DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT DESTRUCTION,
EMPOWERMENT FOR ENABLING CHOICES

Gargi Banerji :
Gargi Banerji is a founding member of Pragya. Gargi’s career spans 25 years of experience in research, development and consulting and straddles both the corporate and development sectors. She is a post-graduate in Business Administration, and has worked as a management consultant with Tata Consultancy Services and thereafter with Prometheus. In this role, she has consulted for several large industrial houses, including many large multinational corporations, and also carried out projects for the state and development sector and provided advice on issues as diverse as child labour, deforestation, technology divide and gender inequity. Having spent her early life in the Himalayan region, Gargi felt a strong commitment to addressing the continuing neglect of remote areas. In 1995, she co-founded Pragya, and has since then directed its programs as an Executive Member of the Board (Honorary), shaping it into a development organisation of repute, with a diversified portfolio and numerous innovations. For her work on conservation of medicinal plants Gargi received the Whitley Award for Conservation in the year 2000. In India, her work has been recognized with the MSDS Award for Social Entrepreneurs and by the National HRD Network for her contribution to development. Under her leadership, Pragya has also won the top award for sustainable technologies, the Energy Globe Award in the year 2005, and the STARS Impact Award for the organisation’s work on education in the year 2010.

Sejuti Basu :
Manager - Research & Advocacy Team, with proficiency on watershed development and heritage management. Sejuti has considerable experience in respect to natural resource management issues in the India and Nepal Himalayas and has facilitated Pragya’s interventions for effective community based Common Property Resource management and conservation initiatives. She has been a key contributor in designing and conducting research and documentation initiatives carried out by Pragya, and is also involved in our advocacy actions and the design and quality management of our programs. A post-graduate in Environment Management from Forest Research Institute, India, Sejuti has specialization in Environmental Geography.

Dr. Mary Ipe :
Dr. Mary Ipe's career spans 30 years of experience in academics ,management consulting and research.  She has worked with reputed business schools in India (ICFAI Business School and Goa Institute of Management) and in the Management Consulting division of Tata Consultancy Services. She has consulted for large industrial houses, multinational corporations, service organizations and government in the areas of Human Resource Management, Socioeconomic development, General Management and Organizational  Restructuring. Dr. Ipe has done her Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India and has publications in Consulting and General Management. As Associate Dean, ICFAI Business School, she oversaw administration and taught Soft Skills, Human Resource Management, Business Ethics and Governance, Management Control Systems. She is currently supervising program implementation and advocacy as the COO at Pragya India and guiding Pragya in its work in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Ipe has a deep understanding of the continent having lived 17 years in Tanzania, East Africa and continues to be engaged with its development.