Meera is Managing Trustee of Oorvani Foundation. She is passionate about cities, community media, urban issues and local governance and civic tech. She believes that the combination of in-depth local journalism and community engagement, helps catalyse better cities. Meera is an Ashoka Fellow and was earlier a Knight Fellow at the International Centre for Journalists. In an earlier life, she was yet-another-manager at an IT firm, holding varied responsibilities in the product development space. She is active in community improvement initiatives and volunteers with projects related to transport, lake rejuvenation, organic kitchen gardening and solid waste management.
Meenakshi Ramesh joined Oorvani Foundation as a trustee in 2016. She is a long time civic and community volunteer. She is an alumnus of IIM(A) and has led finance teams at Crisil as well as at Pratham, the Mumbai-based education non-profit. She is currently CEO of United Way's Chennai chapter which works across Tamil Nadu and Kerala. She has volunteered for Chennai City Connect and is especially passionate about solid waste management and other issues. In addition, Meenakshi is an inveterate quizzer and was a semi finalist on BBC Mastermind. She anchors the Chennai chapter of Citizen Matters.
Ashwin is an urbanist, journalist, politician and social technologist based in Bangalore. After his education in atmospheric science (PhD) and astronomy (MS), he worked as a climate scientist at NASA before switching to a career in governance reforms and urban development. He was a prominent member of the Loksatta movement working for administrative, electoral and governance reforms. In July 2016, when the party decided to quit electoral politics, he resigned his position, and began to work closely with the Aam Aadmi Party. He is a co-founder of the national public affairs magazine, India Together. He also founded the social technology firm, Mapunity, and is one of the co-founders of the electric vehicles-based transportation company, Lithium. He is also a founder member of Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC). Ashwin Mahesh was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2009