Funding Culture, Sustaining Creativity and Communities

Vineeta Dixit
She has over 30 years of experience in India and the UK. I have worked in the areas of technology, education and governance. In the last 14 years, I have transitioned from mainstream corporate life to ICT for Development (ICT4D) and public policy initiatives. She currently works with AirBnB as the Head of Public Policy for India. In the past, she was Principal Consultant - Citizen Engagement for the $ 10 Bn National e-Governance Plan of Government of India (now called Digital India initiative). She has a Masters in Social Policy & Development from the London School of Economics and a Masters in Business Administration from The Business School, Jammu University, India

Mridula Tangirala
Mridula leads Tata Trusts’ Tourism vertical. She is ’97 batch TAS officer, a graduate from IIM Lucknow and an architect by training. She shifted to the development sector 2 years back after spending 19 years with the Taj Group, her last stint as head of the Taj Safaris business vertical (the fourth pillar in the brand architecture of Taj Hotels, Resorts, Palaces and Safaris), that went on to win numerous national and international awards. Through various livelihoods and environment oriented initiatives in the remote parts of India & Nepal, Taj Safaris benefitted a combined beneficiary base of about 1000 families for $ 1 Million. This experience of working with a predominantly tribal workforce that consistently won top honours in guest delight, motivated her to explore tourism’s role as a transformational force in the remote parts of the country. The Tata Trusts Tourism portfolio is currently incubating models focused around responsible and sustainable practices, distributed benefits within the communities with balancing of socio-ecological imperatives in a nurturing eco-system.

Priyanka Singh
Priyanka Singh has over 20 years of development experience working with communities in diverse parts of the country. She currently serves as the Head of InterGlobe Foundation, the CSR initiative of a large Indian conglomerate, with businesses in hospitality and travel sector. Her experience includes working as Chief Executive for Seva Mandir. A 50 year old grassroots NGO based in Rajasthan. During her years at Seva Mandir, she added to the program quality, program portfolio, and geographical outreach of the program. She also led many strategic research partnerships with reputed Academic Institutions in India and abroad and forged successful CSR Partnerships. Priyanka has served on boards of several non profits and her alma mater- Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).

Padmapriya Janakiraman
A dancer, actress, public policy wonk, gender and environmental activist, Padmapriya has been juggling different passions for the past two decades. At Sahapedia, she is leading the work on mapping the cultural traditions, arts and heritage of Indian cities and hopes to build frameworks for cultural policymaking. She has trained at NYU and NLS Bangalore.