Team

Founder and CEO

Swapan Mehra

Swapan is an environmental finance and policy expert, proficient in designing and implementing projects and policy interventions in forestry, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. After completing an Advanced Diploma in Forest Management from Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, he worked with some of the largest carbon finance firms in the world.

In 2009, he set up IORA, an environmental policy advisory group that provides implementable solutions in the areas of carbon finance, forestry and biodiversity conservation and new market mechanisms for emission reduction.

Visioning, strengthening and building sustainable conservation models are his passion. Over the years, he has been involved in conservation and policy intervention issues, especially in the forestry sector, at the grassroots level as well as the national and international levels. This multi-level exposure to key problems allows him to envisage and develop solutions that are holistic and multi-faceted.

Awards and Fellowships:

FICCI Young Business Leader

LEAD International Fellow in 2011

Donella Meadows Fellowship by the Balaton Group

Swapan is a member of:

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

Expert Panel on the JNR Program of VCS

Jury for the UNDP Equator Prize

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study.

He was a technical reviewer of UNEP’s Green Economy Initiatives, a major UN project demonstrating how REDD+ can support a green economy.

Director

Anil Kumar Mehra

Maj Gen A K Mehra, AVSM, VSM (Veteran) served in the Indian Army for 37 years before superannuating in Aug 2007. He has a  Master’s Degree in Defence Studies from Madras University and has done  M Phil in Defence Studies from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore. Since 2014 he is one of the Directors in IORA’s Board of Directors. He oversees the HR, Administrative and Financial aspects at IORA

Co-founder

Chhaya Bhanti

Chhaya is a sustainability strategist with expertise in catalyzing climate action through multi-disciplinary approaches. After working as a media strategist in New York City with some of the world’s largest brands, she joined the renewable energy sector working with One Sun Solar in San Francisco and Lumisolair in New York working on clean tech finance, government & multi-lateral partnerships and technology innovation. Bringing this extensive international experience with her, Chhaya moved back to India to establish Vertiver, a strategic consultancy for climate action and dissemination and joined Swapan to co-found IORA. She is also a co-founder of the NGO, Sanjhi, based in Rajasthan that works on media-based storytelling for environmental action.  She holds an MBA in Sustainability and an M.A in Communications and Film from the U.S.

Head – Carbon Market and VP - Corporate Partnerships

Digvijay Chauhan

Digvijay is a carbon-market expert with over eleven years of industry experience in the identification and commercialization of carbon offsets and CDM projects. He holds a Postgraduate degree in Business Management and Finance from Pune University. He is credited with developing innovative new products like carbon offset backed pre-payment and debt financing. Digvijay has also been involved in originating the transaction of more than 6 million carbon offsets from India.

Prior to joining IORA, he worked with:

EcoSecurities, a global leader in carbon offset development

MF Global, one of the world’s leading commodity brokerage houses, where he headed the carbon offset trading       desk for India.

At IORA, Digvijay heads the development of carbon financing strategy for various climate change mitigation projects; with a mission to enable sustainable development by promoting ecosystem conservation, low-carbon technologies and climate change adaptation through customized financing and distribution models.

Senior Advisor- Climate Change

Dr. Sumana Bhattacharya

Dr. Sumana Bhattacharya is working in the area of climate change and environment policy and research for more than two decades now.  She is a doctorate in Physics from Department of Physics, University of Delhi.

In IORA, she is currently leading work on assessment of baseline and future emissions with low Carbon strategies, development of MRV tool for assessing Carbon reduction potential of schemes and projects, developing National Adaptation Plans,  drafting PDDs for seeking support for adaptation funds, estimating  National GHG and other pollutant emission base lines,  Establishing GHG inventory management systems,   quantifying drivers of deforestation and degradation  of forests  in various landscapes for REDD+ projects, developing Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks for climate change adaptation projects,   designing legal and regulatory frameworks for integrating climate smart disaster risk management across departments, assessing  ecosystem services generated due to plantations, and drafting handbooks on SAPCCs for dissemination. These projects are being carried out for the governments of Assam, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Ethiopia, and Guyana and are supported by the MoEFCC, GIZ, GGGI, JCCP, CCIP, APFBC and ONGC. Sumana has also guided intern thesis on low C brick sector in India and drafted policy papers on wood is good and the aviation sector.

