Meet Our Team

M Karunakara Reddy

Founder And Convener

Business acumen and social conscientiousness are the two qualities that sum up the persona of Walk for Water’s Founder Mr. Karunakara M. Reddy. With long years of experience at important positions at PepsiCo, Mr. Reddy established Smaat India with a keen eye to emerging social realities and business opportunity. While getting established in the business, Mr. Reddy has also realized the need to making safe water into a social movement and designed newer plans for public involvement.Mr. Reddy has a keen eye for spotting unchartered business opportunities, turning ailing businesses around, smarter mergers and acquisitions and has numerous challenging ideas for the coming tomorrow.

Rituraj Phukan

Chief Operating Officer

Trained as a Climate Reality Leader under Nobel Laureate Al Gore, Rituraj Phukan is a Mentor & Presenter with The Climate Reality Project headed by the former US Vice President. He also represents The Climate Reality Project India as the District Manager for Northeast India.

In 2013, Rituraj was a member of the International Antarctic Expedition led by Polar explorer Robert Swan, the first man to have walked to both the poles, completing a personal leadership and environment sustainability program called ‘Leadership on the Edge.’ On the 2nd of March, he was the only one to raise the support banner for the Pacific Warriors Day of Action at Antarctica, urging world leaders to act on climate change before it was too late for the 14 low-lying Pacific Island Nations threatened with submersion by rising sea-water levels.

He has also traveled to the Canadian Arctic on an Earthwatch expedition called ‘Climate Change at the Arctic’s Edge’ to participate in ongoing citizen science research about the impacts of warming on the fragile arctic ecosystems, while based at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre.

Besides spearheading the grassroots nature conservation activities of Green Guard Nature Organization, Rituraj also works with various organizations & initiatives like the Sanctuary Asia Kids For Tigers program.

Patrons

Aruna Miller

Smt Aruna Miller Indian-born American Politician and first Indian women to be elected for Maryland Legislature took Water Pledge in support of WalkForWater. She also accepted the request to be WalkForWater Patron and to take this forward among American Legislators.

Perala Sekhar Rao

Shri Perala Sekhar Rao Gaaru (Sekhar Ji ) -National Vice chairman -Nehru Yuva Kendra sangatan as Patron of walk for water . He is an Icon for Youth all over India. He is extending his support for all activities of walk for water.

M. PanduRanga Rao

Prof. M. PanduRanga Rao is a retired Professor of National Institute of Technology in Warangal. He has contributed richly to water resources management, heritage conservation, education sector, and health care.Professor Rao has played a pivotal role in tackling the acute drought situation during 1972-73 and in solving the drinking water crisis in Warangal Municipal Corporation for the last four decades Honorarily.He has been advising Govt of Andhra Pradesh on irrigation project and wrote book on "Impact of Babhali and eleven other projects on sri ramasagar projects and socio economic implications for Telangana".He has also earned several awards such as the award for ‘Meritorious Service’, ‘Republic Day Honour’, and ‘Independence Day Honour’.

Robert Swan

Robert Swan is a polar explorer, environmentalist and the first man ever to walk unsupported to both the North and South Poles. He is an exceptionally gifted communicator and is regarded as one of the world’s top motivational speakers. "The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it" says Robert Swan.

Jadav Payeng

Padmashree Jadav Payeng, the Forest Man of India. Has created what is arguably the largest man-made forest by one man on this planet; he kept on planting trees near where he was born, a place called Arunachapori, near Kokilamukh, Majuli district, for over 30 years, before the world discovered and embraced him as the ‘Forest Man of India’. Over the course of several decades, he planted and tended trees on a sandbar of the river Brahmaputra turning it into a forest reserve. The forest, called 'Molaikathoni' or 'Molai's forest' after his nickname 'Molai,' encompasses an area of about 1,360 acres and inhabited by hundreds of deer, rabbits, monkeys, reptiles, birds, Royal Bengal tigers, rhinos and elephants.

While joining the Walk For Water team as a distinguished Patron, he said that we must use water and all natural resources judiciously or the next generations will suffer. Water is life sustaining and the future of all life systems on earth is threatened due to changes in precipitation changes caused by climate change. The Forest Man of India has won numerous awards and honors from all over the world.

