Such Conversations Matter (SCM)

“...there's a burn to build a product, then you need the best of people working on the product and therefore there's a burn to get the best of people, right. You need the smartest minds to be creating something like this. And the third then is to own the mind space, a brand. Promote your brand in such a large country, with such a large population, you again need to burn money... ”

Meet Pranav Chaturvedi, an entrepreneur who helps other entrepreneurs build their ventures through a unique Digitisation, Digitalisation and Digital Transformation venture building company called Favcy. I have known Pranav since 2014, when I started working with Pratham Test Prep and Ankit Kapoor. Favcy is a culmination of Pranav’s experiences in building start-ups in the Indian eco-system. Pranav is an alumnus of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Delhi University. Pranav and I keep discussing startup ideas and the ecosystem in general and this conversation is a good summary of such chats.

Know more about him - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaturvedipranav/

Favcy - https://www.favcy.com/info/

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#Entreprenuership #startups #venturebuilding #favcy #india #saurabhnanda #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast

“…Fellowships at their core are just about that - people development. How do you develop people while also solving some other short term problem statement… ”

YT - https://youtu.be/X0nNAWpRpTA 

Meet Aditya Mallya, the City Director for Mumbai at Teach for India (TFI). He has been serving at TFI since 2016. But before that he was a chemical engineer from NIT Jalandhar, worked in ITC FMCG manufacturing, then went on to finish his MBA from ISB Hyderabad and ended up becoming a consultant at Deloitte for almost 3 years. But curiosity and an urgent need to create impact, especially in education, drew him towards TFI. Aditya and I are close friends from our college days where we co-founded the institute’s first student newsletter. We share a love for learning, reading, writing and, curiously speaking. It is serendipitous that we both ended up in the education sector and a lot of common areas of interest in the development sector.

Know more about him - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-mallya-10996394/

Social Movements (3.5% rule) - https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/how-to-change-the-world/ 

Teach for India - https://www.teachforindia.org 

SN’s article on Fellowships - https://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/what-are-academic-fellowships-all-you-need-to-know-1617102216-1

Recommended Listening - SCM S1E22, S1E23, S2E13 

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#fellowships #india #teachforindia #EducationReform #SaurabhNanda  #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast 

“The reality is that the water crisis is so complex but at the same time the solution is simple, as in you can enable people to take care of it, water problem is solved, almost… a large amount of water is waiting for the community to take charge of it.”

YT - https://youtu.be/y0mPrQ8I59s

Meet Dr Bhakti Devi, Professor, Rashtram School of Public Leadership & Co Director Centre for Water at Rishihood University. She leads the Jal Fellowship, a program is aimed at creating District based water leaders all across 750 districts of pan India. Dr Bhakti is also Founder of two water impact platforms Jal Smruti and Urban Water Doctor. She has over 30 years of experience in facilitating & implementing water user-led onsite self sufficient water schemes and water sensitive neighbourhoods. With work experience across Australia, New Zealand and India, Dr Bhakti has worked in diverse functions across the value chain of the water system, namely -strategy, policy, planning, capacity building, design and operations. She is also the Founder President of Water Resources Council of WICCI a pan India network of women in businesses and industries - Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (WICCI). I have worked with her since 2021 on creating water awareness among youth in Punjab through Jal Smruti’s Youth Champions for Local Water Action.

Noteworthy organizations where Dr Bhakti Devi has previously worked and made her contributions to include - Sydney Water Corporation, City of Sydney, Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Institute for Sustainable Futures, CRC for Irrigation Futures, Cooks River Alliance, Sydney Harbour Catchment Management Authority, CDD Society, Alttech Foundation and Good Earth. She has a PhD in Water Management from University of Western Sydney, Australia and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering & Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering from VJTI, University of Bombay.

