BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Mr. B.T. Bangera

Chairperson
DHAN Foundation

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Ms. K. Noorjehan

Vice Chairperson
DHAN Foundation

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DR. KRISHNASWAMY RAJIVAN

Board Member
DHAN Foundation

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Dr. Ajit Keshav Ranade

Board Member
DHAN Foundation


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Dr. RANI ABHAY BANG

Board Member
DHAN Foundation

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Mr. Ramasubramanian Gandhi

Board Member
DHAN Foundation

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Mr. S. SINGARAYAR

Board Member
DHAN Foundation

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Mr. M.P. Vasimalai

Executive Director
DHAN Foundation

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Mr. N. VENKATESAN

Board Member
DHAN Foundation

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Mr. B.T. Bangera, Chairperson, DHAN Foundation is an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is currently the Managing Director of M/s Hi-Tech Arai Limited., an Indo-Japanese joint venture at Madurai. He has over 30 years of experience, holding senior management positions in reputed companies in India. He has been an office-bearer in the Management Associations and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) at different levels. He is keenly interested in education and is a member on the Board of Governors and Board of Studies of a number of management and engineering institutions.

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Ms. K. Noorjehan, Vice Chairperson, DHAN Foundation is currently an Administrative member of Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench. She was the Chief Post Master General, Haryana Postal Circle and later became Chief Principal Post Master General of Maharasthra circle. She was subsequently promoted to the grade of Member, Postal Services Board. She has over 30 years of experience in different parts of the country. She was instrumental in computerising postal operations in the southern region, and in creating own infrastructure for several post offices. She is interested in women development, especially the poor and the disadvantaged.

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DR. KRISHNASWAMY RAJIVAN holds a Masters and PhD in Economics from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA. He has worked for 18 years (1979-1996) in the Indian Administrative Service at various levels, in the Housing and Urban development Sectors at various levels, starting from city level administration to the Prime Minister’s Office. He was CEO of the Tamilnadu Urban Development Fund, a public-private partnership to finance civic infrastructure, for seven years. Then he worked as Senior Urban Finance Specialist at the Cities Alliance, World Bank in Washington. Dr. Rajivan served as President of Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR) which researches financial issues in developing economies. He also serves as a Director of Asirvad Micro Finance Private Limited. Currently he works in countries of Asia and Africa as an independent consultant.

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Dr. Ranade is a noted economist. He received his PhD in Economics from Brown University, US. Before that, he did Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, after completing B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Ranade has been a former member of the Board of Management at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. Before joining the Institute as the Vice-Chancellor, he was the Group Executive President and Chief Economist with the Aditya Birla Group, a $50 billion diversified multinational conglomerate

His 32-year career has spanned both academic and corporate assignments. He has taught in universities in India and the US. He has served as a member of several committees of the Reserve Bank of India and as a member of apex committees of national industry bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He was appointed a member of the Economic Task Force for post-Covid economic recovery by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Dr. Ranade has many publications in reputed journals and is one of the authors of the recent award-winning book Rising to the China Challenge. He is also a regular columnist in leading financial newspapers and has numerous columns on different areas of the economy.

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Dr. RANI ABHAY BANG is Indian social activists and researchers working in the field of community health in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India. She has revolutionized healthcare for the poorest people in India and have overseen a programme that has substantially reduced infant mortality rates in one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the world.

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Dr. V. Abhai Kumar holds Engineering Master’s degree in Communication Systems. He received his Ph.D Degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Currently, he is Principal of Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. He is a senior member of IEEE. He has authored and co–authored a number of technical papers in reputed journals and presented papers at international and national conferences. He has more than two decades of research and teaching experience in microwaves, remote sensing, digital signal processing and image processing. His research interests include array signal processing and smart antennas.

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Mr. Ramasubramanian Gandhi is currently a financial sector policy expert and adviser. He advises banks, finance companies, fintech entities, payment system entities, investors and funds on subjects ranging from financial regulations and Indian economy. He is an independent director on the boards of several financial sector entities like bank, market infrastructure, account aggregator, information utility and fintech, among others. He is a prolific speaker and covers, including these areas, wide range of subjects.

He was a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for three years from 2014 to 2017. He had been a seasoned and accomplished central banker for 37 years. He had a three year secondment to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the capital market regulator. He also held the charge of Director of the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology IDRBT), Hyderabad.

He has been associated with various committees, working groups and task forces, both domestic and international. He was one of the initial members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). He was a member of the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the Committee on Global Financial Systems (CGFS), Basle.