Prior to IORA, Sumana worked in IC India, MoEFCC, Asia Pacific Network for Climate Change – Japan, and National Physical Laboratory, India. Some of the significant projects managed and implemented by Sumana while in these organisations were India’s 1^st and 2^nd National Communications  to UNFCCC; a Gold Standard biogas project for WWF; National level GHG and other pollutant emission trends for Industrial process and product use sector for India’s BUR1 and  for all sectors  for ADB supported ALGAS project;  State level low Carbon development policies for Shakti Foundation; rationalising farmer field level interventions to  minimise Methane emission from rice production for MIGROS, Switzerland; assessing training needs assessment, developing modules and training for integrating climate change adaptation in planning; drafting State Action Plans on Climate Change for Sikkim, West Bengal, Punjab, Tamilnadu, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Haryana for GIZ; Policy paper on institutional strengthening for adaptation to climate extremes for BASIC project; and developing netCDF data bases for INDOEX .

Sumana has contributed to the development of IPCC 1996 and 2006 guidelines for National GHG inventory development; She was awarded the 1st START young scientist award in 1997 for her work on India specific methane emission factors from rice cultivation. She has carried out a number of in-country and desk based reviews for Annex-1 national GHG inventories for UNFCCC. She is also national advisor for WGIA workshops for Asian countries- an initiative of NIES Japan. Sumana has numerous publications in National and International journals and commissioned papers for various agencies including WRI and MoEFCC amongst others.

Assistant Vice-President- Climate Change

Sriya Mohanti

Sriya holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies under the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus Programme. Under the programme, she focused on the areas of climate change, clean energy, water and sanitation. During this period, her project work covered a detailed review of the Government of India’s National Biogas and Manure Management Programme and its implementation. She completed her thesis under the Ecological Sanitation Department of the German International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH Headquarters. It assessed the potential of GIZ’s “SANIRESCH” system (an innovative urban sustainable sanitation and wastewater management system) in India.

At IORA, Sriya has been involved in the area of climate change with projects such as the development of India’s first Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) in the Forestry Sector, UNDP-Government of India’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative assessment of private sector investments towards biodiversity in India and mobilization of corporate engagement towards climate adaptation. She also represents IORA as a Lab Advisor for the India Innovation Lab for Green Finance. Prior to joining IORA, Sriya worked at Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, a Delhi based grant-making organization, which aids the design and implementation of policies that encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy in India. As part of the Climate Policy program, Sriya supported its core objective of aiding India’s transition towards a low carbon development pathway. This involved contributing towards program strategy planning; developing and managing grants and contracts; and conducting associated communication and fundraising activities. As part of Shakti’s Climate Policy program, she was involved in the development and management of over 50 projects covering a wide range of thematic areas including policy dialogue, capacity building, research and implementation to support low carbon development in India.

Assistant Manager- Climate Change

Shweta Pandey

Shweta is an expert in Climate Change Mitigation. She has an experience of developing GHG Inventory for various sectors and Carbon Neutral Strategies. Besides that, she also has a technical expertise in Natural Resource Assessment.

She holds a Postgraduate degree in Natural Resource Management from the University School of Environment Management, GGSIPU (New Delhi). While pursuing her academics, she interned with WWF (World Wildlife Fund) India for a study on the impact of the floods in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand in 2013 using Remote Sensing and GIS and did her Master’s thesis named ‘The Indian Brick Sector- An assessment of Emission Trends, Low Carbon Emission Scenario and Cost benefits’ at IORA where she mapped Brick kilns (pan India) through the GIS interface and estimated their state-wise GHG emissions and now is a well-known face in the All India Brick Association.

