About Us

Since its inception in 2008, SEEDS has been committed to engineering transformational change in the lives of the people at the middle and bottom of the pyramid. This is being achieved through the delivery of sustainable solutions in Education and Economic Development to communities who would otherwise not have access to such support.


SEEDS has been playing a vital role in creating opportunities for enhancing livelihoods leading to empowerment and improved quality of life. Sustainability, resilience and success are the core values that guide SEEDS in driving systemic change for socio-economic impact.


SEEDS, a non-profit organisation registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, is guided by an illustrious Governing Body, and managed by qualified professionals.

VISION

Our VISION is to bring about transformational change in the lives of the people at the bottom of the pyramid.

MISSION

Our MISSION is to deliver sustainable solutions in Skills, Education, Livelihoods, and Agriculture with a local area development approach.

OUR

ADVISORY BOARD

RCM Reddy

Ramireddi Chandramouliswar Reddy, fondly known as RCM Reddy is a retired bureaucrat (Indian Administrative Services), hailing from a remote village named Duttalur in SPSR Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh. He completed his early education in government institutions in his village and district HQ, and further pursued M.Tech in the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. After his M.Tech, he had joined the Indian Administrative Service and served for 16 years as a bureaucrat in various capacities before starting the Cluster Development Initiative (CDI), Learnet Skills Ltd. (Formerly IL&FS Skills). He further became the Managing Director and CEO for Schoolnet India Ltd (Formerly IL&FS Education). As the MD & CEO of Schoolnet India Ltd, he has been leading the delivery of Education, Employability, and Employment initiatives under multi-stakeholder partnership formats.


With a deep conviction to bring about change in the lives of the people at the bottom of the pyramid, he founded SEEDS along with some of his colleagues at Schoolnet India Ltd.

Dr. Krishna Kumar

Dr. A.K. Krishna Kumar currently presiding the Governing Body of SEEDS, is a senior executive with over 40 years of experience spanning the public and private sectors in senior management positions. He led one of India’s most successful tribal economic rehabilitation projects that led to widespread pro-poor socio-economic transformation and mainstreaming of tribal shifting cultivators in conflict-affected areas. His major contribution has been creating and nurturing the grassroots-level  organisations of small and marginal farmers and their federations under the corporate governance framework, an initiative rated as highly successful. Dr. KK is credited with the accelerated development of the cash crop rubber in non-traditional areas. He worked closely with multilateral and bi-lateral institutions like the World Bank, IFC, ADB, USAID, GIZ, UNDP, the International Trade Centre (ITC), and the African Development Bank (AfDB)

Dr. W.R.Reddy IAS

Dr. W.R.Reddy, IAS(Retd) is a Kerala cadre officer of 1986, worked both in states and center in multiple capacities, mostly engaged in rural upliftment and building good governance practices and institutions. He, with his flair for agriculture centric development, because of his education and upbringing in the sector, made tremendous contributions for the welfare of the farmers of the country. Dr. Reddy is an eminent rural development expert with rich experience of working with Panchayati Raj Institutions both at grassroot level of handholding in the decentralized planning as District Collector in Kerala and at policy level as Director General of National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad..

Madan Mohan Rao

Madan Mohan Rao, a pioneer in rural development, and a former journalist with many years of experience in UNI, was a key architect behind the Rural Telecom Foundation (RTF). He has been a Fellow of the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Fellowship Program (2002-2003) and is an awardee of the Ashoka-Lemelson Fellowship for social entrepreneurship. Madan has been able to bring all his rich experience and knowledge on to the table, guiding the organization on the Local Area Development model with emphasis on Education and Economic Development initiatives

Ravishanker Raman

Ravishanker Raman, has more than 3 three decades of experience in Banking & Financial sectors, Project Development, Implementation & Monitoring. He was instrumental in setting up the IL&FS Cluster Development Initiative Limited, a pioneer in the cluster development space in the country, and retired as it’s Executive Director. He was also involved in setting up more than 50 cluster projects across the country across various industries like Textiles, Engineering, Bamboo, Electronics, Theme Parks, Area Development, Artisan Clusters, Alternative Medicines, Rubber, and Pharma sectors. He has been the President of SEEDS for the past seven years, guiding the growth strategy of the organisation and ensuring that it maintains the best governance practices.

Shourie Chatterjee

Shourie Chatterjee is an Entrepreneur, passionate about education and technology. He has extensive experience in the development and execution of technology assisted solutions in the space of K-12 Education, communicative English, and Career-counselling for adolescents and young adults. He is currently driving the innovation and Digital transformation across the business verticals in Schoolnet India Ltd. Shourie has been guiding SEEDS on all its Education initiatives.

Sharmistha Mohapatra

Sharmistha is an alumnus of ISS (Institute of Social Sciences), Hague with post-graduation in Development Studies. She has a vast experience of leading the operations aspects of various projects and driving the Livelihoods and Rural Enterprises wing in the Cluster Development Initiative (CDI) of Schoolnet India Ltd. She has been advising and guiding SEEDS on its livelihoods initiatives for over eight years now.