He has been educated in India and abroad. He has a master’s degree in Economics from the Annamalai University, in Tamil Nadu, India. He also has post graduate level certificates in Management Information System from The American University, Washington DC, USA and in Capital Market from the City University of New York, New York, USA. His technical education includes a certificate course in System Programming from the IBM Education, Sydney, Australia. He also has a certificate in Gandhian Thoughts from the Madurai University, Tamil Nadu, India. He was born in 1956.

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S.Singarayar is a rural development science graduate from Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. He is associating with DHAN Foundation since June 1993 and presently holding the position as Programme Leader. He is in the development sector since 1981 and he was working in a Sarvodaya institution for 12 years before his DHAN Foundation entry. His development experiences were mainly on Promotion and nurturing of community organization.

In DHAN Foundation, he was one of the first generation Regional Co-ordinators and contributed in Promotion of Theni and Dindigul Regions in Community Banking Programme.

He was heading the Panchayat thematic programme around 15 years and gains experience on localbody institutions in Tamil Nadu and he was instrumental to bring out the Panchayat Manual for Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act - 1994 and Promotion of DHAN Panchayat Development Foundation. He was heading the Coastal Conservation and Livelihood Development Programme which was initiated after the Tsunami 2004 and facilitated to promote more than 30federations in the coastal area. Neithal Mutual Movement is another important initiative promoted for organizing the coastal community for their development and presently playing the role of CEO for the same.

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N.Venkatesan is an Agricultural Engineer from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. He is holding present position as Programme Leader. Since last 25 Years he is working with DHAN Foundation a nationwide voluntary development organisation on small scale water bodies like Tank and Watershed Programmes. During the period, he is involved in promoting the Nested people’s institutions for conservation and development of small scale water bodies, planning and implementing the conservation of these water bodies through people institutions and upscaling the process at large scale.

Presently from April 2015 onwards he is coordinating the Water Programme (DHAN Vayalagam (Tank) Foundation) of DHAN Foundation.

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MR. M. PALANISAMY Mr. M. Palanisamy is a post graduate in agricultural science with specialization in Agronomy from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. He has over two decades of experience in development work and he currently anchors ‘Rainfed Farming Development Programme’ in DHAN Foundation, which works with small and marginal farmers of rainfed areas to make rainfed farming viable. He has rich experience in promoting farmers’ organizations, renovation of minor irrigation tanks with their participation and training them on improved agricultural practices and better water management systems. As a co-principal investigator, he has anchored an action research project “Revalorizing Small Millet in Rainfed Regions of South Asia”, funded by IDRC and CIDA. He has undergone short term courses at the University of Antwerpen, Belgium and Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He has served as a trustee of DHAN Vayalagam Tank Foundation, and currently serving as a trustee in DHAN Kalanjiam Foundation and Sustainable Agriculture and Environment Voluntary Action (SEVA), based at Madurai. He has presented papers in a number of conferences organized by the national and international organisations in the field of farming and water resources development.

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MS. V.K. PADMAVATHY Ms.V.K. Padmavathy is a post graduate in agriculture with specialisation in Agronomy from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. She has over two decades of experience in development work with DHAN Foundation. She led its first thematic institution, DHAN Kalanjiam Foundation, which works for economic and social empowerment of poor women. She is now currently anchoring DhanJeevidam, a livelihood resource centre dedicated for knowledge creation, sharing and management in DHAN Collective. She was instrumental in promoting organisations owned and managed by the women, implementing a number of programmes to address the issues of violence against women, reproductive and child health issues and creating access to safe drinking water, sanitation and so on. She has conducted many training programmes and capacity building events for NGOs, Bank officials, government officials, leaders and field staff of community organisations and National and International organisations. She is a director of Kalanjiam Development Financial Services, a Section-25 Company providing microfinance to SHGs for bridging the gap between SHGs and Banks.

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Mr. M.P. Vasimalai, Executive Director of DHAN Foundation is a post graduate in Agriculture and a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has over three decades of experience in development work and one of the key people in setting up Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN). He was instrumental in setting up DHAN Foundation in 1997. He has specialised in community organisation, designing development interventions in the fields of natural resource management, livelihood promotion and institutional development. He has traveled extensively within and outside India and has participated/ presented papers on these themes. He is also holding various positions in national and international forums, working groups, task forces and missions of Central and State governments on these themes. He was instrumental in promoting various network organisations. His areas of interest are institution building, leadership development and promoting various development themes for poverty reduction.