As an Assistant Manager at IORA, she has developed GHG Inventory for Off Road Transport for NATCOM Cell (BUR and TNC) reporting to UNFCCC. Also, she has been developing Carbon Neutral Strategies for Majuli (Assam) by estimating GHG Emissions from all sectors and suggesting technical strategies to make a Carbon Neutral District further co-assisting development of a web-based Registry tool for the same. She has also given her inputs for abstract development of the SAPCC for the State of Mizoram (GIZ) and Handbook for the State of Maharashtra (CCIP). Besides, she is also involved in carbon estimations and quantifications for Forest-PLUS in Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh and soil and water assessments for the ecosystem-based studies to be conducted for ONGC.

Research Associate

Avrah Abraham

Avrah has joined IORA as a Research Associate with the climate change team. He will be working specifically on climate finance policy, but will provide insight across a range of IORA’s operations. He has graduated in International Politics from the University of Aberystwth (2017), having also done a semester at Renmin University, Beijing.

Avrah’s previous posting was with the Independent Evaluation Unit of the Green Climate Fund, South Korea, where he conducted qualitative research into the transformational change potential of the Private Sector Facility. Prior to that, Avrah has also worked at FleishmanHillard: the largest EU government relations, public affairs and communications consultancy in Brussels, where he was a member of the financial services team.

Vice President - Forestry

Dr. Saurindra Goswami

Dr. Goswami has done his Ph.D. from Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Gauhati University, Assam. He pursued his M.Sc. Forestry (Tree Improvement & Genetic Resources) at the Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture &Forestry, Nauni, India.

Prior to joining IORA, Dr. Goswami served as an Assistant Professor of Forestry at the Fiji National University, CAFF – Koronivia Campus (2012-2016). He led research projects concerning local forestry issues in Fiji as a Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator, addressing topics like capacity building of landowners on community forestry for livelihood development in Viti Levu; studies on the utilization of African Tulip (Spathodea campinulata) in the Fiji Islands; evaluating the growth of artificially regenerated Santalum yasi in the nursery at Koronivia; study of the insect biodiversity and population dynamics of some insect pests using Light Trap in the ecosystems of Suva Region in Fiji; studies on the bio-ecology and management of some major insect pests of economically important agricultural crops and trees, etc. He also served as a faculty member at DIBNS, Dehradun, India (2010-2011); People’s Science Institute, Dehradun, India (2008-2010); Dimoria College Khetri (under GU), Assam, India (1998-2008).

Dr. Goswami was engaged as a Senior Individual Consultant (Medicinal & Aromatic Plants) for the Uttarakhand Livelihood Improvement Project for the Himalayas and Uttarakhand Parvatiya Aajeevika Sambardhan Company, Department of Rural Development, Government of Uttarakhand in 2011-12. He was also a key expert to the Center for Excellence on Environment Education, supported by the Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI for developing 50 Village Contingency Plans from a disaster risk reduction perspective for the earthquake that hit the Kashmir region in 2011.

He has extensive forestry field work and research experience across the country. He coordinated the development of a Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan for Tehri Garhwal in 2010; facilitated Sustainable Mountain Livelihoods Plans for Himalayan rural farmers residing in 30 villages in 2010; conducted Monitoring & Evaluation of WDP for 45 watersheds in Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in 2010; and restored rubber cultivation in abandoned shifting cultivated fallows in the Dimoria tribal belt of Assam.

Dr. Goswami has more than 19 publications in various international and national level journals on local forestry issues. He has also presented research papers in international, regional and national conferences. He is the Founder President of United Mass Movements for Eco-friendly & Equitable Development, India.

