Multipolis Mumbai: Philanthropy and the City

Neera Nundy is a cofounder and now leads Dasra’s field building initiatives in the areas of Adolescents, Urban Sanitation, and Democracy & Governance. In 2016, she launched the Dasra Adolescent Collaborative, a $50 million fund driving development outcomes which empower adolescent girls by scaling the impact of comprehensive programs in partnership with state governments and fostering a network of NGOs as a community of practice. Neera holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and is an Indian Leadership Fellow with Anantha-Aspen Institute. She is a recipient of the Canadian Governor General's Medallion for her dedication to addressing India’s critical development challenges, and the Forbes Philanthropy Award in the Crossover Leaders.

Raell Padamsee is a vibrant, versatile, dynamic well- known theatre personality. She is well reputed in the field of theatre production, design and execution of mega events and her company, Ace Productions Pvt. Ltd. has been involved in all these activities for over 20 years. She founded CREATE Foundation, a public charitable trust, in 2002 in loving memory of Pearl Padamsee. The trust aims to devise a revolutionary system of education by using the creative arts. CREATE’s approach is holistic and aims to take learning out of the textbook and into the imagination, to make learning come alive! “Integration” has been the key motto of CREATE Foundation, i.e. integrating children from mainstream schools along with children from underprivileged and challenged backgrounds. CREATE works in integration with many NGO’s for their upliftment and it also gives them amazing opportunities to work in plays by Ace Productions. Various NGO children along with children from the Ace Academy have been part of many Ace projects such as ‘Freedom’, ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Grease’. Some of the NGO’s that CREATE has worked with are ADAPT, Aseema, Central Society for the Education of the Deaf, Maharashtra Dyslexia Association, Muktangan, Salaam Baalak Trust, Salaam Bombay Foundation, Seva Sadan Society, Society for the Education of the Crippled, The Akanksha Foundation, The Bombay Community Public Trust, The Vatsalya Foundation, The Victoria Memorial School for the Blind and many more.

Shaheen Mistri grew up in 5 countries around the world, and returned to India when she was 18 to start Akanksha. For 17 years, she worked with teachers and students, building Akanksha to provide 4000 children from low- income communities the kind of education that would maximize their greatest potential. Today, Akanksha serves 6500 children through their School Project and after-school centres in Mumbai and Pune. In 2008, Shaheen founded Teach For India, with an audacious vision of providing an excellent education to all children across India through building a pipeline of leaders committed to ending educational inequity in India. Today, Teach For India directly impacts approximately 38,000 children across seven regions in India. Shaheen is a Governing Council Member on the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) and she serves on the boards of Akanksha Foundation and Simple Education Foundation. Shaheen has been an Ashoka Fellow, a Global Leader for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and an Asia Society 21 Leader. Shaheen is the author of the book, Re-drawing India. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and a Master’s Degree from the University of Manchester.

One of the founding partners of AZB & Partners, Bahram N. Vakil is amongst India’s foremost restructuring, infrastructure and project finance attorneys and has been acknowledged as a leading project finance lawyer by most international publications for over a decade. The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business mentions that Bahram N. Vakil is a gregarious and hard headed lawyer and clients value his “smart, reliable and practical advice”. His finesse in negotiations is especially singled out. “He adds value in negotiations, ensuring both parties see the other’s point of view” states Chambers Global. He has a LLM from the Columbia University, and is a member of the New York State Bar. Bahram’s key practice areas are Infrastructure and Project Finance, Joint Ventures and M&A. Bahram has been on several government constituted committees including the recent Viswanathan Committee on Bankruptcy law reform and played a key role in drafting the Bankruptcy Code just passed by Parliament. He supports Wishing Well, founded by his wife Arti, which is an organisation that attempts to bridge the gap by matching volunteers, services and donations with the needs of NGOs.