Governing Council

Durga Raghunath is a seasoned digital leader with over 20 years of experience in driving media transformation and forging strategic partnerships. Her career is marked by a passion for developing mobile-first products tailored for the India user and spearheading ecosystem transformation initiatives. Durga possesses a proven ability to successfully launch market-first brands and programs that empower users, drive business growth, and accelerate country-wide progress. She excels in cultivating entrepreneurial thinking within teams and fostering a focus on effective execution.   

In her role at Google India, Durga leads News and Books Partnerships for India and also serves as the AI lead for APAC. She has demonstrated expertise in ecosystem transformation, notably through the Indian Languages Program. This initiative supported over 600 publishers across 9 languages by optimizing their mobile presence and developing Android apps to enhance content discovery and creation for India users.

Earlier in her career, as Business Head at Times of India, Durga led Product, Tech and Revenue teams, achieving significant growth in usage and revenue. She also held the position of SVP Growth at Zomato Ltd, where she drove user activation globally and launched Zomato Originals to increase engagement. As CEO and Co-founder of Juggernaut Books, she co-founded a digital books platform for India-first users and authors. Her prior experience includes serving as CEO Digital at Network 18 Group, where she led 7 digital brands and launched Firstpost.com. Durga also held leadership roles at Mint and Wall Street Journal, and began her career at HarperCollins, New York and Orient Longman in Chennai.   

Durga holds an MBA in Marketing from the Indian School of Business and has a strong educational foundation with degrees from Columbia University, Sophia College, and Stella Maris College.

Judge nominee for 12 years – SAARC Law India Chapter & Life Member.

Justice Gita Mittal (Retd.) is the former Chief Justice, High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and the former Acting Chief Justice, High Court of Delhi, India.

She is the present Chairperson of the Broadcasting Contents Complaints Council (BCCC); Vulnerable Witness Committee (constituted by the Supreme Court of India); Chairperson, Committee constituted by the Supreme Court of India in Manipur violence matter. She is the Council Member, Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA). She is also the member of Governing Body, Lady’s Shri Ram College for Women; Advisory Board of the Law Centre of the Cornell University and Advisory Board of the Law Centre, Manav Rachna International University.

She has also held the following positions:

• Special Commissioner - Independent Special Commission SOS Children’s Village [October 2021 - June 2023]
• Former Chairperson – Committee of Administrators, Table Tennis Federation of India [2021-2022]
• Former Chancellor, National Law University Delhi [14th April, 2017 – August 2018]
• Former member of Governing Council & Executive Committee, Indian Law Institute [July, 2013- July 2016]
• Former member, Delhi University Court [1999 – 2004]
• Former member, Governing body of Ram Lal Anand College [1997-1999]
• Judge nominee for 12 years – SAARC Law India Chapter & Life Member.

Programmes such as Vedica play an important role in imbuing confidence and determination in young women as they realise their potential and discover they can lead. With an understanding and respect for themselves, these young women can create, nurture and transform. Only then outdated societal attitudes will be challenged and discarded

An innovative educationist, Padma Shri Gowri Ishwaran is the Founder Principal of the Sanskriti School – an institution that has become one of the leading schools in India. Currently the CEO of tGELF (The Global Education and Leadership Foundation), Ms Ishwaran’s expertise lies in creating a value-based curriculum, integrating technology with the curriculum and focusing on inclusive education for children with special needs and those who are socially disadvantaged. She also serves on the advisory board of several leading institutions and foundations.

Lakshmi Iyer is the CEO - Investment & Strategy at Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Limited (Formerly known as Kotak Investment Advisors Limited).  She has been with the Kotak Group for over 22 years.

As part of KAAML, she is responsible for investment advisory, product solutions spanning across fixed income, equities, real estate and alternates

In KMAMC she was CIO Fixed Income & Head – Products. In this role she was responsible for credit research, deal execution, managing fund performance across all debt funds and assisting sales in client interaction. In addition to that, she has been a portfolio specialist, and managed product related initiatives such as product pricing and coordination with the funds management and sales team in that role

Prior to joining Kotak, Lakshmi worked with Credence Analytics Pvt Ltd, as a research analyst where she was tracking corporate bond markets in India and generating research reports. She was also instrumental in conceiving various financial software tools in collaboration with software and technical teams.

Lakshmi holds an MBA degree in finance from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. 

