Brij Kothari (Trustee)

Dr. Brij Kothari (Cornell University) and his team have innovated, researched, and nationalized the use of "Same Language Subtitling" (SLS) on Bollywood film songs on TV, for mass literacy in India. He laid the foundation for the SLS project as an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) in its Centre for Educational Innovation.

Brij is an Ashoka Fellow and the President of PlanetRead, a non-profit involved in scaling SLS efforts in India and other countries. He is also the CEO of BookBox Inc, a for-profit social venture producing children's animated stories in more than 25 languages. He co-founded PlanetRead.org and BookBox.com as a Reuters Digital Vision Fellow at Stanford University.

Brij grew up in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry and went on to get a Masters in Physics at IIT Kanpur, a Masters in Development Communication and a Ph.D. in Education from Cornell University. His doctoral research was on the conservation of local knowledge in Andean Ecuador.

Chitra Shah (Managing Trustee)

An MSW and a Gold medalist from Madras school of Social work, Chitra is passionate about changing lives of the people with disabilities (PWDs). She has over 15 years of experience in the field of disability. Her research interest includes:Psychosocial conditions of families of CWSNs, Women & disability and Sexuality& Disability. She is also part of various government committees such as:

•National Action and Coordination Group (NACG) Puducherry, Children with Disability, Child rights & abuse

•NGO Member, Committee for shelter for urban homeless

•Member – State Advisory Council – RTE ACT (Right for Education)

•NGO representative for Puducherry – PM’s BETI BACHAO BETI PADAO Programme.

She is the Founder & Director of Satya Special School, a center for children with Intellectual disabilities. Satya Special School caters to about 950 children. Satyahas the great honor to be considered one of the outstanding non-profit organizations by Bank of America. Some of the awards that Satya won are Best Institution, by the Government of Puducherry in 2018 and World Cerebral Palsy Award for the innovative Mobile Therapy Unit.

Pekham Basu (Trustee)

Dr. Pekham Basu has more than 20 years of experience across sectors and issues, from domestic violence to social entrepreneurship to corprate social responsibility.

She has worked extensively on mining issues in Rajasthan, with specific focus on minor minerals, issues of child labour, and policy advocacy for occupational health and safety, and organising informal labourers. She has worked extensively in India, and for a brief period in London.

After graduating in History from Loreto College, Calcutta she did her post graduation in Social Work from TISS. Doctoral thesis on "Widows of the Mine – Undercounting Silicosis and its Impact on the Widows of Mineworkers"

Tathagata Bandyopadhyay (Advisor)

Tathagata Bandyopadhyay has been into the teaching and research of statistics for the last four decades. He joined the department of statistics, University of Calcutta, India as a lecturer in the year 1984. He was there until 2005. During this period, he visited numerous universities abroad to teach and do collaborative research.

In 2005, he joined IIM Ahmedabad as a faculty and retired in October, 2021 as the Dean (Faculty). His stint at IIM Ahmedabad, gave him an opportunity to collaborate with researchers working in other disciplines. From 2008, he started collaborating with Dr. Brij Kothari on the Same Language Subtitling (SLS) project. Their research proved beyond doubt that a long term exposure to SLS helps in enhancing the reading ability of the semi-literate by giving them a regular reading practice.

Currently, he is a distinguished professor at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India.

Amita Sharma (Advisor)

Amita Sharma served in the Indian Administrative Service with 33 years in the development sector as public policy maker, and program manager in different fields. Some of the key posts she held included Additional Secretary, Government of India, Department of Higher Education, Joint Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development, heading the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program from its inception, Mission Director Elementary Education, Govt of MP for universalising elementary education and adult literacy programmes in the State. She has worked on leveraging digital design technologies for enriching educational processes and has designed and implemented digitally enabled educational projects in government elementary schools across states. She has won several national and international awards which include ‘India Today award for Woman in public Affairs (2010)’, South-South Cooperation Excellence award2010 (UNDP-ILO), President of India’s award for highest female literacy growth in the state of MP, 2001, Common Wealth Gold Award for best Global Innovation in Public Service for Education Guarantee Scheme, Govt of MP, 1998, President of India’s award for census (1991) Post retirement she has worked as Visiting Professor, IIT Bombay (IDC Design School,)and Centre for Urban Science and Engineering (C-USE), Advisor with IPE Global Centre for Knowledge and Development and with SHAKTI Foundation , Consulting Editor for Financial Chronicle, (newspaper) and Senior Consultant, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, Govt of India. She works on issues related to sustainable development, with focus on education, climate change, gender empowerment. She has written and published articles on education, literature and culture. She likes writing as well as translating poetry . She has written and published several short stories, a novel and six volumes of poetry, receiving the Raza award for her poetry in 1998.

