Bindu Vinodhan

The founder of Mauna Dhwani and the captain of the ship, Bindu Vinodhan’s core expertise lies in change and transformation at the personal, leadership and organizational levels. After two decades leading organizational and leadership development functions in the corporate sector, she set up two organizations: (1) Mauna Dhwani and (2) The Institute of Leadership Learning and Transformation (TILLT), an organizational development consultancy which enables leaders and organizations take exponential leaps towards transformation. The profits from the latter fund the operations of the former.

Mauna Dhwani’s initial projects were in the rehabilitation space helping women survivors of trafficking, rape and violence develop entrepreneurial skills and integrate back into society with self-confidence and esteem. As a passionate classical dancer, Bindu has also developed dance movement therapy exercises for survivors as well as autistic children. She is currently working to provide sustainable livelihood for below poverty line villages in India.

Bindu holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering, and a Masters Degree in Education from Oxford University, specializing in Learning Technology. She is an International Coach Federation (ICF) certified executive coach and is trained and certified on high impact leadership development interventions from Cranfield University.

Gobinda Dalai

Gobinda is like the army general whose mere sight motivates the troops into action. He has a vast experience driving social impact projects and has won many awards and fellowships. Apart from his work at Mauna Dhwani, he is the founder and executive director of Yuva Vikas which leverages collective experience of young visionaries and development workers to fast track development processes.

He has worked as a consultant with companies like EY and Nexleaf Analytics in the areas of faecal sludge and separate management, renewable energy and climate financing in clean cooking. He is the recipient of India Africa Young Visionaries Fellowship 2014 for his innovation in saturation-based habitat development model named "Gram Nirman" which is led by the spirit of entrepreneurship. He has served as Head, Habitat Program in one of the leading rural development organisation named Gram Vikas and was instrumental for effective socio-technical support for biggest social housing project in India named Odisha Disaster Recovery Project in the areas of disaster resilient housing, water and sanitation.

He was earlier a consultant to the Government of Odisha for district planning, UNICEF Consultant on Right to Education, Community Health Fellow. He has been an active part of the campaign for the development of his state named 'Odisha Nirmaan" which encourages HNI Odias to contribute back to their native village.

Pravin Mitkar

Pravin’s passion for social work is infectious. After running an entrepreneurial venture in the e-commerce space, Pravin followed his passion and started working in rural development. While he was working as “Youth for India” fellow, chosen to work in Odisha state with tribal farming communities, he observed that most villagers are farmers, with small land holdings. An absence of appropriate, viable and competitive marketing facilities often restricts small and marginal tribal farmers in deriving maximum benefits from their efforts.

Yet, he felt there was great potential to change all this. He came up with a solution that uniting all farmers under the umbrella of a ‘Farmer Producers Company (FPC)’, a legal institution where members must be the persons actually engaged in the activity (in this case farming). It would enable them to have more ‘bargaining power’ while the sheer volumes of their produce would bring the market to them, not vice versa.

He has mobilized 500 tribal farmers to set up a farmers' producer company for enabling the much-needed ecosystem for the fair price for farm produces. He is now supporting 41 Farmers' Producer Companies in associating with Govt. agencies like NABARD.

M M Vinodhan

Vinodhan is an aviation professional with 30 years of experience in various leadership roles. He started his career as an aeronautical engineer with the Indian Air Force (IAF) and after serving 20 years took pre-mature retirement as Wing Commander in August 2006. Some of the prominent assignments that he handled while in the IAF includes Aviation Advisor to the Republic of Namibia, Head of a Helicopter Overhauling Establishment, Member of Aircraft Accident Investigation team at IAF Head Quarters, New Delhi and Instructor at Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune.

Post IAF he has held various leadership roles, including start-ups in Business Aviation in prominent organisations such as TATA, Jubilant Enpro etc. Presently he is the Chief Executive Officer of SPAL, Bangalore (Charter Airline).

On the social front, apart from being the Director of Mauna Dhwani Foundation Vinodhan also helps communities and NGOs with rain water harvesting and tree plantation.

Vinodhan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Calicut; Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune and MBA in supply Chain Management from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

T PRAKASH BABU

Prakash Babu is an aviation professional with more than 30 years of diversified experience in Administrative & Technical areas. He started his career with Indian Air Force as Pilot Officer and retired as Wing Commander. During his 24 years long service with IAF he has worked in Kashmir (Awantipore) and Andaman Nicobar and was responsible for Helicopter servicing (maintenance, servicing, overhauling and life cycle), Officer Commanding Technical support Squadron at ASTE AF, General administration, Audits-Compliances and Project management.

After retiring from the Indian Air Force he has been working as Project Consultant within India and abroad in diversified fields.

Apart from his professional engagement Prakash Babu is also committed towards social causes. In addition to being the Director of Mauna Dhwani Foundation he is also on the advisory board of various NGOs.

Prakash Babu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical  Engineering from Govt. Engineering College, Trichur & Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from  Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala