Leadership

Amal Ganguli, Chairman HelpAge India

“Managing a not for profit organisation is filled with challenges at most times; now, more than ever, in a rapidly changing society and a volatile business environment, meeting people’s heightened expectations, fighting deep set prejudices, mobilising hard to come
by resources are all daunting tasks. HelpAge India has always risen to these and many
other challenges not only meeting goals but exceeding them, year after year.”

– Amal Ganguli, Chairman HelpAge India

HelpAge India has a history of working with compassion for the cause of the elderly while relentlessly pursuing a focussed agenda. A selfless Board of Directors aids this cause and makes HelpAge India the representative voice for India’s 104 million elders.

Governing Body

Mr. P. C. Sen Vice Chairman

Mr. P C Sen is the Chairman of Centre for Cultural Resources and Training. He joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1967 in the Madhya Pradesh (MP) cadre, and has held a variety of assignments, both with the Government of Madhya Pradesh and the Government of India, which included the duties of a Collector & District Magistrate, District Bhind, Director, Panchayats & Social Welfare, MP, Excise Commissioner, MP, Commissioner, Gwalior Division, Principal Secretary, Housing and Environment, Principal Secretary, Commerce, Industry and Information Technology. Specifically as far as the government of India is concerned he has been a Joint Secretary and Director General Civil Aviation, Chairman & Managing Director-Indian Airlines and Chairman-Air India, Additional Secretary-Ministry of Urban Development, Secretary General-National Human Rights Commission. He has also been conferred with various awards for his work as The ‘National Citizen’s Award’ presented by the Prime Minister of India, The ‘Shiromani Award’ by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and The `Wings of History Award’ for his work in the Indian Airlines. Mr. Sen is on the Board of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, HCL Technologies Ltd., Eklavya, an NGO working in Madhya Pradesh on science teaching in rural areas.

Mrs. Shanta Chatterji Treasurer

Mrs. Shanta Chatterji’s career goes back to 1965, when she worked with the British Institutes of Engineering Technology as an advisory officer and registrar. From 1966 to 1970, she worked at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd as the company secretary. After he work with the Mahindras, she set up an NGO “Clean Air Island” and has been promoting electric locomotion, vermi-composite waste disposal, and tree plantations in urban areas. These days, she is well known as a social worker in Mumbai who has been able to transform south Mumbai’s waste disposal scene. Mrs. Chatterji has also served as director of Chatterji Energy Systems Pvt Ltd, Indra Chatterji Consultants Pvt Ltd, and Simglass India Ltd. She has also been involved in management, fund raising, field projects, and environment education. Besides being part of HelpAge India’s governing body, Mrs. Chatterji is also the chairman of the environment committee of the rotary club of Bombay.

Mr. K.S.B. Sanyal Member

Mr. K.S.B. Sanyal served as National Special Advisor to UNDP in India. Besides being the Sheriff of Kolkata (1986-87), he also served as Chairman and Managing Director of the Andrew Yule & Co Ltd. Today, he serves as an independent director of Phillips Carbon Black Ltd. He has been a director of IFGL Refractories Limited since 1991, Additional Director of Cimmco Ltd since 2012, Director of Woodlands Medical Centre Ltd, and is a Member of HelpAge India’s governing body. He served as the President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Environmental Committee of the ASSOCHAM. A keen golfer, Mr. Sanyal has been the President of the prestigious Tollygunge Club.

Mr. J. C. Luther Member

Mr. Luther has been a lecturer of Economics & Public Affairs at Aitchison College, (Lahore. He soon joined the Indian Revenue Service and has had important assignments in the Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Finance, Administrative Reforms Commission, Ministry of Steel and Heavy Engg, and the Central Board of Direct Taxes. His specialised experience includes economic, financial, industrial policies at macro/micro levels, legal, commercial, and accountancy framework for Corporate Affairs along with International Collaborations.

Mr. Luther’s notable assignments include being the Executive director/Deputy Governor of the RBI (1975-77), being a member of the National Banking Commission, being Director of the Industrial Development Bank of India, being the director at the Ministry of Steel and Heavy Engineering, being the director of Administrative Reforms at the Ministry of Home Affairs, and being the Deputy Financial Advisor at the Ministry of Finance.

To add to his years of experience, Mr. Luther’s current assignments include being Chief Consultant of Planning & Management at Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Consultant of Finance & Development at Tata Consultancy Services, and Financial Director, A.B. Hotels Ltd (Radisson Hotel).

