Deshpande Foundation

Founders’ Message

Humankind has been endowed with innovative minds that have identified problems and created solutions for thousands of years. Given the vastness of the rural Indian population, every solution we can find for rural India has the opportunity to make a significant difference to the nation’s development. Our idea is to lead with relevance.

When our programs start scaling, we look to introduce techniques that have been developed in the high-end of the economy such as financial engineering and technology, among others. For us to maintain program quality and really benefit those who are not a part of the developed economy, technology is probably the biggest lever. As technology gets more sophisticated and capable, it becomes relevant to a lot more people.

We want to ensure that innovation is continuously injected into our solutions so that they get better, faster and economical. And so, we welcome more partners to work with us and more importantly, learn from each other as we go along.

Ours is a humble beginning – a small step towards rural transformation.

Gururaj Desh Deshpande & Jaishree Deshpande

People

Board of Trustees

Gururaj Desh Deshpande

Gururaj Desh Deshpande

Founding Trustee

Jaishree Deshpande

Jaishree Deshpande

Founding Trustee

Sanjay Nayak

Sanjay Nayak

Trustee

Arnob Roy

Arnob Roy

Trustee

Kumar R. Sivarajan

Kumar R. Sivarajan

Trustee

Vivek Pawar

Vivek Pawar

Trustee

Governing Council

Raju Reddy

Raju Reddy

Sushil Vachani

Sushil Vachani

Govinda Chintala

Govinda Chintala

Advisors

Hemang Dave

Hemang Dave

Advisor, Deshpande Foundation

Smita Deshpande

Smita Deshpande

Advisor & Founder, EarIySpark

Phanindra Sama

Phanindra Sama

Advisor, Kakatiya Sandbox

Executive Leadership

Anand J. Bariya

Anand J. Bariya

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Deshpande Foundation

Karthik Sankaran

Karthik Sankaran

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Deshpande Startups

Manish Jaiswal

Manish Jaiswal

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Kakatiya Sandbox

P N Nayak

P N Nayak

Managing Trustee & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Deshpande Skilling

Leadership Team

Benjamin Mathew

Benjamin Mathew

President, Rural Transformation Innovation & Knowledge Center

Chakravarthy Vasudevan

Chakravarthy Vasudevan

General Manager, Finance & Accounts

Dnyanada Deshpande

Dnyanada Deshpande

Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

Mohammad Innus Khan

Mohammad Innus Khan

Sr. Director, Agriculture Initiatives

Rupal Dandia

Rupal Dandia

VP Development, RISE (Rural India Sandbox Ecosystems)

Shubo Biswas

Shubo Biswas

Global Chief Technology Officer

Sonali Sarma

Sonali Sarma

Head, Human Resources

Partners

  • Tata Trust
  • SBI
  • DTS
  • LTI – Lets Solve
  • HDFC Bank
  • Sidbi

Global Presence

  • Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre
  • EforAll
  • GDC – Stem to Startup
  • Pond-Deshpande Centre
  • MIT Deshpande Center
  • RISE