Senior Manager- Forestry

Dr. Satvant Kaur Saini

Dr. Saini holds aDoctorate in Biosciences and Masters in Zoology from Pt. Ravishankar University, Raipur. She holds another Masters in Ecology and Environment from Sikkim Manipal University. In 1989, she was awarded with the Young Scientist Award of Madhya Pradesh CST. She has over 22 years of research experience in forestry related subjects including forest resource assessment in-situ, floral and faunal studies of various PAs, development of sustainable harvesting techniques in natural forests with active community participation, development of a model for rural and tribal livelihood by adopting sustainable harvesting of resources in natural forests and EIA and EMP of various developmental projects. She has also worked for wildlife habitat evaluation and habitat viability assessment for reintroduction of wildlife.

Prior to joining IORA, Dr. Saini worked with the State Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh)in various capacities. She has published more than 35 research papers reflecting community participation, forestry mitigation options for areas being diverted for various developmental projects, forest conservation, medicinal plants, NTFPs, resource assessment, floral and faunal studies, afforestation and reforestation opportunities and Joint Forest Management Program in India.

Assistant Vice-President- Forestry

Akhilesh Singh

Akhilesh holds a Master’s degree in Forestry (Economics & Management) from the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. He is a qualified ISO 9001:2008 quality management systems auditor, qualified for Better Sugarcane Initiative audits and has qualified the ICAR- NET for Forestry and Environmental Sciences.

At IORA, Akhilesh is engaged in project management for the Jurisdictional REDD+ program that is being implemented for the first time in India. He is looking after the technical inputs, field work, coordination and other activities in the state of Sikkim. He is also involved in the quantification of drivers of deforestation and forest degradation for the development of the India specific REDD+ methodology in collaboration with GIZ – India. As a part of his duties, he provides technical inputs, conducts field works and coordinates activities as and when required.

Prior to joining IORA, Akhilesh worked with Scientific Certification Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. as Deputy Manager in the Natural Resources Division, where he was auditor for the Forest Stewardship Council Forest Management program. He was also a part of the implementation of the National Mission for Green India in the Golaghat District of Assam, in which he was involved in the planning of micro plans for 20 JFMCs with respect to climate change mitigation and adaptation interventions including a long-term perspective plan. He was involved in the monitoring and evaluation of Project Elephant in Meghalaya in 2009-2014 and performance evaluation of the Climate Change Adaptation – North Eastern Region program run by MoDONER and GIZ – India in Sikkim.

Manager- Forestry

Janani Pradhan

Janani has completed her Masters Degree in Conservation Science from Imperial College London. There, she also studied at the Zoological Society of London, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She did her master’s thesis with the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme in Assam which was funded by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Jersey.

At IORA, Janani is working on implementation of various projects across different landscapes. She is currently working on formulating an investment strategy to reduce future vulnerabilities to climate change in the forestry and biodiversity sectors in Mizoram. She is also working on preparing a project implementation plan for the management of the ecosystem of Kaziranga National Park by creating climate resilient livelihoods for the vulnerable communities. In addition to this, she is involved in writing proposals.

Prior to joining IORA, Janani worked as a Senior Research Fellow with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) for their Climate Change Programme in the Himalayas, where she set up and managed the regional office in Sikkim. She has also briefly worked at WWF- Kanchenjunga Landscape Programme in Sikkim. Janani’s background is primarily in the field of wildlife/ biodiversity conservation and forestry with experience in different surveying techniques (radio telemetry, camera traps, transect surveys), species distribution modelling and applying GIS to inform conservation across species and landscapes.

Field Coordinator

Shyam Verma

Shyam Verma has more than 3 years of experience in forestry, biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration. He is the field coordinator for IORA for forestry and biodiversity projects. Prior to IORA, he served as the Technical Assistant at Sheltra Construction Private Limited where he was involved in design and testing of soil analysis methods. He has worked as Research Associate at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi for project titled “Assessing cost of adaptation of Climate-change for forest in India” in which he carried out quantitative field surveys in selected districts in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

He was a senior research fellow at Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, where he worked on biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration projects in Dhanbad and in the coal mines at Singrauli. He was also responsible for site assessment and ecological restoration at Jhingurdha mine owned by Northern Coal Field Limited. He was engaged as field assistant for project titled “Impact of Human Induced Disturbances on regeneration and population structure of Rhododendron arboretum and Myrica nagi in the mid hills of Garhwal” by FRI. His role included field surveys, species selection, application of moisture conservation, seed broadcast, plantation of native species of trees, data collection and analysis, laboratory analysis of soil and water samples and report writing.