Know more about her - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhaktidevi/ 

Jal Smruti - https://jalsmruti.org

Jal Fellowship at Rishihood University - https://rishihood.edu.in/jal-fellowship/ 

Urban Water Doctor - urbanwaterdoctor.com 

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#waterconservation #wateraccounting #india #jalfellowship #jalsmruti #rishihooduniversity #EducationReform #SaurabhNanda #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast 

“…Professionally a coach can help you elevate your own thought process and journey, help in connect those dots and help in validation…personally a coach can act as a sounding board…pretty much like having a personal Board of Directors…”

YT - https://youtu.be/EezTM6pKJ74 

Meet Srikanth, an executive coach, a podcast and a corporate leader who intends to “help people unleash their potential”. Srikanth is currently the COO-Tax of KPMG Global Services and based out of Bangalore and has a solid 2 decades of corporate career spanning Strategy and Business growth, Operation Management, Vendor Management, Project/Program Management, Change Management, Coaching/Mentoring. As an executive coach , he uses the coaching structures prescribed by the International Coaching Federation and Positive Intelligence (PQ) frameworks. Srikanth hosts the very successful podcast called “Inspire Someone Today” where he hosts leaders from different walks of life - cricket, journalism, development sector, corporate world and so on. Srikanth and I met virtually during the lockdown and have participated in the PQ eight-week Pod experience as well. 

This episode was recorded in March 2021.

Know more about him - https://www.linkedin.com/in/srikanthnd77/

Inspire Someone Today - https://inspiresomeonetoday.in 

Positive Intelligence (PQ) - https://www.positiveintelligence.com 

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#coaching #executivecoaching #mentorship #careercoaching #personalcoaching #validation  #EducationReform #SaurabhNanda  #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast 

“…People have started focussing on generation of money but are still ignoring part of managing money…”"... लोगों ने पैसा बनाने पर ध्यान देना शुरू कर दिया है लेकिन अभी भी पैसे के प्रबंधन के हिस्से की अनदेखी कर रहे हैं ..."

Meet Harpreet, a wealth manager and financial literacy advocate currently based out of Chandigarh. Harpreet has worked in multiple functions in his decade long career. He most recently left Amazon India where he worked as a Product Manager. He completed his MBA from IIM Ahemdabad, prior to which he worked in an education startup. After completing his Computer Science Engineering from NIT Jalandhar and worked for Fiserv India. His passion for numbers, patterns and understanding the nature of money generation has now catapulted him into being a full time investor, primarily in the equity markets. He is passionate about increasing people’s financial literacy and has been designing curricula around that. Harpreet is a close friend and the initial phases of our career journeys has been very similar. We have been working together since Aug 2021 towards financial literacy.

This episode was recorded in April 2021.

Know more about him - https://www.linkedin.com/in/harpreetsinghchawla/

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#FinancialLiteracy #FinancialPlanning #Investment #MoneyManagement #Adulting #Savings #MutualFunds #Stocks #StockMarket  #EducationReform #SaurabhNanda  #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast 

“Stereotypes are very rare…culture stereotypes are found once in about 450 people…people are actually very individual…” - Richard Farkas

Meet Richard, the CEO of Argonaut, a cross-cultural training and consulting company based out of London and Helsinki. He is an educator working with higher education and corporate training for almost 3 decades now. He currently leads the development of Ed-Tech training solutions for cross-cultural trainings. He is also the host of the Inter Cultural Tool Box podcast, where I had the privilege to be a guest earlier in 2021. This podcast unravels the various nuances of the cultural training and inter-cultural conversations. Richard is a thought leader in bringing cultural knowledge together from around the world.

Know more about him - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardfarkas/ 

Argonaut - https://www.argonautonline.com 

Interculture Connector - https://www.cultureconnector.com/ 

My conversation on the Inter Cultural ToolBox Podcast - https://interculturaltoolbox.org/episodes/what-are-the-training-needs-of-the-newest-generation-of-intercultural-training-participants 

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#CultureConnector #CrossCulturalTraining #InterCulturalToolbox #RichardFarkas #Argonaut #SaurabhNanda #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast 

“The Future of Leadership is a completely decentralised and open form of leadership and probably we are already there and we are just not realising it yet.” - Sangeeth Varghese

Meet Sangeeth, the founder and MD of LeadCap Ventures, a strategic consulting firm. Sangeeth Varghese is a globally acknowledged leadership thinker, ranked among the top 10 in 2011, from the Harvard and London School of Economics. He is a personal advisor to 3 prime ministers of the world on matters of leadership and youth development. Varghese is an ambassador of Harvard and listed in the Who's Who in the World, 2012-13. He has consulted for nations from Africa and Asia, institutions like UNO, World Bank, ADB and Fortune 500 corporations like Microsoft, Intel, Unilever and Coca Cola. He was nominated as the Young Global Leader 2010 by the World Economic Forum.