Avinav Nigam (Advisor)

Avinav Nigam is the Founder and CEO of the London headquartered TERN Group, the leading upskilling Indian platform for global opportunities. He was previously senior executive or founder of leading global technology companies such as Disney+ Hotstar (100m users), IMMO ($1.5Bn in UK/EU real estate), Cars24 ($3Bn+ market cap in Asia & Australia), and PayU ($100Bn+ payment volumes) as well as leading Ariel’s Asia business at Procter & Gamble. He serves as an Advisor to the National Skills Development Council, Ministry of Skills Development (Govt of India). He’s an active investor in fast growing technology and education businesses across India and Europe.

Raj Sarkar (Advisor)

Raj Sarkar serves as Chief Marketing Officer of CloudBees, driving global marketing strategy and execution, and extending market awareness. Prior to CloudBees, he was CMO at 1Password, a 2023 Forbes Cloud 100 company, and CMO at Prisma Cloud, Palo Alto Networks' cloud security platform. Raj also spent six years at Atlassian as the head of marketing, overseeing cloud products like Trello, Confluence, Bitbucket, and Jira Work Management. Earlier in his career, he played foundational roles in product marketing at both Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services. Raj holds an MBA in marketing and corporate strategy from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics and telecommunications engineering from Jadavpur University. In 2022, Forbes recognized him as one of the top 50 CMOs in The Forbes Entrepreneurial CMO List.

Sonali Khan (Advisor)

Sonali Khan leads Sesame Workshop’s educational mission in India to create innovative and engaging content that maximizes the educational power of all media to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

Dhanalakshmi

K.Dhanalakshmi Graduated with M.tech (Wireless Communication) from Pondicherry Technical University and MBA (HRM) from Pondicherry University. She has Hands on Experience in Human Resource Management for past 3 years, she joined the team in March 2023 as a HR & Project Coordinator. Her main responsibilities include HR Activities, Quality and Language Resource Coordinator.

Parthibhan Amudhan

His role is to ensure the quality of our products and services by having effective production/work systems. He joined the PlanetRead team in January 2006. He also oversees the operations for smooth functioning of office administration and personnel management. After graduating with a Masters in French, with specialization in Translation and Interpretation from Pondicherry University, he went to north western France on a Student Exchange program for a year. For about 2 years, he was a part of the Chennai Loyola College Rotaract Club which is one of Asia's biggest Rotary clubs.

Sivasailam

Sivasailam joined PlanetRead as Accounts Officer and has 15+ years of experience in multiple industries including, Auditing Services, Outsourcing and Consultancy.

Tanvi

Tanvi has joined PlanetRead/BIRD as Legal and Compliance Counsel. She is a legal professional with over six years of work experience in the technology industry as a regulatory compliance and contracts specialist. She is an undergraduate and postgraduate alumna of the University of Manchester, UK. She currently resides in Pondicherry, is a trained classical dancer and enjoys reading and playing the guitar in her free time.

Anusha Menon

Anusha has joined as a Creative Designer at PlanetRead. She has 6 years of experience working independently as a visual designer. Integrating her animation and illustration practice, she has collaborated with NGOs, independent musicians and educators. She has a Bachelor's in Animation Film Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Leenata

Leenata has joined PlanetRead as a Junior Video Editor. She does video editing and subtitling. Previously she has worked as an Associate Producer at TV9 news channel. Her other interests are music, reading books, cooking and dancing.

