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Ms. Smita Ram is a social entrepreneur and Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Rang De, a pioneering peer-to-peer lending platform working to bring affordable credit to underserved communities in India. With a Master’s in Social Work from Roshni Nilaya and additional executive education, including a certificate for women entrepreneurs from the Indian School of Business, she brings both a strong grounding in social development and an entrepreneurial mindset. Before founding Rang De (in 2008), she worked in educational support and community programmes in India and the UK and in administrative roles with local government in Oxfordshire. At Rang De, she has driven innovation in financial inclusion by opening new channels of capital (“social investors”) and customizing low-cost loans for artisans, rural entrepreneurs, and marginalized groups. Her leadership has helped the organisation scale its reach across multiple states and deepen its impact on livelihoods, financial literacy, and community empowerment.

Shilp Verma is a Researcher, Water-Energy-Food Policies with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). An alumnus of the University of Delhi, the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), and UNESCO-IHE, Delft, Shilp has nearly 20 years of experience in the water, energy, and rural livelihoods domain. He has been associated with IWMI since 2001, in different capacities. In his current role, Shilp manages the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program in India with a mandate of converting science into policy action. His research covers a range of themes relevant to smallholder farming and water security in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sunita Devi, a 48-year-old self-driven solar irrigation entrepreneur (solar didi) living in the Bochaha block of Muzaffarpur district in Bihar, is addressing critical energy and irrigation challenges in her village. Her village, like many rural areas in Bihar, suffers from poor access to reliable irrigation. Diesel costs are high, electricity is unreliable, and only a fraction of the land is cultivated during the off-season. Sunita Devi is a member of the Maa Santoshi SHG; she has combined community support and personal determination to build a sustainable enterprise that enhances both her family's income and agricultural productivity in her region. Through support from AKRSP(I) and Jeevika, she took the initiative to invest in solar technology, helping not just her household but also fellow farmers.

Mr. Manas Kumar Satpathy is a seasoned rural‐development professional who has been working in India’s tribal and agrarian regions since the early 1990s, bringing a strong technical foundation (MTech in Water Resources Development & Management from IIT Kharagpur and BTech in Civil Engineering from NIT Rourkela) to his large‐scale livelihood initiatives. He served as the Executive Director of PRADAN from April 2012 to March 2017, during which he led the organisation’s strategies in natural resource management, agriculture, and community institution strengthening. Since then, he has been coordinating PRADAN’s research and advocacy efforts, with a special emphasis on climate action, institutional mechanisms and pathways to inclusive livelihoods for marginalized communities. His work is rooted in integrating engineering and resource-management systems with grassroots community processes, particularly in some of India’s most disadvantaged regions.

Meenakshi Singh is a development sector professional with over a decade of experience at the intersection of clean energy, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic development. She currently works as a Partnerships Manager at Schneider Electric, leading multi-stakeholder collaboration with NGOs, funders, and government institutions. Her experience spans project and proposal management, policy analysis, and community-centric research. She has contributed to initiatives on women-led solar enterprises, climate-smart livelihoods, and energy access, working on projects that advance equity, resilience, and just energy transitions.

Devki Devi is a resilient farmer from the Bochaha block of Muzzaffarpur district in Bihar. She overcame financial hardships to become a successful solar irrigation entrepreneur (solar didi). She leveraged the support of AKRSP(I) and her SHG to set up a solar-powered irrigation system. Today, she not only sustains her own land but also provides irrigation services to 65 farmers in her village, bringing economic, environmental, and social benefits to the community.

Mr. Ganesh Neelam is a geoscience-trained development professional who holds an MS in Geosciences from the University of Pune. He joined Tata Trusts in 2004 to lead the flagship initiative called Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), which focuses on tribal livelihood transformation across central India. He currently serves as Executive Director of CInI, where he oversees programmes such as the flagship Lakhpati Kisan (aimed at raising incomes of small and marginal farmers) along with integrated interventions in agriculture, water, renewable energy, education and WASH programmes in tribal belts. In addition, he holds the role of Director at Sustain Plus. Under his leadership, the organization is advancing circular economy and clean energy models aligned with agri-livelihoods and decentralised renewable energy. His work emphasises community-led institutions, technology integration, and scalable rural transformation for small and marginal farmers.

Naveen Patidar is the Chief Executive Officer of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), a pioneer development agency in rural livelihoods. He has national and international-level exposure to development-related works, particularly in the field of rural livelihoods. He has professional experience of over 15 years in designing and managing large development projects in the areas of Sustainable Agriculture, Youth Empowerment, Livelihoods, Financial Inclusion, and Women Empowerment. He has expertise and experience in working with communities living in extreme poverty. During his tenure as program head of the organisation, he led the transformation of programs through promoting innovations, better designing programs, and the use of digital technologies. His current interests include climate change, work & enterprise, and civil society development. He is a computer engineering graduate, followed by post-graduation from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).