He has written hundreds of columns in Fortune, Forbes, the Economic Times and such publications. He is the author of 2 best sellers on leadership, the last one being Open Source Leader published by Penguin. He has worked with the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and many national governments across the world. He was one of my initial mentors in my professional journey. I took an internship at LeadCap Ventures in Bangalore in 2009 which opened my eyes to the opportunities beyond IT engineering.

Know more about him - http://sangeethvarghese.com ; https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangeethvarghese/  

LeadCap Ventures - http://www.leadcap.net 

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#Leadership #FutureLeaders #LeadersOfToday #WeakLeadership #SangeethVerghese #SaurabhNanda  #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast 

“IT helps enhance 21st century skils…SDGs are a part of that!”

Meet Paramjeet, the principal of Kamla Nehru Public School, a rural school in Phagwara, Punjab catering to 65 villages. She has been a pioneer in shaping what a modern school can look like. She has been an educator for 4+ decades. A gold medalist in university, she quickly became the Principal at Army Public School, Jalandhar and received commendation card from the Army management, even though she was a civilian, before moving to KNPS Phagwara. Under her brilliant leadership, KNPS is today a Microsoft Showcase School featuring all the latest in technology that can be utilised in such a school setting. KNPS is an ardent supporter of the UN SDGs since 2016 and started a #RiseUp4SDGs campaign connecting with 600+ classrooms in 46 different countries across the world. She has been recognised and awarded by multiple SDG organisations including the United Nations. She is leading the way for rural and smaller private schools in India to enter into this century. She has been training bigger schools in big metro areas now.

Know more about her - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paramjeet-kaur-dhillon-18425260/ 

KNPS Phagwara - http://kamlanehrupublicschool.com 

Microsoft Showcase School - https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/features/going-virtual-in-the-village/ ; https://youtu.be/JXn4YSzWoAU 

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#SDG4 #QualityEducation #educationforall #accessibility #qualityeducation #sustainabilitymatters #rural #ruraldevelopment  #EducationReform #SaurabhNanda  #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast 

“…if most people are trying to do things to maximise profit, then I am being an economic agent for others…or I can break free of the cycle…awareness of the large structural patterns that we are stuck in…the young people need to self-reflect… and understand things critically…”

Meet Ankit, a development sector professional, educator, innovator, lifelong learner and a core team member of the Sanjhi Sikhiya movement in Punjab. After finishing his Bachelors in Civil Engineering from NIT Nagpur, he went on to do his Masters at IISc (Indian Institute of Science) researching on sustainable cement but that didn’t interest him and after a short stint in developing highway bridges in the Himalayas, he went on to teach in rural Rajasthan which proved to be a turning point in his professional journey. Since then he has been involved in the development sector and has worked with the Future Group, Indus Action, TAP India until he worked on curating Sanjhi Sikhiya or Collective Learning in Punjab.

Sanjhi Sikhiya’s flagship program, Punjab Young Leaders Program or PYLP is helping build community based, decentralised, locally empowered structures to change India’s rural development story. They have started with education and currently working in 2 districts in Punjab - Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala impacting hundreds of government schools and villages. They have recently hired their 3rd cohort of fellows.

Know more about him - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankitchhabrask/ 

PYLP/Sanjhi Sikhiya - https://www.sanjhisikhiya.org 

Know more about Fellowships - https://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/what-are-academic-fellowships-all-you-need-to-know-1617102216-1

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#SanjhiSikhiya #PYLP #Punjab #sustainability #youthempowerment #rural #ruraldevelopment #fatehgarhsahib #Patiala #EducationReform #SaurabhNanda #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast 

“…you’re going to have those small bumps at home as well, whichever country you come from… it’s much easier to move to a new country today and there are these different ways to connect which help…” - David W Fingerote

Meet David, an educator and English language teacher who has spent the last 15+ years living in different parts of Asia - South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Japan, teaching English to young students, corporate professionals and researchers. And, then switching over to managing such organisations which impart English language training for various purposes. He is originally from California, the USA but has made Asia his home. He is truly a global nomad who doesn’t shy away from embarking on the next big adventure which calls out to him.

Know more about him - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwfingerote/ 

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#GlobalCitizenship #GlobalNomad #InternationalCareers #Expats #Japan #SouthKorea #ThePhilippines #USA #California #SaurabhNanda #SuchConversationsMatter #IndianPodcast #SpotifyPodcast #Podcast #GooglePodcast #ApplePodcast