Priyanka

With a background in journalism and mass communication, Priyanka brings a keen eye for storytelling and a skilled hand in video and subtitle editing to the team. She leverages her editing expertise to craft compelling visuals and ensure clear communication through subtitles, making content accessible and engaging for a broad audience.

Regis

He joined PlanetRead in August 2006 as a junior editor and a flash animator. He has a BCA from St. Joseph Arts and Science College, Cuddalore, India to his credit and prior to joining PlanetRead he worked for a year in a multinational e-publishing unit as a graphics artist.

Rubina

Rubina has amassed 15 years of experience in the media industry. She holds a BSc in Mass Communication, Advertising, and Journalism from Rai University, Delhi. Joining PlanetRead as Operational Manager, she oversees a dedicated team in Zirakpur. Her expertise spans across FCPX, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe After Effects. Rubina's commitment to excellence and passion for media drive her efforts to advance literacy initiatives at PlanetRead.

Santosh Jadhav

Santosh Jadhav has been part of PlanetRead from June 2004. He works in Video editing and is responsible for all SLS work. He has done Diploma in Journalism.

His hobbies include painting, writing, reading, travelling and film direction. He has directed a feature film and also multiple short films.

Swapnil Jadhav

He has also been with PlanetRead since September 2005. He is an editor and works closely with Santosh for all the SLS work. He has done a diploma in Film Editing.

Anushree

Anushree joined PlanetRead as a Researcher: Gender and Media. With an MA in Development from Azim Premji University, she started her career with a grassroots development organisation called Gram Vikas in Odisha. Transitioning to gender research, Anushree also conducted an impact evaluation study of the SWAYAM project under NRLM in Deogarh, Odisha, using ethnography and qualitative methods. She plans to use her research experience to contribute more to policymaking and on-ground implementation efforts by PlanetRead in order to advance literacy and accessibility. She also has a keen interest in photography and is eager to explore how it can be used as a medium in her research.

Hema Jadwani

As one of the first team members, she joined the PlanetRead right from the day we started field research for the Same Language Subtitling (SLS) project at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She has been instrumental in the making of many Gujarati folk songs and children's stories and provided research support in several states.

Malavika

Malavika has joined as a Research Associate: Gender and Media at PlanetRead. She has completed her masters in Development policy, Planning and Practice from Tata Institute of Social sciences. She is deeply passionate about the dynamic interplay between literacy, gender, and policy-making. With a strong passion in academia and on ground experience, she is dedicated to unraveling the complexities of these three critical domains and driving meaningful change at their intersection through research. Further, she likes making time to read, watch movies, cook and dance.

Mridula

Mridula is a dedicated educator with 22 years of experience teaching Mathematics, Economics, and Accounts as a home tutor. Over the years, she has developed a strong ability to explain complex concepts clearly, ensuring my students succeed academically. She is known for her punctuality, active participation, and willingness to continually learn and adapt to new teaching methods. In addition to her teaching experience, she excels at mobilizing students and building positive relationships within the community. She is committed to fostering a supportive and engaging learning environment that encourages collaboration and mutual respect.

Saurabh

Saurabh has joined as an eye-tracking coordinator at PlanetRead. He has 4 years of work experience as a Quality Analyst at Reliance Jio Infocom Limited. He has completed his MBA in Operations Management from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

Tamanna

Tamanna is a dedicated educator with over six years of experience in the teaching profession. She has a strong background in Mathematics and English, having taught at Government Sarvodaya Co-Ed Vidyalaya School in Jangpura, and has experience teaching in slum areas at the community level.

She has also worked on climate readiness initiatives at government schools, fostering a strong belief in students to bring positive changes to the environment and become young changemakers. Before joining PlanetRead, Tamanna was actively involved in these diverse educational roles.

At PlanetRead, Tamanna leverages her teaching skills to make a significant impact in the fields of educational technology and literacy. She contributes her expertise to organizing educational community events and screenings, and conducting spoken English sessions, helping to create engaging and effective learning resources for students.

Outside of her professional work, Tamanna enjoys outdoor activities, arts, and crafts, which further enrich her approach to teaching and learning.