Our Leadership Team

Dr. Geeta Malhotra

Country Director

Dr Geeta Malhotra, is one of the pioneers in social and economic intervention programmes amongst marginalised communities of India.

She has led from the front in establishing 54 READ Centres (Community Library and Resource Centres) across 15 states of India.

As a chief mentor she has developed a cadre of fellow mentors to plan, execute and upscale programmes of social and economic empowerment by facilitating required infrastructure, knowledge and skills for sustainable development.

Major General Surat Sandhu

Trustee

Major General Sandhu is Malaysia-born and schooled. On his return, he joined the Indian Army. After serving for 34 years he took early retirement to serve the development sector.

He was CEO of HelpAge India from the year 1997 to 2001. During this period, he mobilised and tripled its fundraising. Since then he has been a trainer at a number of conferences/seminars on fundraising in India and abroad. He has been a fundraising consultant with Oxfam GB in the UK and to various national and international organisations.

Major General Sandhu is in the Chair of the Kusuma Foundation and the Wellness Trust. He is Advisor and Board Member of various organisations.

Mr. Jay Vikram Bakshi

Trustee

Entrepreneur, start-up and social sector mentor with over three decades in media, advertising, corporate marketing and communications. With a vision to take start-ups G2G (from Grassroots to Global), Jay as a mentor with IAN (Indian Angel Network), and global accelerators such as Canada’s TBDC (Toronto Business Development Center), guides founders and enables start-ups to reach global scales across various domains.

Jay serves on several boards globally, including ACLC (Association of Commonwealth Leaders’ Conferences), Australia.

Ms. Kalpana Dasgupta

Trustee

She has led some of the largest libraries in India and also served as Head of the National Library of India for 12 years. She was the Director of the Central Secretariat Library of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and has served as Director of the Delhi Public Library. She served as the first woman President of the Indian Library Association (ILA) from 2000-2002.

She has a Post Graduate degree in Political Science from Patna University, India and Master of Science in Library Science from Syracuse University, USA . She is associated with READ India from its inception.

Ms. Sohini Bhattacharya

Trustee

Sohini has worked in the development sector for more than twenty-five years. She has worked with Ashoka Innovators for the Public to raise awareness on social entrepreneurship across India and ramp up its operations in the country, co-founded the Sanhita Gender Resource Centre—the first of its kind in Kolkata and engaged with traditional craftspeople across India as program officer of Dastkar.

Sohini also worked as the India strategy advisory for the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network in 2010.

Sohini became Breakthrough’s second President and CEO in July 2017.

Mr. Ashish Sanyal

Trustee

Mr. Ashis Sanyal is the former Senior Director of the Department of Information Technology for the Government of India. He brings more than thirty-seven years of experience in communications, engineering and information communications technology to the READ team.

He has delivered more than 2000 hours of Capacity Building tutorials on various aspects of e-Governance and related areas to the State Government officials and Workshops, Conferences, Seminars etc. Ashis has a Masters of Technology degree in Microwave Communications Engineering from Calcutta University.

Mr. Amitabh Singhal

Trustee

He is the Founder/Director of Telxess Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd. He was a Founder and former President of Internet Service Providers Association of India and helped push Internet privatization in 1998. He also was a Founder, Board Director and CEO of National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), which runs Internet Exchanges, .IN Domain Registry, Root Servers, etc. He is on the Boards of Non Profits, where he focuses on improving Governance standards. He was also on the Expert Group of the Prime Minister’s Committee on Telecom and IT Convergence back in 1999-2000, where he helped in ushering in privatization of International Gateways.

Advisory Members

Dr. Amita V Joseph

Advisor

Dr. Amita V joseph has a law degree from Delhi university, PG in human rights from the law institute and a PhD from Deakin University, Australia. She has worked over three decades across legal, corporate and development sectors. Amita is associated with BCF and other non profit organisations and is a recipient of the VC alumni award for significant contribution from Deakin University.

Dr. Praveen Aggarwal

Advisor

Dr. Praveen Aggarwal has experience of over 30 years in managing overall businesses, corporate & public affairs, corporate social responsibility in leading MNC and Indian companies and foundation across India and South West Asia. He has worked in leadership positions in several organisations including Swades Foundation, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, Jain Satellite Television, MGF Group and has successfully conceptualised and implemented strategic roadmap for driving CSR and corporate affairs for sustainable businesses besides managing P&L.

Dr P. R. Goswami

Advisor

Dr P R Goswami is a Library Professional based in Delhi. He has more than forty years of experience. His immediate past employment was Director (Library & Information), Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. He was also Director (Libraries & Central Secretariat Library) in the Ministry of Culture, Govt of India and Director (Documentation) in the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi.

Mr. Neeraj Jha

Trustee

Mr.Neeraj Jha is a financial journalist turned communications professional turned Reputation Evangelist. In his career spanning over two decades, he has straddled multiple roles, 17 years at leadership positions at Bajaj Group, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and Reliance spent spearheading their Communications, Media, Advocacy and Reputation building efforts. He was Head Corporate Communication & Corporate Affairs at Bharti Airtel which he joined after a fulfilling 14 years at HDFC Bank that saw it grow into an iconic brand. Currently, he’s Group President & Chief Communication Officer at Bajaj Group.

Team

Ms. Smita Anand Rai

Director of Partnerships and Resource Mobilisation

Smita has been with READ India since inception. Presently, she is responsible for developing and nurturing partnerships and acts as an ambassador for READ India programmes to its external partners, which includes our donors. Prior to this role, she was managing programmes and operations at READ India. Furthermore, she holds impactful life-skills workshops across READ India Knowledge Centres. Her knowledge and experience in the social development domain, gives us the required edge in curating effective community programmes. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in International Business.

Mr. Kamlesh Jha

Senior Programme Officer

Kamlesh Joined READ India in 2014 with extensive knowledge in sustainability and information communication technology. He has more than 15 years of experience in the development sector. Before joining READ India he has worked with UNDP, Drishtee Foundation, Teleradiology solutions and Neurosynaptic. He has a diverse range of experience in the area like IT, Healthcare IT, Telemedicine, Rural BPO, Rural Microfinance, Rural distribution systems, BFSI and ICT Kiosk models delivering e-governance solutions.