We are members of the global Indian diaspora, dedicated to preserving and celebrating India’s democratic values.
Nida Hasan
Executive Director
Nida Hasan
Executive Director
Nida has supported hundreds of social impact leaders in the space of gender, health, human rights and has brought about several policy changes through digital campaigning that impacted the lives of millions of Indians.
In her last role as the Country Director for Change.org in India, she co-founded ‘She Creates Change’, a women’s leadership program that focuses on agency and community-building along with digital-tools expertise to empower over 500 women leaders in India, Kenya and Nigeria. Before transitioning to the technology social-impact sector, she was a journalist for over nine years with France 2 TV and CNN-IBN for 9 years. Nida has a Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and was a Gleitsman Leadership for Social Change Fellow at the Centre For Public Leadership.
Anuradha Luther Maitra
Board Member
Anuradha Luther Maitra
Board Member
Anu is an economist who has taught at UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara University. At UCSC, she was appointed to oversee international initiatives to establish strategic partnerships. For over a decade, she served as CEO of Floreat Inc, a provider of multimedia software.
At UC Santa Cruz, Anu founded the Sidhartha Maitra Lecture Series, and helped establish continuing programs in Indian Classical Music and Film Studies; she has been a trustee of the UCSC Foundation Board since 2000, including a term as President. Anu serves on the boards of the India Community Center and US Friends of HelpAge India, and chairs the Vision Committee of Pratichi India.
Anu’s nonprofit work and teaching focus on social justice and economic equity, diversity and inclusiveness, climate change and stewardship of earth. Anu and her husband Professor Thomas Kailath also support these causes by their philanthropy, including an endowed professorship at the Center for South Asian Studies of UC Santa Cruz.
Anu holds a PhD from Stanford University, an MA from the Delhi School of Economics, and a BA Honors from Miranda House, Delhi. She feels privileged to have been trained and guided by Professors Amartya Sen, Sukhamoy Chakravarty, David Starrett, Tibor Scitovsky, and Kanti Sastri.
Shashi Buluswar
Board Member
Shashi Buluswar
Board Member
Shashi is a scientist and a serial social entrepreneur, and has worked on a range of topics affecting underprivileged communities, including health, electricity access, water and food security, and human rights. His recent roles include Founding CEO of the Institute for Transformative Technologies (ITT), and Founding CEO of Global Health Labs which was created by Bill Gates.
Prior to that, he was a partner at Dalberg Advisors and an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company. Under Shashi’s leadership, ITT launched India’s largest infrastructures for off-grid solar power and natural sanitation, which collectively serve hundreds of thousands of the country’s poorest citizens.
In response to COVID-19, Shashi also led ITT’s launch of Oxygen Hub, which has become Africa’s largest medical oxygen franchise, with operations in Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia. He serves on several nonprofit boards and advisory committees including the India Community Center, the Skoll Foundation, and Human Rights Watch. Beyond his professional interests, Shashi spent a decade competing on the Indian national rowing team, and made a critically acclaimed documentary film about the India-Pakistan conflict and “cricket diplomacy”.
Shashi holds a PhD from the University of Massachusetts in Artificial Intelligence, an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He also teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.
Shilpan Patel
Board Member
Shilpan Patel
Board Member
Shilpan is currently a Finance Director with Sensient Technologies in California. He has over 25 years of experience working in Senior Finance roles in various Fortune 500 companies. Shilpan holds a MBA from University of Wisconsin and is a CPA, and Bachelor’s from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore. He also served on the board of ActionAid USA and is a supporter of Amnesty USA and iPartner India.
Arjun Malhotra
Advisory Board Member
Arjun Malhotra
Advisory Board Member
Arjun Malhotra is a pioneering Indian entrepreneur, industrialist, and philanthropist. In 1975, he co-founded HCL Group, helping grow it from a small “garage operation” to one of India’s largest IT corporations, serving as Vice Chairman. He later founded TechSpan and became CEO of Headstrong, overseeing its merger with TechSpan and its acquisition by Genpact in 2011. Malhotra was the first prominent Indian entrepreneur to relocate to the U.S., where he expanded HCL’s U.S. operations, and also led major joint ventures in India. He has received the Albert Einstein Technology Medal, the DQ Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named an Eminent Engineering Personality by the Institution of Engineers (India). Malhotra continues to advise start-ups in the education and healthcare sectors.
Malhotra holds a Bachelor of Technology (Hons.) in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, where he received the Dr. B.C. Roy Gold Medal and was later named a Life Fellow. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. In addition to his business achievements, he has served on the Boards of Governors for institutions like IIT Kharagpur Foundation, Indian School of Business, and The Doon School, and founded the Prof. G.S. Sanyal School of Telecommunications at IIT Kharagpur. A co-founder of SPIC MACAY, Malhotra has also been involved with TiE and other global networks supporting entrepreneurship.
Thomas Kailath
Advisory Board Member
Thomas Kailath
Advisory Board Member
Thomas Kailath is an Indian-American electrical engineer and professor emeritus at Stanford University, recognized for his transformative contributions to information theory, control theory, and signal processing. He earned his B.E. in Telecom from the College of Engineering, Pune, in 1956 and his M.S. and Sc.D. in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1959 and 1961, respectively. After a year at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he joined Stanford in 1963, became a full professor in 1968, and held the prestigious Hitachi America Chair in Engineering.
Throughout his career, Kailath’s research spanned numerous fields, including communications, control, and semiconductor manufacturing. His work with over 100 doctoral and postdoctoral students resulted in more than 300 journal papers, numerous patents, and several influential books. Kailath co-founded multiple high-tech companies, two of which went public, and his students have launched over 20 companies themselves.
Among Kailath’s many honors are the 2012 U.S. National Medal of Science, the IEEE Medal of Honor, and the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award. He is a member of several prestigious academies, including the National Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of London, and holds honorary degrees from institutions worldwide.
Are You Passionate About India's Future? Join Our Community to Collaborate, Advocate, and Create Positive Change.