are grounded in Agriculture and integrated rural development. As a Planning Commission Member in Agriculture, Ajay advises several NGOs in the Agri sector, across the nation.

Dr. Narendra Mehrotra is an Executive Council member of Mission Samriddhi with a strong focus on sustainable community development through Agriculture and Health.

As Founder Secretary of the Jeevania Society, Lucknow, Dr. Mehrotra has spearheaded several community initiatives championing best practices in agriculture, health, and science. All of these initiatives have been focused on sustainable and holistic development of the rural people through traditional Indian healthcare practices.

Kannan Narayanswamny (Kannan) is an Executive Council member of Mission Samriddhi with deep-rooted expertise in funding, investing, incubating, and starting small industry, over a 20 year period.

As Founder of “ Startup to Scaleup”, Kannan has advised several startups on scaling up and several VCs in value investing.

A prolific speaker, Kannan conducts workshops for Banks, financial institutions, and business schools in venture capital. He teaches courses on venture capital and private equity as a visiting professor at IIM Ahmedabad. Kannan is also a regular contributor to Dataquest, Business Line and The Hindu addressing issues in the Indian software industry.

Shri Vishwanath Giriraj retired as Additional Chief Secretary (Finance ) Maharashtra Government .He joined IAS in 1985 and held various positions in Government of Maharashtra including Chief Executive officer, Zilla Parishad-Chandrapur , Collector-Yavatmal , Additional Tribal Commissioner, Director Groundwater Development Agency, Principal Secretary Rural Employment, Water Conservation, Rural Development & Panchayat Raj . After his retirement, he was appointed as Chairman of the Fifth State Finance Commission, Maharashtra, a constitutional post.

Shri V.Giriraj has also worked in the Khadi & Village Industries Commission , Government of India. He is a graduate in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai and LLB from Mumbai University.

Presently he is Chief Executive Officer of Maharashtra Bamboo Promotion Foundation, a not for profit company promoted by Government of Maharashtra and Tata Trusts and lives in Mumbai.

Ram Pappu: After 25 years of work experience in the IT industry in India, Americas and the Middle East, Ram moved back to India in 2014 to work for the social sector. He leads Mission Samriddhi under the guidance of MrArun Jain, CMD of Intellect Design Arena, Founder- Mission Samriddhi and its Executive Council.

Prior to joining Mission Samriddhi, Ram volunteered for an organization that empowers rural adolescent youth through motivational workshops. He has travelled across the country from Kashmir to Kerala, Gujarat to Arunachal facilitating motivational workshops in 250 + JawaharNavodayaVidyalaya schools (JNV), interacting with 60,000 + children across 18 states. Ram has an MCA from NIT Trichy and an MBA from York University, Canada.

Mission Samridddhi is a social impact platform working for sustainable holistic development in rural India to Celebrate good work, Connectorganisations/people to support one another and Catalyze where necessary to accelerate change. Mission Samriddhi has developed a Community Development Framework (CDF) for holistic Development that is being facilitated in Gram Panchayat Clusters in 7 states – Maharashtra, Assam, Chattisgarh, UP, MP, Gujarat and Tamilnadu.

Kishor Jagtap is State Programme Manager for Maharashtra. He oversees and coordinates our initiatives in Wardha and Yavatmal districts with a focus on strengthening of Local Governance, non GM cotton production promotion, and our flagship initiative on HOCO Farming. His passion is working directly with rural communities – women, tribal and the youth through development projects. He has been in the social sector for the past 30 years, and believes in the empowerment of the community through training, handholding support, and visits to model villages.

Kishor has spent all his years in Wardha, working with organizations like M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chetana Vikas, and the CHALNA network o NGO’s. He has a degree in Sociology and Political Science, and a MBA with specialisation in Personnel Management.

Sridhar Santhanam works with Mission Samriddhi, in Chennai as a State Programme Director- Tamil Nadu. Sridhar brings three decades of valuable corporate experience spanning across the Banking/BPO & the IT Sectors. He has had served 8 years in ABN Amro Bank/ Royal Bank of Scotland and a further 8 years in Wipro and thereafter in TCS , in business critical Senior Leadership roles. He has a track record of executing large scale off-shoring / outsourcing projects from across the Globe, providing value in various transformation projects in the areas of Governance & Service delivery.

An Engineer with an MBA in Finance, he is passionate about cricket having played for Tamilnadu at various levels. His hobbies include reading – fiction and Spirituality, apart from watching cricket and travel.

Shachi Singh is a social worker and the State Program Director for Uttar Pradesh . Ms Shachi Singh has been working for social causes especially women and children since the year 1993 as a young volunteer with a desire to work for the society and entered into the field of professional social work after attaining a postgraduate degree in Social Work in the year 2000. The education coupled with the desire to work for the betterment of society gave her a clearer vision and has dedicated her life various social causes of women and children. She has been working since last 20 years and her efforts have been recognised both nationally and internationally.

Ms. Singh is also the founder and Honorary General Secretary and of Ehsaas, a Lucknow based non- profit. She did her schooling from Loreto Convent, Lucknow. After graduating from Delhi University with an Honours degree in BSc Home Economics and a specialisation in Child Development, she went on to do her Masters in Social Work from Lucknow University. Since then, she has been actively involved in working for children and women in difficult circumstances and has been instrumental in transforming thousands of lives. Shachi Singh‟s work has been appreciated at the national level as well as international level Ms. Shachi Singh was nominated for the prestigious International Visitors Leadership Program(IVLP) by the US Embassy and was part of a delegation of NGOs and civic activists from 21 countries in USA in February 2016.Considering that her work has garnered attention nationally, it is not surprising that she received the Amazing Indian Award by Times Now in 2013, HT women Award and many others. Ehsaas also received the National Award for Child Welfare 2014, by MWCD presented by the President of India. She has been a member on various committees and task groups constituted by state government as well as the national government. Presently she is also the Hon. Joint Secretary of Jeevaniya Society, Lucknow

Sharmishtha Khanapur brings to the development sector close to three decades of experience and knowledge of managing research and development programmes in the Biopharmaceutical and life science industry. She moved out of the corporate world to follow her passion and began her engagement with the development sector in 2017, when she joined Mission Samriddhi with the hope to contribute towards making a social impact. She works as a Director for Cluster Development Programme and Operations.