Mr. T S Krishna Murthy Member

Mr Krishna Murthy commenced his career as a Probationary officer in the Bank of India in 1961. Two years later, he joined Indian Revenue Service. He also worked in various capacities in the Income Tax Department: Commissioner of Income Tax (Chennai), Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Bombay), and Director General of Income Tax (New Delhi).

Mr Krishna Murthy was appointed as the Election Commissioner in the year 2000 after 36 years in civil services. He was responsible for deploying the Electronic Voting Machines for the first time in the country during the 2004 elections which he conducted. He retired in 2005.

The Supreme Court of India appointed him to supervise the conduct of BCCI elections. The Ministry of Sports appointed him as a one-man committee to go deep into a doping allegation of a sportsperson selected for the Olympics. His report in this regard made vital suggestions for the improvement of Indian sports administration.

Based on his national and international experience, Mr Krishna Murthy has written a book on democracy called “Miracle of Democracy: India’s Amazing Journey”. It was released by Mr M.N. Venkatachaliah, Former Chief Justice of Supreme Court in 2008.

Apart from being on the board of several NGO’s such as HelpAge India, he is also the non-executive chairman of Shriram Life Insurance, Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction, and Repco Home Finance.

Mr. Arun Seth Member

Mr Arun Seth has over 30 years of commercial and technical experience in the IT and telecommunication industry of India. Owing to his expertise and leadership experience in these areas, he is a member of the Executive Committee of NAASSCOM, India’s leading industry association for IT and BPOs. In fact, he was the founding chairman of the BPO forum for NASSCOM. Mr Seth was appointed chairman of Alcatel-Lucent in 2012 and continues to be Non-Executive Chairman of BT India, with whom he has been associated with since 1995. Prior to joining BT, he was the senior vice president of UB Group’s Corporate Management division and headed the commercial operations of Unitel Communications.

Mr Seth’s interests include charitable and educational initiatives in India. He is on the governing board of HelpAge India and the board of Trustees of HelpAge International.

Mr. Pramod Bhasin Member

Mr Bhasin is the founder of Genpact (formerly GE Capital International Services). He was the President and CEO till 2011 and is currently the Vice Chairman. Under his leadership, Genpact pioneered the Business Process Management industry in India, which now employs over a million Indians, directly and indirectly.

Mr. Bhasin was earlier an officer of General Electric (GE). His career with GE and RCA spanned 25 years across the US, Europe, and Asia. A Chartered Accountant from Thomson Mclintock & Co, Mr. Bhasin serves on the boards of NDTV and Bank of India. He is also on the governing boards of several educational institutions like IIM Lucknow, Lady Shri Ram College, and Shri Ram School. He has also served as the Chairman on NASSCOM and is the current Chairman of the CII Services Council.

Mr. Bhasin is currently working to build “The Skills Academy”, a pioneering institute to enhance employability, especially for people in the unorganised sector.

Ms. Rumjhum Chatterjee Member

Ms. Rumjhum Chatterjee is one of the founders of the Feedback Infra Group and serves as the Group Managing Director – Human Capital Development and the Chairperson of the Feedback Foundation Trust.

Since the very beginning of Feedback Infra, Ms Chatterjee has been involved in its growth and has played several roles as time passed. For several years, she led the practice of Capacity Building for Infrastructure. During this time, she worked extensively with the World Bank and Water & Sanitation Program (South Asia), and several state and central government entities. She pioneered the practice of community-led interventions for Rehabilitation and Resettlement post land acquisition for infrastructure projects. This received significant media coverage and she worked with her team for several private sector organisations to demonstrate this.

Ms Chatterjee currently serves as a member of the CII National Council on Women Empowerment, National Council on CSR, and the National Council for Public Policy. She has served as the Chairperson for CII Delhi State Council. She is also a member of the governing body of HelpAge India.

Dr. (Mrs.) Asha Padgaonkar Member

Mrs. Asha Padgaonkar is a retired medical director from the Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI). She did her schooling (O and A Levels) in London, completed her graduation from Maulana Azad Medical College, and completed her post-graduate in Child Care. For over ten years, she has worked with the Spastics Society of India (Kolkata) and several children’s organisations.

Mrs Padgaonkar is a keen golfer and enjoys painting in her spare time.

Mr. K. T. Chacko Member

Mr Chacko was a Member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), where the work he handled for nearly four decades fell into two major spheres. The first being Development Commissioner of MP, Principal Secretary (Panchayat & Rural Development), and as Secretary (Panchayat & Rural Development) where he worked on the formulation and implementation of programmes aimed at social justice. Programmes and project related to the implementation of old-age & destitute pension schemes, self-employment for the poor, providing rural employment, etc, constituted the major thrust of his activities.