Shyam is well versed with laboratory techniques like BET surface area and pore analysis, pH meter, Electrical conductivity, UV-VIS spectrophotometry, Microprocessor Flame Photometry, and estimation of microbial biomass carbon by Fumigation method. He is also an expert in field techniques like Quadrant method, Soil Carbon density, Carbon sequestration and Soil sampling. Shyam holds a Master’s degree in Environment Management from the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and Bachelors in Life Sciences from Delhi University.

Vice President - RS & GIS

Dr. Parul Srivastava

Dr. Parul Srivastava is an environmental enthusiast with over 13 years of research and teaching experience in Geospatial Technology in Forest Ecology, Protected Area Management, Mapping of Forest Resources, Climate Change and Alternate Energy Resource. She holds Ph.D. in Forest Ecology and Environment from Forest Research Institute (Deemed) University (2008) and Masters in Botany from University of Allahabad. To be proficient in geospatial technology, she undertook the training in ‘Application of GIS in Forestry’ from Indian Institute of Remote Sensing. She has extensive research experience in the area of Forest Ecology and Climate Change and has contributed significantly in various projects on mapping and monitoring of natural resources during her association with Forest Survey of India, Dehradun; and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

She has also served as an Area Director GIS and Faculty in the area Computer Science and Engineering, NIIT University, Neemrana, Rajasthan. Her key areas of teaching expertise are GIS Project Management (Project initiation, planning, design and implementation); Geo-Informatics for Natural Resource Management; and Cartography (Map Projections and Spatial Coordinate Systems). Presently she is associated with IORA Ecological Solutions in the capacity of Vice President – RS & GIS; and a key team member of IORA’s GIS Technology Group.

Advocating policy message supported by concrete science and technical analysis, she has research papers and reports published in peer reviewed journals and in the conferences both National and International level. She has also reviewed papers for International Journal of Agriculture Sciences (2016) and International Journal of Remote Sensing (2011 and 2010).

Assistant Manager- RS & GIS

Rohit Kumar

Rohit holds a Post Graduate degree in Geo-informatics from Birla Institute of Technology, Jharkhand. He has an efficient working knowledge of Operating Systems – Windows 2000/XP/Vista; and GIS Software: ArcGIS 9.3, 9.3.1, ERDAS Imagine 9.2, AutoCad Map 2000i, and Google Earth.

At IORA, Rohit is working in the domain of geospatial science under the USAID funded Forest-PLUS Program, focusing on Karnataka, Sikkim and MP landscapes.

Prior to joining IORA, Rohit served as a Junior Research Fellow at CIMFR, Dhanbad, mapping areas affected with coal fire and land subsidence in Jharia coal fields using remote sensing techniques. He completed his Master’s thesis on Estimation of 2-D Glacier velocities using Differential SAR Interferometry of Milam Glacier, Uttarakhand. He has numerous minor projects to his credit, namely Mineralogical studies of Nepheline syenite of Kishangarh, Rajasthan; Field visit and analysis of the rock phosphate ore of Jhamarkotra phosphate mine, Udaipur; and Delineation of subsurface faults and minerals identification using ALOS PALSAR and Landsat datasets.

Assistant Manager- RS & GIS

Neeraj Agrawal

Neeraj is a GIS Professional with more than one year experience in GIS and Remote Sensing. He has completed his Masters in Geoinformatics from Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India and ITC, University of Twente, The Netherlands. He has pursued his Bachelors in Engineering with specialization in Computer Science from Institute of Technology & Management, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. He owns proficiency on software and tools: ArcGIS 10.3| Quantum GIS| ERDAS Imagine 2013|ENVI 5.1|PolSAR Pro|NEST 5.1.