OUR

TEAM

Richika Tyagi

Chief Executive Officer

Richika is a development sector professional with over 14 years of experience in conceptualization and management of large-scale multi-stakeholder livelihood projects across various sectors with a focus on youth and women. Her specialization has been in non-farm livelihoods under a cluster approach, enterprise promotion and social transformation projects. She is an economist and is deeply passionate about bringing about sustained change in our communities, and has been leading gender transformative and social empowerment programs.

Purushotham Ramayyavari

Advisor- Operations, Project LEED

With over 20 years of experience with leading private sector organisations, Purushotham has played a crucial role in the inception of SEEDS, particularly in operationalising the concept of Local Area Development, with an emphasis on Education and Economic Development activities. He has been associated with SEEDS for over a decade from its very inception for over a decade and played a crucial role in creating a stable presence for the organisation by spending more than two years in the village until the activities were streamlined. His tenacity and commitment have helped the organisation grow steadily in terms of its outreach and increase in activities over a period of time. He is currently advising the team on operations in Project LEED while serving as the Regional Head for Learnet Skills Ltd in Andhra Pradesh. Besides the work he does through SEEDS and Learnet Skills, Purushotham loves practising farming and spending time in villages.

Sri Lalitha Deevi

Sri Lalitha is an engineering graduate from NIT Warangal and further pursued her PG diploma in Management from IIM Lucknow. She worked with corporates and startups for a considerable period of time before joining the social development sector. Her passion lies in the social sector working with communities working for their well being while utilizing her management experience and skill sets to design models that have a multiplier effect. Lalitha is also a sportsperson who was the captain of the basketball team during her post graduation. Other than spending time on the work, she also likes reading books

Sujata Panda

Sujata is the one-stop contact for all the organisational information on finance, regulatory compliances and projects among others. Based out of our Head Office in New Delhi, she handles the overall accounts and finances of the organisation, besides shouldering administrative responsibilities. She is extremely patient and persuasive in getting things done.

Venu Gopal Reddy Chejarla

Venu Gopal Reddy Chejarla

Manager, Project LEED

 Venu hails from an agriculture family background and completed his MBA in 2008 specialized in Finance & Systems from S.V University. He has over 14 yrs of work experience in different organizations and roles. Before joining SEEDS, he worked for 10 years in skill development and project implementation with IL&FS Skills covering new skill centers setup, stakeholder management, planning and implementing training programs, operations and client management.

As Manager for Project LEED, he oversees the operations of our CoE and implementation of activities in the project area. His areas of focus include skill development programs for rural youth, women empowerment activities, school education programs and farmers support and training activities.

Gangadhar Reddy

Gangadhar Reddy has been associated with SEEDS since the inception of the organisation, and is instrumental in implementing the Local Area Development model of SEEDS through Project LEED.  With his witty conversations and ears closer to the ground, he has been our “field person” who understands the nuances at grassroots and gets things done.  Gangadhar is also a practising farmer who won the “Ideal Farmer” award, and also chairs the local level ATMA (Agriculture Technology Management Agency) committee.

Sudhakar

Sudhakar joined SEEDS at its Centre of Excellence rural campus in Duttalur as an apparel trainer, and he currently handles the apparel production unit providing livelihoods for more than 20 women.

Shaik Rasool

Rasool is a graduate, and has been associated with SEEDS as a part of its Project LEED for the past  five years.  With immense patience, he manages the entire upkeep of our Centre of Excellence, administrative aspects, accounts and human resources for the project area. Other than the work he does, Rasool enjoys playing cricket and was a bowler in his college team.

Thirupalamma

Fondly called as “Peddamma” (translates to mother’s elder sister) by the team members, Thirupalamma has been associated with SEEDS at its Centre of Excellence in Duttalur village for a decade now. She cooks for the team, trainers and trainees, ensuring no one goes hungry out of the campus. Her delicious meals and heart-warming conversations make it more homely for visitors

Subbalakshmama

Subbalakshmama has been associated with SEEDS at its  Centre of Excellence in Duttalur village since its inception. With her ever-smiling face, quiet and diligent efforts, she keeps the training block clean and functional, while not letting it lose its aesthetic appeal.

Salomanu Ravuri

Salomanu fondly called as “Dr. Solomon” is someone who is widely recognised as “SEEDS’s Eye Doctor” in the LEED project area. Working as a Vision Care Technician for LV Prasad Eye Care Institute, Salomanu has been part of the SEEDS team for the past four years as part of the partnership arrangement between SEEDS and LVPEI. With his wit and empathy, Salomanu mingles with the community and people around him, thereby making them part of the SEEDS family. Other than socialising with people, Salomanu loves folk music.

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