She has been recognised as one of the Top 25 most influential women in asset management in Asia by Asian Investor. She also features in the Forbes W-Power list 2022 and Forbes India self-made W-Power in 2024. She has been awarded India’s Impactful CEOs 2023 by Times Now. She has been recognized as one of the ‘Most Promising Business Leaders of Asia’ 2024 by ET Edge

She loves exploring new places for travelling, is a big food lover, and is an ardent movie buff.

Mahua Acharya was until recently, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of state owned energy transition company - Convergence Energy Services Limited of the Government of India. She designed and led electric mobility initiatives for India, and significantly, a very large and most unprecedented electric bus program across the world that yielded prices lower than diesel. This program is now an international case study.

Since then, Mahua has embarked on building a new development platform dedicated to expediting the energy transition journey at scale in India.

Mahua has two decades of experience in green finance, renewable energy, and carbon markets having worked in multiple countries. She was the Assistant Director - General of 29-country intergovernmental agency the Global Green Growth Institute, Seoul – an intergovernmental body with 50+ member countries. She is one of the early pioneers of the carbon market – having been at the World Bank in Washington DC in its early days of the carbon funds business.

Mahua is co-founder faculty of an executive education program at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, serves on the boards of multiple international entities and has appeared on international and Indian listings of women in leadership. She has won 5 awards in 2021 and 7 awards in 2022 for her work.

Mahua holds a Masters’ degree from Yale University.

Ms. Manjari Jaruhar is one of the first five women police officers in India and the first from the state of Bihar. She has recently published her memoirs \'Madam Sir\'. It has been well received and has become a best seller.

Ms. Manjari Jaruhar is presently an Advisor to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) based out of New Delhi. She was the Chief Coordinator with the Indian Music Industry (IMI) and is a Senior Advisor to 9.9 Media. Recently she became Advisor to the Committee on Private Security Industry at FICCI.

Ms. Manjari Jaruhar retired as Special Director General of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). She was selected for the Indian Police Service (IPS), the elite crime prevention and law enforcement cadre of the Indian Civil Service, in 1976 and has held positions in the State Governments of Bihar and Jharkhand, the National Police Academy (NPA), the CISF and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). She has led teams in a wide range of complex and challenging assignments that have prepared her for a career in the private and social sector. From fighting crime to administering a massive organisation, Ms. Jaruhar has shown exemplary leadership in a domain traditionally dominated by men. She is the recipient of the Government of India’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service and the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service. She was awarded the Director General’s Commendation Disc for outstanding service twice in the CISF and once when she was with the CRPF.

Specialties: Security and protection of large undertakings, recruitment and personnel management, management of training and all gender related issues

After the enactment of the law on Sexual Harassment at the Work Place she has been invited frequently to share her experiences by several organizations. She also addresses on gender sensitization, safety & security and legal awareness of women.

She visited Afghanistan on the invitation of OXFAM and Research Institute of Women Peace and Security, to help them understand changes and improvements required for raising an effective women police force.

The 21st Century potentially belongs to women. Programmes like Vedica help actualise that promise...and lead in crafting a discourse about alternative ways of Seeing, Being and Doing to build a more humane and inclusive world... a world that transcends limits to embrace possibilities by redefining obsolete notions of power

A Fulbright Scholar, Padma Shri Awardee and an educationist, Meenakshi Gopinath retired as the Principal of Lady Shri Ram College in 2014, which is rated amongst the best institutions of higher learning in India. She is also the founder and honorary Director of WISCOMP (Women in Security Conflict Management and Peace)

Throughout ~19 years of consulting experience across five of our global offices, Megha has led a vast array of global client engagements, spanning Southeast Asia, Boston and Silicon Valley. She has particularly deep experience in leading transformation programs for multinational clients and frequently advises organizations on India’s role in their strategic development.

Her recent work includes capability sourcing, performance improvement, and cost and revenue transformation programs for technology companies.

Beyond her case work, Megha leads our multi-year effort to promote women’s entrepreneurship in India.

Megha holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and a graduate degree in economics from the University of Delhi Shri Ram College of Commerce.

India’s first gender editor for the newspaper Mint from 2013 to 2016, has over 30 years of writing experience with an exclusive focus on gender since 2013. Now an independent journalist, Namita was among the first journalists to flag India’s declining female labour force participation in 2017 with a year-long, award-winning series for IndiaSpend. She has covered a variety of topics from crime to sport, education to the aspiration of teenage girls, politics to designing inclusive cities.