Neeraj has been a key team member of IORA Geo-Spatial Group, contributing to the domain of RS & GIS for IORA’s Forestry and Biodiversity Projects. Prior to joining IORA he has been associated with Innodata India Pvt Ltd, Noida, leading Services Company providing content solutions, data analytics and related services to publishers, information providers, and enterprises. He also served with Velocis System India Pvt Ltd (watershed department), Rajasthan as a GIS Expert. He had an opportunity for undertaking research project on Calibration of Polarimetric SAR system and software development as a Research Fellow with Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.

During his academics, he had an international research exposure with an opportunity to visit a total of 5 countries under the European Union where he interacted with highly qualified faculty for Earth Observation studies and Geo-information Science along with completion of group projects and assignments. Apart from that he has developed a ‘Smart SMS’ in Dot Net with database connectivity from “SQL Server “; used multimedia cell phone connected to a computer in order to send bulk SMS and email under the project “Intranet mailing system”.

Assistant Vice-President- Projects and Partnerships

Dr. Supriya Bhatla

Dr. Supriya Singh Bhatla has more than 15 years of experience in research, project management and policy advocacy for Natural Resources Management and Climate Change. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Ecology (Anthropology) from Delhi University. She works at the interface of social and natural systems combining her knowledge of the social sciences and fieldwork to work towards long term societal transformation towards sustainability. Dr. Bhatla has worked with interdisciplinary, cross and multi-disciplinary teams both nationally and internationally in the areas of agriculture, water, and natural resource concerns. She anchored the Indian side of Civil Society Engagement with Ecological Economics, an EU project and has worked with Environmental and Development Economists in collaborative research projects. Her work also spans research on State of Forests in India. Last few years, she has been pursuing climate negotiations at UNFCCC as a part of IYCN, the Climate Reality Project and as a Member of National Steering Committee of Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA). She has trained practitioners, young professionals and university students on climate change, NRM, water management and policy. Her work extends to both research and implementation including providing training support for many environmental issues and programmes including MGNREGA. Dr. Bhatla is also well versed in social and environmental monitoring and evaluation of projects.

At IORA, Dr. Surpriya Bhatla is responsible for overseeing different projects and facilitating the development of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for IORA’s flagship programmes in Forestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change and Clean Technology. She is also looking at research collaborations with educational and research institutions.

Prior to joining IORA, she worked as a consultant on Climate Finance with GIZ India, with the water team at the World Bank, and at Environmental Defense Fund. She worked on natural resource management and livelihoods at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and completed assignments spanning field research, monitoring and evaluation, state of affairs reports on agriculture, cement and power sectors with Oxfam, Sri Gopal Paper Mill (CSR) and on GIS modelling with ATREE. She headed the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN)  for 4 years where she had an all-encompassing portfolio of conceptualisation, bidding and completion of different projects and programmes as well as coordinating the network.

She has published extensively in national and international journals and was also a regular contributor to the magazine Down to Earth.

Manager Proposals

Manju Kaur

Manju is an expert in proposal writing, fundraising and advocacy. She has gained more than 9 years of research experience on developmental and social issues ranging from child labour, women’s empowerment, food security, civil governance, status of primary education in India (non-formal education) etc.. She is a Post Graduate in Psychology from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak. She completed a Diploma in Guidance and Counseling from the National Council for Education Research and Training, New Delhi.

At IORA, Manju is primarily responsible for proposal design and submission for new projects in the area of Forestry, Biodiversity, Climate change adaptation & mitigation, Renewable energy and New market mechanisms for conservation. Also engaged with recasting the organizational profile and experts’ CVs in response to RFPs; proposal tracking; and compilation of proposal tracking database; compilation of a master format, which is constantly updated.