Sharmishtha has worked with organisations such as Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Biocon, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s and is an alumnus of the Biochemistry Department, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara.

Raymond Arogyaswamy oversees our initiatives in the livelihood space. These are in the realms of natural precision farming, as well as looking into craft institutions and assisting them in finding more remunerative markets. His particular interest is in automation and mechanization to reduce the labour inputs required for natural farming, and in determining a market model wherein the farmer is insulated from vagaries of the agri-produce market.

He has over 35 years of corporate experience in organizations like ACC, Sesa Goa and Polaris Software / Intellect Design Arena, covering operations, projects, quality, human resources and marketing. He is a Chemical Engineer from the University of Madras, and a management graduate from IIM Calcutta.

Anand Mohan is a Development sector professional working for the last 15 years in the education domain. Over the years, Anand has been relentlessly pursuing and contributing to various efforts of creating opportunities of outstanding education to every child. His journey has taken him to various large scale quality improvement programs at Azim Premji Foundation, IPE Global, Room to Read, Asian Development Bank, Piramal Foundation, etc., spanning across Primary, Secondary and Sr. Secondary education. He has worked closely with various schools, not for profits, CSRs, INGOs and Central/State Government Education departments in several capacities.

Creating an ecosystem that enables facilitators to apply curriculum and instruction design to achieve holistic development of learners has been his interest area. In doing so, he has sharpened his skills in Leadership and Project Management, Education Research and Program Designing, Co-creation and Partnership.

After graduating in Zoology Honours from Ranchi University, Anand earned a Masters in Education as well as an MBA in Rural Management from Xavier’s Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.

Dr. Amod Kumar is the Managing Director of Sukoon Solutions Pvt.Ltd. A doctor by profession, Dr Amod is an expert in Community Medicine with a long stint as Head, Dept. of Community Health at St. Stephen’s Hospital, Delhi. Dr. Amod Kumar was the Founding Director of Mother NGO that runs a Home for the destitute. In 2009, he was entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating the government-citizen efforts to respond to the needs of homeless in Delhi. While analyzing the problems of various homeless, he came across a peculiar challenge with homeless rickshaw pullers.

It was noticed that the homeless rickshaw puller cannot use the shelters as there is a constant fear of losing his rickshaw. As a result of which they sleep on the limited space of rickshaw in every possible awkward position. It led Dr. Amodkumar to think and work towards finding a solution. This was the start of a journey towards designing a cycle rickshaw that would be safe, comfortable, cost effective and eco-friendly. Several prototypes, several challenges and several years later, the market is now ready for Sukoon 5 – a dream come true for the hapless rickshaw puller. Dr Amod on account of his rich experience in community health and grass roots based social work is a valuable member of the Advisory Councils on Community Health and Leadership Capacity Building.It was noticed that the homeless rickshaw puller cannot use the shelters as there is a constant fear of losing his rickshaw. As a result of which they sleep on the limited space of rickshaw in every possible awkward position. It led Dr. Amodkumar to think and work towards finding a solution. This was the start of a journey towards designing a cycle rickshaw that would be safe, comfortable, cost effective and eco-friendly. Several prototypes, several challenges and several years later, the market is now ready for Sukoon 5 – a dream come true for the hapless rickshaw puller.

Jyoti Patil has an extensive work experience in the field of communication for development and behavioural change. Education in development studies (International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands) and in mass communication (Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune) gives her a strong theoretical perspective, enabling her to integrate elements of effective communication with the needs of the development sector.

She has worked with various NGOs across the country designing communication strategies, evolving participatory methods of communication and producing information and other resource material. Storytelling is her passion. She has successfully integrated forms of new and traditional tools of communication for a diverse set of audience.

As a filmmaker she has numerous documentaries to her credit. She has worked extensively on the issues of rural livelihoods, domestic violence, denotified communities, women’s empowerment and the environment. It’s the spirit of survival that she tries to project through her work. A feature film script, Yasodhara – Ek Kaavya, written by her, is currently under production by National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). Photography is something she loves and indulges considerably in narrative photography.

Contextualising education with farming and ecology to make education more relevant for rural children is yet another area of her interest. A passionate storyteller, life for Jyoti is a way of gathering stories. Survival strategies adopted by communities in extreme circumstances and situations fascinate her. Living with the Tibetan pastoral community in Ladakh, for over a year, was a humbling experience that led her to leave her life in the cities and move to a small village in the Nainital district, in Uttarakhand. This is where she currently lives, practising farming and writing stories.

Pallavi Saini did her Masters in Development from Azim Premji University and BA Economics(Honors) from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University.

She has been working as a Programme Manager- Communication with Mission Samriddhi since 2018. Her work is mainly related to the documentation of different Mission Samriddhi publications, development of collaterals for various events and coordination with different stakeholders. Prior to joining Mission Samriddhi she worked with Vrutti Livelihood resource center, a nonprofit working to promote farmer livelihoods as a Programme Associate in Madhya Pradesh. She has an experience of working with Farmer Producer Organisations, Self Help Groups and Community organisations. She is trained in conducting Participatory Exercises like PRA and RRA and Qualitative and Quantitative Research. Her interest areas are Livelihoods, Sustainable Development, Public Policy, Gender & Local Governance.