Pranay Karuna is the Associate Director of the ClimateRISE Alliance at Dasra, where he leads strategic partnerships and collaborative action to strengthen climate resilience and community-driven development across India. A strategic and inclusive leader with over 12 years of experience in social impact, DEI transformation, business strategy, and systems change, he brings deep expertise across climate, education, governance, and philanthropy sectors. Pranay has a proven track record in shaping  large-scale education strategies, early childhood and foundational literacy initiatives, alliance-building, and stakeholder engagement. His experience spans organizational strategy, P&L management, and business development, alongside strengthening institutional culture and embedding equity-centered, narrative-driven approaches to business-for-impact. He is skilled in leading cross-functional teams, facilitating collective problem-solving, and building strong coalitions that enable systemic change and long-term community ownership. Guided by a belief in inclusive growth and shared leadership, Pranay works to advance resilient systems that prioritize local voices and community agency.

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Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (CAMPA) and State Nodal Officer for Climate Change, Government of Jharkhand, is a senior Indian Forest Service officer with over 30 years of leadership in forestry, rural development, and climate governance. Formerly Director of the State Institute of Rural Development and Mission Director of the Jharkhand Skill Development Mission, he has driven initiatives integrating natural resource management, livelihoods, and sustainability. A graduate of Birsa Agricultural University and the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, he also holds a PG Diploma in Environmental Law. His work bridges grassroots innovation with climate-resilient policy action.

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Abhinav is Program Lead at the Axis Bank Foundation and is a graduate of IIFM, Bhopal. He brings nearly 15 years of experience and a mix of working in both CSR as well as international NGOs. In his previous assignments, which have focused mainly on the Central India Landscape, he has co-designed and led rural livelihoods projects including a UN Adaptation Fund Project, implemented land restoration projects, and convened a multi-stakeholder initiative on regenerative agriculture.

Pranab is a passionate researcher and an empathetic soul, aspiring to make the world more equal and better for all. For about 30 years, he has been working around inter-disciplinary issues related to natural resources management and governance in global south, with governments, DFIs, (I)NGOs, and communities. He started his journey as a Scientist with India’s National Agriculture Research System, developing model watersheds to restore hill landscapes and tribal livelihoods, that led to the prestigious National Award in 2002. To serve the development sector more flexibly, he left his job after a decade and since then, has expanded his engagements around water, livelihoods, forestry, and land, building evidence and making recognizable impacts, at the national and international level. He has led and guided large scale bilateral and multi-country projects around climate change, food security, forestry, biodiversity, and livelihoods and has planned, accompanied and evaluated donor-funded development and research projects around NRM, livelihoods, value chain and ecosystem services across South Asia. Pranab was a member in the executive committee of Green India Mission of Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change of Government of India during 2014-19.

He founded Center for Land Governance in 2015, which in a shot span was acknowledged as a leading land think tank around land governance policy and research in India and globally. Pranab’s land-engagement spans across rural, urban, forest and agriculture landscapes, focusing land tenure, use, administration and technology, cross-cutting gender, technology, justice, and sustainability. Apart from engaging on policy and action research with governments, the multilateral and Development Finance Institutions, academics, NGOs, and private sector, CLG organizes an annual India Land and Development Conference, a unique land convening in South Asia. He also teaches land related courses at Universities and B-Schools and trains senior government officials.  He is invited to international and national conferences/ workshops as keynote speaker, session chair and panellist. Apart from writing blogs and in the national media, he publishes regularly in peer-reviewed journals. Towards building a land ecosystem in Global South and for embedding land tenure in the global and local development agendas, he has been triggering conversations, connections and partnerships among land actors and institutions working across sectors and geographies.