Prior to joining IORA, Manju was associated with PRAGYA India (Research, Advocacy and Fund Raising team), identifying potential donors among trusts and institutional funders, and submitting briefs / proposals, making presentations and active follow-up. She was also contributing to papers in the area of natural resource management, social development, livelihoods and appropriate technologies. During her tenure with One World South Asia, New Delhi, she documented best practices on governance for the Department of Public Grievances and Administrative Reforms, GoI; National Institute for Smart Governance, GoI; and Centre for Innovation in Public Services, Hyderabad. She has been associated with national level research organizations like V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, Noida; Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi; National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi; and Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Field Coordinator

Arunava Gupta

Arunava holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Gauhati University.  He also pursued his Postgraduate Diploma in Human Rights from the Indian Institute of Human Rights.

At IORA, Arunava is working on projects sponsored by the Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Society “Estimation of Potential Value or Ecosystem Services and Development of REDD+ Project for Assam” and “Technical assistance to analyze Data and Design Best Practices during Updation of Forest Working Plan”.

Prior to joining IORA, Arunava was associated with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), where he consistently progressed to positions of increasing responsibility. He was primarily engaged with monitoring and evaluation; coordination and networking with stakeholders; financial planning and budgeting; and project communication.

Field Coordinator

Shrinivas Hegde

Shrinivas holds a graduate degree in commerce and has about half a decade experience in the development sector.

At IORA, Shrinivas is entrusted with the task of coordinating and carrying out all field activities under the USAID supported project “Innovations in Ecosystem Management and Conservation” (IEMaC) in Sirsi, Karnataka. This project aims at developing innovative models for reducing pressures on India’s forests through alternative livelihood creation and alternate technology deployment for fuel wood abatement.

Prior to joining IORA, Shrinivas worked with LIFE Trust as a field assistance and Office Administrator. At LIFE Trust, he worked in collecting data and conducting surveys, assisting in community plantation work and mobilizing communities

Software Engineer

Vishnu E

Vishnu has joined as a Software Engineer for the Forest Plus 2.0 Programme. He has previously worked with XEAM Ventures Pvt. Ltd. and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing Noida. He has extensive knowledge of various GIS and 3D Modelling software and is well versed with programming languages like PYTHON, R, SQL, C/C++ and HTML. He has completed his B.Tech in Electronics & Communications from Calicut University and M.Tech in Geo-Informatics from Indian Institute of Remote Sensing in year 2018 with stellar grades.

Vishnu has published papers on 3D-Modellung for City Planning and has received several scholarships during his academic tenure. Apart from computers, he is passionate about sports. He is an ace athlete and football player, and has played mid-field for zonal championships in Kerala. He enjoys painting and drawing cartoons in his free time.

Manager - Finance and Accounts

Bhuwan Tiwari

Bhuwan is a finance and accounts professional with over 15 years of experience. He holds M.B.A in Finance & HR from Amity university, Noida and B.Com honors from Kumaon University Nainital. Bhuwan is proficient in project accounting, project invoicing, fund management, budgeting, cash flow, MIS, accounts receivables & payables, general accounting. He is also well versed with taxation such as GST, TDS, Service tax, filing tax returns, salary disbursement, PF calculation, finalization of books of accounts, preparation of Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Accounts.

At IORA, Bhuwan manages and oversees daily operations of the accounting department; monitors and analyses accounting data and produces financial reports and statements. He is also involved in establishing and enforcing accounting methods, policies and principles in the organisation.

Prior to IORA he was associated with M/s R.S Live Media Pvt. Ltd., M/s Obgenix Software Pvt. Ltd and M/s Ascend Developers India Pvt. Ltd.

Accounts Executive

Firdous Siddiqui

Firdous is working as Accounts Executive at IORA. She manages all finance and accounting functions at Office location and closure of books. She is also engaged in verification of all vouchers and recording of day-to-day accounting transactions cash and bank payments and receipts, journal vouchers etc. She also works on SAP. She is also proficient in Tally 7.2 and ERP 9 apart from a good understanding of computers. She follows a solutions oriented approach with excellent relationship management skills, successfully and consistently delivering her responsibilities, thereby streamlining finance and accounts operations leading to revenue generation and profitability.