The second sphere of his work relates to financial management and economic administration. While functioning a Special Secretary (Finance) with the government of MP, his responsibilities included assisting in the proper financial management of the state and revitalisation of rural banks. While functioning as the Chief Executive of Government companies and development boards, infrastructure financing became the focus of his attention. As Director General of Foreign Trade, Executive Director ITPO, and Resident Director (India Investment Centre, Singapore), he facilitated the expansion of India’s external trade and investment inflows through appropriate policy support and outreach.

As Director & Vice Chancellor if IIFT, he was responsible for improving the quality of education and research in the university. He inculcated the principles of corporate responsibility in the young students by exposing them to the social and economic challenges of the disadvantaged sections of society.

Currently, Mr Chacko is on the board of directors of IIM (Rohtak) and Indian Energy Exchange. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Thyson Krupp and chairs the Expert Group on Industry of Kerala Planning Board.

Mr. Arun Nanda Member

Mr Arun Nanda joined the Mahindra group in 1973 and has held several important positions over the 40 years he worked with company. In 1992, he was inducted to the Board of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M). However, in 2010 he resigned as Executive Director in order to focus on the social sector and create a favourable ecosystem for senior citizens. He was then immediately re-appointed as non-executive director of M&M.

Currently, he is the chairman of Mahindra Holidays & Resorts, Mahindra Lifespace Developers, and Mahindra Consulting Engineers. He is the chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Mr Nanda is also the chairman on the advisory board of 3i Investments plc, member of the advisory board of TechnoServe India, and a trustee of Integrity Action (UK), HelpAge India, and The Bombay City Police Research Foundation. He was a member of the taskforce set up by the B20 on Anti-Corruption which presented the policy paper to President Sarkozy at the G20 Summit held in Cannes in 2011 and to President Putin at St. Petersburg in 2013. Mr Nanda received the award of “Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur” (Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour) by President Sarkozy.

He is also Chairman Emeritus of the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and member of the governing board of the council of the EU Chambers of Commerce in India.

Mr Nanda was also awarded with the “Aatithya Ratna Award” by the Business Hotels Network and Horwath HTL for exemplifying the true spirit of hospitality nd success in the hospitality industry.

Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty Member

Dr Shetty is the founder and chairman of the Narayana Hrudayala group of hospitals. A world renowned cardiac surgeon with over 25 years of experience, Dr Shetty’s activities are extensively profiled in international publications like Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, and The Wall Street Journal, which referred to him as the “Henry Ford of Cardiac Surgery”. Wharton Business School and Harvard Business School have based case studies on the Narayana Hrudayala group, acknowledging its unique affordable healthcare business model. Dr Shetty became the first Indian surgeon to perform an open-heart surgery on a 9-day old baby, thus proving his calibre in the field.

Dr Shetty is the recipient of awards such as the Schwab Foundation’s Award, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Rajyotsava Award, and the Karnataka Ratna Award.

Mr. Mathew Cherian Member

Mr Mathew Cherian is a B.E. in Civil Engg from BITS Pilani and hlds a PG Diploma in Rural Management from the first batch of IRMA. After Engineering, he engaged himself in oil exploration with Schlumberger and ONGC. After this, he worked with the rural development with cooperatives in association with the National Dairy Development Board.

Mr Cherian was a consultant to voluntary agencies and the National Wastelands Development Board. He held the post of National Director at Oxfam (UK and India), Programme Director, South Asia at Plan International, and Executive Director at Charities Aid Foundation, which he founded in India. He serves as member of the NGO Taskforce of the Planning Commission, member of Grants Approval Committee of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, and member of Core Committee of the National Human Rights Commission.

Mr Cherian currently serves as the full-time Chief Executive of HelpAge India and serves on the international boards of HelpAge International and Guide Star International.

Over the last three decades, HelpAge India has handled over 3,000 projects aimed at helping senior citizens live a life of dignity; it has put welfare and development programmes in place and fought for the Rights of disadvantaged older people so that they can be economically and physically secure. What began as a humble initiative from a rented two-room office in New Delhi has now blossomed into a huge operation spread across 26 states with 90 project offices in India.” Over the last three decades, HelpAge India has handled over 3,000 projects aimed at helping senior citizens live a life of dignity; it has put welfare and development programmes in place and fought for the Rights of disadvantaged older people so that they can be economically and physically secure. What began as a humble initiative from a rented two-room office in New Delhi has now blossomed into a huge operation spread across 26 states with 90 project offices in India.”

M.M. Sabharwal

President Emeritus

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