Arun Kumar Sahni

Lieutenant General Arun Kumar Sahni is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy. On commissioning he was awarded the ‘Sword of Honour’ for being the best all-round Gentleman Cadet and the President’s Gold Medal for standing first in his course. He was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery. He is qualified on the prestigious courses such as the Long Gunnery Staff Course, Defence Services Staff College, Higher Command, and the National Defence College. His career highlights include command of a Self Propelled Regiment in the desert sector, a Mountain Artillery Brigade in Counter Insurgency Sector in Northeast, an Independent Infantry Brigade in Jammu Kashmir and a Division as part of a Strike Corps, on the western borders. He commanded a Corps in the Northeast. He has held important staff appointments including Brigade Major of an Infantry Brigade in Sri Lanka, and Colonel General Staff of a Counter Insurgency Force in Jammu and Kashmir. As Additional Director General Military Operations in the Army Headquarters, he was responsible for force structuring and operational preparedness of the army. He was promoted as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of South Western Command on January 1, 2014 and retired from service in January 2016. He is recipient of PVSM, UYSM, SM and VSM awards. He is also recipient of Chief of Army Staff Commendation Cards on two occasions.

Shri Chukka Ramaiah

Dr. Chukka Ramaiah (born 20 November 1925) popularly known as IIT Ramaiah is an Indian educationist and MLC of Telangana. He is an acclaimed expert in IIT coaching in mathematics.[1][2] He is famously known for IIT Study Circle, an IIT JEE coaching centre at Nallakunta, Hyderabad. He is a leading Telangana activist.

Goreti Venkanna

Goreti Venkanna, popular Indian poet and folk singer to become Walk for Water Patron. He became popular after his song "Palle Kanneru Peduthundo" in Khubasum Telugu movie had moved the masses. He also became popular by acting as a judge for the folk song program Rela Re Rela on Telugu TV channel, Maa. He is one of the main Telangana separation activists. He is one of the icons of Telangana culture.

Chandrashekar Hariharan

Dr. Chandrashekar Hariharan is a Chartered Accountant and holds a doctorate degree in econometrics from the Penn State University, US. He has worked for over 25 years on projects covering watershed management, energy management and other areas relating to urban sustainability. He is a prolific writer and runs columns in national dailies and portals on how consumers can go green at minimal cost.

Dil Raju

V. Venkataramana Reddy alias Dil Raju is an Indian film producer and distributor. He is one of the most successful Telugu film producers. He produces his films along with his two partners, cousin Sireesh and friend Lakshman, under Sri Venkateswara Creations. Sri Venkateswara Creations is an Indian film production company established by Dil Raju.

Tammreddy Bharadwaja

Tammreddy Bharadwaja is an Indian film producer and director. He is one of the successful Telugu film producers. He is the son of veteran producer Tammareddy Krishna Murthy.Tammareddy Bharadwaj was a Civil Engineer by Profession. He entered into Telugu film Industry as a Producer and later turned to Direction. Over the years he has been very pro-active in furthering issues of various Unions in Telugu film Industry and played a Major Role in lending an influential voice for the benefit of the working class in Telugu film Industry.

Ravindranath

I am serial entrepreneur with 2 decades of business experience in various sectors, and recognised technology leader known to craft the requisite strategic vision to achieve business goals. My entrepreneurial endeavors coupled with my executive acumen, global team building and technology deployment capabilities are credited for strong ROI and operational improvement.

I am Managing Director for TV5 NEWS, also the founder and Managing Director for NuZen Group and built a responsive organisation that consistently delivers results by aligning technology initiatives with business goals with substantial improvements to service delivery, standardisation, and business/systems performance.

Niranjan Khatri

Niranjan Khatri‬ - iSambhav Founder and Principal Consultant as ‪#‎WalkforWaterAmbassador‬. He is recipient of the Helen Keller Award in 2006, and 2011. Karamveer Puraskar in 2009; Green Hotelier award 2010 & Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Award 2012. He is Founder of Basant Lok Jagriti Association, in Basant Lok , Vasant Vihar. Worked as secretary from 1993 to 2014.

Maulana Baba

MAULANA BABA DIVINITY WITH HUMAN FACE
Maulana Hafiz Abdul lateef Afsar Rashadi is popularly known as MAULANA BABA among his disciples,followers and benefactors. He is unparallel spiritual personality with human face. An embodiment of triple principles of truth-love-work and hence a great sufi saint of this modern age. A great and tremendous healer of psychosomatic problems because of his completely developed etheric body. He never gets tired of solving human woes however trivial they are despite being completely enlightened and penchant for GOD.,His followers run into thousands from different walks of life viz politicians bureaucrats,academicians and labourers to spiritual seekers from different continents.
His disciples whom he spiritually guides on this physical plane knows his ability in guiding astral bodies on higher realms which is rarest faculty possible by few saints of present age.
Guru dev is a complete person and great emanicipator of soul liberation. He has penchant for human upliftment and thus a great friend of youth,emphathizer for poor,weak and meek, a lover of his followers but TASK MASTER FOR SPIRITUAL SEEKERS. Undoubtedly a completely enlightened sufi of GOD with feminine approach. Fortunate are those who live with him and whom he loves