Firdous has completed a certificate course for Accounting Technician from Institute of Cost Accountant of India followed by her Graduation (Bachelor of Commerce) from University of Delhi. Prior to joining IORA, she has been associated with M/s New Star Leisure Concept Pvt. Ltd., M/s T.R. Sood & Co., and Mahamaya Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.

Senior Manager Administration

Rabi Narayan Sahu

Mr. Sahu has been associated with IORA as a Senior Manager- Administration taking care of overall office management inclusive of vendor management, Invoice management etc. Mr. Sahu retired from Indian Army as a Junior Commissioned Officer after serving for 30 years. He was engaged with effective supervision of manpower about 500 people as Senior Junior Commissioned Officer for the period of 8 years. He also served in Army Air Defence College as technical Instructor for the period of 4 years providing training to Officers, Junior Commissioned Officers and Jawan. He was Training in-charge of the Unit for 3 years.

Apart from that Mr. Sahu worked with Bharat Electronic Limited, Ghaziabad as a System Supervisor in an IT related project for 3 years.

While serving with Indian Army, he completed his Graduation from Osmania University followed by his MBA from Sikkim Manipal University and Diploma in Radar Technology from Odisha Berhampur University in 1^st division. He also Qualified CCBM from Amity University, Noida with ‘A’ grading.

Deputy Manager – Information Technology

Santosh Kumar

Santosh is a highly competent and organized systems administrator with years of experience in software procurement, installation, administration and compatibility. He possesses a proven ability to assist with the day-to-day running of an IT department and its business IT systems. He also has extensive knowledge of monitoring and controlling data security within guidelines to ensure compliance. Santosh is a qualified CCNA and MCSE Professional. Apart from that he has completed a Diploma in Hardware(A+) and Networking(N+) followed by his Graduation in IT from Kuvempu University,Shimoga (Karnataka). He is a Project management professional capable of achieving cost savings and enhancing system functionality. He has a track record of tackling and solving tough business and technical problems. He is also a strong leader with demonstrated ability to work effectively with individuals at all levels and in all functional areas, having experience in managing full project lifecycle from requirements gathering to final implementation and customer training.

At IORA, he has been entrusted with all IT related functions.

Prior to joining IORA, he was associated with JSG Infotech Pvt. Ltd. as a System Administrator, taking technical lead to identify and implement solutions to problems affecting IT services; and providing 1st/ 2nd Line and some 3rd Line support over the telephone, remotely and face-to-face to clients and internal staff members. He has managed 200 clients, 3 HP Servers (ProLiant DL38e), IP Phone, intercom CCTV, Access door Control, Cisco Switch (Catalyst 2960 X-Series) Cisco Router (Catalyst 3650) and Cyberoam firewall 50ING.

Executive Assistant to CEO

Revathi Anand Babu

Revathi is Executive Assistant to Chief Executive Officer of IORA. She brings her management skills and experience to attend to several administrative tasks on a daily basis, which include screening and prioritizing mail and phone calls, researching and writing memos, prepare materials used in executive presentations, make travel arrangements, preparing MIS and maintaining records. She also maintains and manages the CEO’s calendars, international travel, and business correspondence. She is skilled at preparing meeting agendas and reports minutes of internal meetings. She also helps with organising IORA’s workshops and conferences, both at national and international level.

Prior to IORA she has worked for Delhivery Pvt Ltd as Executive Assistant to CMD, CFO and COO; Royal Norwegian Embassy, Commercial Section as Administration Assistant, PRA LAW Offices as Administration Cum Accounts Assistant and Denave India Private Limited as Tele Sales Executive.

Front Desk Executive and Administration

K M Preeti

K M Preeti is pursuing Master’s in Public Administration from IGNOU. She has very good relationship management skills. At IORA, she works as Front Office Executive and Administration. She is well versed in MS Word and Excel, as well as skilled in data entry, filing and paperwork management. Prior to IORA, she worked for Education Plus++ as Counsellor and IACM SmartLearn Pvt. Ltd. as MIS Executive.