With a masters degree in journalism from Stanford University, Namita was one of the founding editors of the news website Article-14.

In addition to a fortnightly column on gender for Hindustan Times, she has written for Foreign Policy, Times of India, The Hindu and other publications. She also writes a weekly newsletter called Mind the Gap. Earlier, she helped script, research and featured in a documentary film on India’s rape crisis for Channel News Asia.

Namita participates enthusiastically in panel discussions, seminars and events around equity and inclusion.

Vedica Scholars Programme offers women unprecedented opportunities to attain professional excellence and move to leadership positions. The programme has a major focus on addressing challenges faced by woman at workplace. It helps build their potential to defy stereotyped notions as well as face the age long challenge of patriarchy and unbreakable glass ceiling

Poonam Muttreja is the Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India (PFI) – a New Delhi-based NGO established in 1970 to promote population stabilization in India and global thinking on population and human development. She has also been a member of the Family Planning 2020 Reference Group – a global initiative to develop a new global architecture for increasing access to voluntary family planning services.

Poonam has served on several government committees including the National Commission on Population chaired by the Prime Minister of India, the Advisory Group for Community Action set up by India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the Program Advisory Committee of the National Population Stabilization Fund. She also serves on the Governing Board of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and Grassroots Trading Network for Women (GTNfW), SEWA, Ahmedabad as well as on the Governing Board of ActionAid India.

Prior to joining PFI in 2010, Poonam served, for close to 17 years, as the Country Director of MacArthur Foundation in India. In the earlier stages of her career, she was instrumental in setting up of Ashoka Foundation, India (as its Indian Founder Director), Society for Rural, Urban and tribal initiatives (SRUTI) and DASTKAR – both based in New Delhi.  Poonam studied psychology and mass communications in Delhi University and public administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has taught courses on development from a grassroots perspective in Amherst College and Earlham College in the United States.  She lives in New Delhi.

Economic self-reliance empowers women to build leadership capabilities and contribute to social development. Vedica Scholars enter this unique programme with a focus on learning and career opportunities. They graduate with a rigorous management education and a commitment to driving change and creating innovative paths for future generations of women

Reena V. Mithal has spent over two decades working in global financial markets and investment research. Formerly, she was part of US-based emerging markets research teams at Putnam Investments, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers, where she developed investment strategies and models for global clients. Ms Mithal has been an active angel investor in social enterprises in India. She founded Sankhya Partners in July 2012, and is Managing Partner, Sankhya Women Impact Funds.

Dr. Ritu Anand is a pioneer in the field of Human Resources, with 30+ years of experience in HR and related functions. In her last position she was the Chief Leadership & Diversity Officer and Senior Vice President HR at Tata Consultancy Services. Prior to this she was the Deputy HR Head where she led talent management, workforce policy, planning, total rewards, culture, and welfare practices.

Dr. Ritu Anand has diverse functional experience at TCS and is recognized for human  centric processes, talent, and leadership. Her expertise spans varied areas from  compensation & benefits, workforce policy planning, career development, capacity  building, merger & acquisitions, performance management, leadership assessments,  welfare programs, including culture, coaching, counselling, and mentoring. Developing  women leaders is an area that she is personally committed to and has done tremendous  work both in and outside TCS in this area.

She is a well-renowned speaker at various global forums, sharing her visionary views on  the future of workplace, talent, and leadership. She serves as an independent director on  few boards. She has been one of the 20 Top HR Influencers chosen by HR 40under40 and  recognized as one of the LinkedIn Top Voices of India for two consecutive years.

Ritu is a Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Bombay, MA in Psychology from Guru  Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and currently lives in Mumbai.

Vedica Scholars Programme for Women is a unique, new initiative, and promises to make a difference in the world through its focus on developing successful women professionals for the 21st century workplace. I am proud to be associated with this first-of-its-kind management practice programme!

