BOARD MEMBERS
Chairperson
Mr. Rajiv Sahai
Mr. Rajiv Sahai is the Chairperson of CECOEDECON. He has a vast experience of working with the Government. He retired as Administrative Commissioner, Income Tax in December 2013, after having served in the Indian Revenue Services (IRS) for more than 30 years. Apart from his official duties, Mr. Sahai has a keen interest in a diverse range of subjects, and is committed towards applying his experience and knowledge in the Development sector.
Vice Chairperson
Dr. Meeta Singh
Dr. Meeta Singh is a gender specialist and consultant. She is the Vice Chairperson of CECOEDECON. She is an expert on Public Health, Reproductive Health, women’s empowerment, population issues and combating gender based violence and female sex selective abortion, Management Information System. She has served the country as an officer with the Army Medical Corps; Armed Forces Defence Services. She also has operational knowledge of Health Sector Reforms, Health System Development, and Decentralized Planning Process along with Skills in designing, implementation and management of large scale projects, Monitoring Evaluation, Documentation, Liasioning and Networking, and Human Resource Development.
Secretary
Mrs. Manju Bala Joshi
Mrs. Manju Bala Joshi is the Secretary/CEO of CECOEDECON. With more than 40 years of association with the organization she has worked extensively with a rights-based approach on three basic themes: basic rights, livelihood and economic justice. In her leadership a separate unit was established in 2000 to ensure gender equity and equality at the community and organization levels. In her guidance, the unit has developed its capacities in various aspects such as trainings to CBOs, PRIs, government functionaries, partner organizations for capacity building, gender sensitization and organizing campaigns on gender issues etc. She has also worked extensively for the prohibition and prevention of sex-selective practices, enhancing the political status of women, rights of the girls of deprived and marginalized communities and has played a lead role in anti-human trafficking program. She has extensive knowledge of project planning and management, organizational governance and development and maintaining donor relationships.
Treasurer
Ms. Sumati Bishnoi
Ms. Sumati Bishnoi is a High Court lawyer practicing Law for the past 28 years. She is a member of the state legal services authority in Rajasthan High Court in Jaipur. She has also served as a Counsel for the Government of India.
She is also a panel lawyer for JDA, RSRTC, RTDC and Krishi Upaj Mandi Samiti. She also serves as a trainer. She is also the member of Internal Complaint Committee for sexual harassment against women in the High Court of Rajasthan. Along with her law career she was the former women cricket team captain, and she is a representative in Rajasthan Cricket Association. Along with that she has been working for visually impaired children for the last 35 years.
Member
Mrs. H. Bedi
Mrs H. Bedi commands an outstanding experience in community development, gender, and microfinance, Policy
advocacy and disaster management. She has been a field representative for various international organizations for 29 years and supervised and evaluated projects for various Indian and international development partners, including IFAD and WFP, and has also worked as a trainer for academic institutions including the University of Queensland, Australia. She has been the Executive officer at DST, Pune, an NGO-MFI that promotes SHGs in and around Pune. She serves on several professional boards for Indian Development organizations including VANI as well as the international associations for Community Development, Scotland.
Member
Dr. Manish Kumar Jha
Dr. Manish K Jha is a Professor at the Centre for Community Organization and Development Practice in the School of Social Work at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He is also a former Dean of the School of Social Work.
His research interests include Rural and Urban Poverty and Migration, Development and Governance, Marginalities and Justice, Backward caste movements, Human Rights and Human Security and New Middle Classes. He is a member of several UGC committees. Prof. Jha is on the Board of governors of Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, G.B. Pant Social Science Institute Allahabad and other NGOs.
Member
Mr. Kartik Sapre
Kartik Sapre is the Chief Executive at Narmada Samagra. He has attended/participated in various national and international conferences/summits/seminars including the Conference of Parties (COP) organized by
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2016, 2017 & 2018. He is executive committee member of Vijnana Bharati, Madhya Pradesh. He is a Member of CECOEDECON’s Executive Committee. He’s presently Member of M.P. State Youth Advisory Council, Member of Standing Committee formed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis, Madhya Pradesh, Member of MP Forest Department’s State Development Fund Coordination Committee, Member of Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley & Hydro Electric Project by MoEFCC, Government of India. He was Member of Central Employment Guarantee Council (under MGNREGA), Ministry of Rural Development.
He has shared his expertise and knowledge as Legislative Assistant to Late. Anil Madhav Dave ji while he was as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and also served as his Asst. PS to Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India. Earlier he has worked in an Integrated Steel & Power Project from its project stage to its erection & commissioning and later in operation & maintenance of the plant. He also has an experience of teaching for some time. He has pursued Mechanical Engineering followed by MBA in Operation Management and presently he’s pursuing his PhD from Centre for Rural Development & Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.
Member
Dr. Shipra Mathur
Dr Shipra Mathur is a development communication and media campaign specialist with over 18 years of experience in the field of communication and journalism. She is also an educationist and advises a number of journalism programs. She is also the Chief Editor of MEERA, a digital paper for Rural Youth with Gender lens. She also engages with many social development initiatives and has worked with a range of organizations on Development communication. She has a passion for giving voice to the grassroots communities and has launched several campaigns to support social causes.
She is also an Alumni of prestigious programs like the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) Accountability, Transparency and Misperception about Corruption, US dept of State; Outstanding Person Fellow, Ministry of Cultural affairs, Govt of India. She has strong networking relationships with government officials and at the state and national government levels which she has extensively leveraged to support social projects. She has also been a leader of innovative movements and social efforts on critical issues in the state of Rajasthan and beyond. She has received a number of recognitions for her efforts in the fields of journalism and social development .
Member
Mr. Kunal Jain
Mr. Kunal Jain is a seasoned public policy professional having more than a decade long experience in dealing with various ministries and govt. departments at the centre. His expertise lies in understating regulatory challenges, active policy advocacy, consensus building, relationship building with senior industry officials and senior govt. bureaucrats / Ministers, and stakeholder management.
A commerce graduate from Delhi Univ., he has worked in various national non-profit trade bodies like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Indian Chemical Council (ICC), etc. He has also worked at Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), Govt. of India. Presently, he is handling Corporate Affairs which includes government relations, public policy and government advocacy and regulatory affairs for a Fortune 500 Indian conglomerate. He is also a representative in / part of various industry bodies viz., CII National C’ttee on Chemicals & Petrochemicals, FICCI national C’ttee on Chemicals, Regulatory Representatives & Managers Association (India & Sweden), and AMAI as also few C’ttees / Sub C’ttees formed by the govt departments. Mr Jain has been formally appreciated on record by high ranking IAS officers and central ministers for his work in the above areas.