Profile of Speakers for Patna event
Mr. S.R. Sinha (Chairman/Managing Director) promoted SAIJA with the objective of using his professional experience, knowledge and networking abilities to provide financial services to the poor and underprivileged people who have not been covered by the formal financial system. Mr. Sinha has over 25 years of experience in retail banking, housing finance and insurance. An alumnus of Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University, Mr. Sinha was the founding Managing Director of Maharishi Housing Development Finance Ltd (MHDFL), an NBFC, promoted by the Maharishi Foundation. Mr. Sinha subsequently worked for Lord Krishna Bank, as Senior Vice President, Retail Assets and as Country Head – Cross Sell with Centurion Bank of Punjab. Six years ago, Mr. Sinha returned to Bihar and promoted Saija Consultants Private Limited which became the second franchisee office of Reliance Life (out of 50 today) in the country. It was one of the first to achieve INR 30 million worth of business.
Sri R. R. Kalyan is Secretary cum Executive Director. A PGDRD from XISS, Mr. Kalyanhas been working in the Development field for last fifteen years. He was also RegionalCoordinator with RGVN, Patna. He has been a pioneer in introducing Micro- Financeprojects in Bihar. He has attended many prestigious national and international trainingprograms with a wide exposure in the development sector.
ShriArvind Singh Shekhawat, Chairman, Bihar Gramin Bank is an M.Sc. in Agriculture from Agra University, joined the services of UCO Bank as Agriculture Officer on 01.07.1980. PresentlyMr.Shekhawat, GM is on deputation from UCO Bank. He took over as Chairman of the new Bank which came into existence on 15.10.2012 after amalgamation of two erstwhile banks namely Bihar KshetriyaGramin Bank (Sponsored by UCO Bank) and SamastipurKshetriyaGramin Bank (Sponsored by SBI). ShriShekhawat with his sheer intelligence and in-depth leadership qualities led the Bank to its new height. He not only wiped out all the huge accumulated loss but also very successfully completed the whole process of amalgamation within very short span of time.Today Bihar Gramin Bank under his dynamic leadership has CD ratio of more than 72% which is highest amongst all the Banks in the state of Bihar. Bank’s performance in achieving more than 100% during 2013-14 in ACP (Annual Credit Plan of the state), KCC (Kisan Credit Card), SHG, JLG etc are very remarkable and has edge over other banks in the State of Bihar.He also successfully accomplished his mission to earn a profit of Rs.100 crore during the financial year 2013-14.
Gopal Kumar Singh works for Selco India Bihar team. He has a Statistics (Honors) undergraduate degree from Ranchi University 2005 and a post-graduate diploma in Management from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar 2009-11. He worked in Tata Steel Ltd. for 4 years, and currently works with Selco-India Pvt. Ltd.. His work spans energy Inclusion, energy efficiency and innovation.
Manab Chakraborty: Over the last 25 years, Manab has variously worked as a NGO manager, UN civil servant, consultant, social entrepreneur, and facilitator. Manab currently works as an independent consultant to social enterprises and development finance institutions. He has worked for many international organizations. His expertise is in microfinance, microenterprise development, natural resource management, renewable energy lending, agricultural value chain, institutional development, local staff capacity building and social impact assessment, and finding market-based solutions for the poor. Manab has 3 masters degrees: a MBA from Kellogg School of Business, MSc in Environmental Economics from University College London, and MA in Agriculture & Rural Development from International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
DharmendraSriwastawa: Dharmendra is a rural development professional(XISS pass out – 1995-97 batch) and had been working in the sector since 1997. He started his career with promoting affordable technologies in irrigation through developing supply chain in market led approach. He is working with IGS – BASIX since 2005, and engaged in developing solar as a vertices in due course he is developing supply chain for promoting solar lanterns , developing entrepreneurs for providing quality light solutions (solar based) and developing a solar based micro grid (100KW).
Atul Mittal currently heads partnerships in d.light energy India where he has been working for about 4 years. In total he has around 15 years of rich & learning experience in building partnerships, up-scaling pilot models, brand innovation, brand activation and Trade marketing - across FMCG and Retail industry. His previous experiences are with Max New York Life, PHILIPS Electronics, Castrol Lubricants and couple of Agri- input companies in seeds and pesticide.Atul has spent most of his time in rural India and which has become his passion and career. Personally he has high interest in photography and creating short movies.
ManojSinha grew up in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states where 85% of the 80 million inhabitants are not connected to the electric grid. He spent his childhood studying by candlelight, before leaving Bihar to earn degrees in electrical engineering and business. Sinha’s early experiences, combined with the knowledge that his cousins continued to live in Bihar without a reliable light source, inspired him to start Husk Power Systems, a business that brings affordable electricity to India’s rural villages.Sinha, along with four friends from university - GyaneshPandey, RatneshYadav and Charles W. Ransler, decided to create a clean, renewable and inexpensive source of electricity for Bihar’s villagers. Pandey and Yadav had also grown up in Bihar, and saw electricity as a critical element in addressing poverty in their home state. “Access to better lighting improves people’s lives”, says Sinha. “Students will not study in insufficient lighting, but that changes with electricity”. Manoj has a MS in Electrical and
2 Computer Engineering from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, holds 10 patents, andwas named (with team) “Social Entreprenurs of the Year in 2012 by the Unreasonable Institute.
Santosh Kumar Singh, Technical Expert, works for GIZ India as a Technical Expert under the Indo-German Energy Program. His work focuses on developing markets for off-grid renewable energy solutions such as improved cookstoves, solar water pumps, etc. In the current profile, he is coordinating GIZ activities in clean cooking and financing for MSMEs in the renewable energy sector in India. He has more than 10 years of work experience in providing market-based solutions for low-income households. He has also authored a number of publications on energy access and on Base of the Pyramid (BoP) markets. Previously, he has worked for Centre for Development Finance, a development finance think tank, at the Institute of Financial Management and Research, Chennai and for Olam International, Singapore. He is a Mathematics graduate and has a post-graduate degree from Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.
Mr. AlokPiri, VP Marketing, Onergy. He has over 15 years of experience in sales and marketing in rural and commercial sectors in India and holds an MBA from Goa Institute of Management. He has significant experience liaising with government bodies for rural development schemes.
Ranjit Kumar Das, CGM, NABARD
DayanidhanPandey, IAS, Director, BREDA
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