Savita Mahajan is the former Deputy Dean of the Indian School of Business. She was associated with the ISB for 14 years, since its inception in 2001, and was responsible for building its second campus at Mohali, Punjab, as its CEO. She has been featured in Business Today’s 2013 list of “30 most Powerful Women in Indian Business” and is currently an independent Director on the Board of IFCI, nominated by the Govt. of India. She has worked in several Indian organisations such as Maruti Udyog Limited, Bharat Technologies and Karvy Consultants. Savita has a vast and diverse experience with consulting and training assignments working for many reputable organisations for clients like the World Bank and the Tibetan Government in exile of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Her areas of expertise include Strategic Management, Institutional Values, Leadership and Organisational Change.

There should be no doubt in the minds of people of the positive impact of women leaders in the workplace. To be able to make this impact felt even more, it is imperative we continue to push the evolution and opportunities of women leaders in India.

Tara Singh Vachani, Executive Chairman of Antara Senior Living aims to give a new dimension to senior living in India. She is the Non-Executive Director on the Board of Max India Ltd., Chairperson of Max Learning Ventures and sits on the boards of Vana Estates Limited and the Leeu Collection. As a Managing Trustee of Max India Foundation, she oversees Max Group’s social responsibility efforts. Tara is a 2020 member of Young Global Leaders a part of the World Economic Forum. She takes personal and collective responsibility for a sustainable future. A natural leader, she represents the dynamic new cadre of young women entrepreneurs in India. Tara has majored in Politics and South Asian studies at the National University of Singapore followed by courses in Strategy Management at the London School of Economics, and Hospitality Business Strategy and Management at Ecole hotelier de Lausanne, Switzerland.

Urvashi Butalia is a feminist publisher and writer. Co-founder of India\'s first feminist publishing house, Kali for Women, she now runs Zubaan, set up in 2003 when Kali shut down. She has a four-decade long involvement in the women\'s movement in India and writes and publishes widely on issues relating to women and gender. Among her publications are the co-edited volumes, In Other Words: Women’s Writing in India, Truth Tales and The Slate of Life (all collections of stories by Indian women); she has translated Baby Halder’s bestselling title A Life Less Ordinary from Hindi, and co-edited Women and the Hindu Right with Tanika Sarkar, and is editor of Partition: The Long Shadow. Her best known work is the award-winning oral history of Partition, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India, which has been translated into several Indian and international languages. She is a recipient of several awards including the Pandora Award for Publishing, the French Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres, the German Goethe Medaille and the Polish Bene Merito and the Indian Padmashri.

Vaishali Nigam Sinha is Co-founder of ReNew, a leading decarbonisation solutions company listed on NASDAQ. As Chairperson Sustainability, Vaishali has been responsible for helping ReNew emerge as a global ESG trailblazer, advancing the Net-Zero agenda, and delivering outcome-driven ESG strategies with top global rankings.

Vaishali is the Founding Chair of the ReNew Foundation—the company’s philanthropic arm—driving the ReNew India Initiative for pathbreaking work in corporate social responsibility. Initiatives led by Vaishali have had an impact in the remotest corners of India, positively shaping more than 1 million lives in the country.

She is also Co-Chair of the Finance and Infrastructure Task Force of B20, the Global Business  Forum of G20 Brazil.

A member of the World Economic Forum’s South Asia Regional Action Group and a senior advisor  at their Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, Vaishali is an active member of their global advisory council  for the 1 Trillion Trees Initiative.

Vaishali sits on multiple boards, including the UN Global Compact Network India, and is the founder  chairperson of their gender committee. She is also the chair for the South Asia Women in Energy  (SAWIE). Additionally, Vaishali is on the advisory board of Columbia University’s School of  International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and the Columbia Global Centre, Mumbai.

A regular speaker at international forums such as the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC,  WEF, Financial Times Climate Capital Live, and Reuters Global Energy Transition Summit, Vaishali  has written extensively on the energy transition, sustainability, supply chains, corporate social  responsibility, and gender parity in India and abroad. Vaishali is co-editor of the T20 compendium of  essays, ‘Pathways to Equality’, which explores the social, political, and economic facets of achieving  gender equality.

In 2024, Vaishali was listed among Fortune India’s ‘50 Most Powerful Women’. She is also the  recipient of the ‘Edie Sustainability Leader of the Year’ award (2024). In 2022, she was profiled among ‘100 People Transforming Business’ by Business Insider.

Vaishali has completed the Owners and Presidents Management Program from Harvard Business  School and has a Master’s in Public Policy from Columbia University’s SIPA, where she has been  an American Association of University Women scholar.