Gangadhara Tilak Katnam

Sri. Gangadhara Tilak Katnam who stands as an example to the statement “be the change that you wish to see in the world.”. He is sixty-six year old retired employee, a man on a mission. Tilak retired from Indian Railways in Oct 2008 after 35 years of excellent service. During his tenure at Indian Railways he was an epitome of discipline and questioned the status quo and was instrumental in elevating the safety standards of Signaling System. After his retirement in Jan 2010 Mr. Tilak accepted the position of Software Design Consultant at Infotech Systems. This story does not ring too different from many of the middle class citizens who live all over India. They carry on with their lives making the best despite their myriad constraints.

Pradeep Lokhande

Namaskar,

Some dreams are big, mine was a far simpler one and yet a mission of sorts. I quite simply wanted to reach out to rural India and contribute to its development. I set out on this mission 20 years ago.

I wanted to know the essence of the various cultures and traditions and soak in its ethos. This was a journey of some 49,000 villages, of which I had personally visited 5,800 across the country.

In the course of my journey, I along with the village developers established direct contact with opinion makers in the villages and began recording obscure details of the local economy.

Information Technology has always been one key area of my interest. I began to install used computers in rural secondary schools, where the interest and curiosity of the students is very high. When I personally could not raise the money required for this initiative, I appealed to individuals, organizations and corporate to gift used machines. As of year 2009, we have been instrumental in installing 20,000 used computers directly or indirectly across 10 states in India.

The success of this initiative inspired me to embark on yet another movement, which I named the Non-Resident Villager (NRV) movement. Each one of us has an NRV within us, because ultimately, our roots can be traced back to the villages. Therefore, as an NRV, we can always reach out, support and contribute something meaningful to the development of our rural India. With the help of NRV’s, till date we have installed 3,640 Gyan-key libraries in 3,640 (3 Gyan-key libraries every working day) in rural secondary schools in 1,255 working days benefiting 10,00,570 students. Gyan-key initiative is the most effective way to keep regional languages alive.

This is the world’s largest rural reading initiative. Target: 94,000 Gyan-key libraries in rural secondary schools across tomorrow’s India.
Our game changer initiative is villagewiKY, an open information platform of key and feeder villages of India. Contribute, add & rectify information of YOUR village by Ecography, Sociography, Geography, Demography, Professionals and Institutes. We are adding information with the help of villagers, Non-Resident villagers (NRV) and village developers. Target – 85,000 villagewiKY villages in 1,000 working days.

Today, our organization is recognized by its identity, rural relations. We are driven by our mission to touch the heart of tomorrow’s India through villagewiKY with the help of organizations, corporate & most importantly with the help of Non-Resident Villagers (NRV) and villagers.

We welcome you to an entirely new way of reaching out to tomorrow’s India.

Pradeep Lokhande
rural@ruralrelations.com

Rahul V Karad

Rahul Vishwanath Karad is a dynamic young educationist, committed nationalist and a true believer in the power of the youth. Mr. Rahul V. Karad is also the Executive Director of MAEER's MIT Group of Institutions. Mentored by his father Prof. Dr. Vishwanath D. Karad, Rahul Karad has always tried to tap the enormous source of energy of India – its youth population – by inculcating in them the spirit of nation-building. By initiating programmes like 'India – the Superpower – Vision 2020', 'Bharat Asmita National Awards', 'Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad' and many more, Rahul Karad has embarked on the mission to inculcate in the youth of the country the need to enter public life and provide youthful, dynamic, clean and committed leadership to the society and the nation.

One of the most significant ventures of Rahul Karad has been the founding of MAEER's MIT School of Government. This is the first institute in India and Asia that conducts a one-year, full-time program for the youth of India for a career in political leadership. This program, titled 'Masters Program in Government' (MPG), trains the aspirants to think like true leaders from day one and tutors them on the functioning of political parties in India as well as the different democratic institutions, right from Gram Panchayat to the Parliament.

More than 250 aspirants of MPG are now occupying important offices in various political parties or working as key support staff for political leaders.

Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad is a 3-day annual conclave of over 10000 politically and socially active student leaders, which is addressed by nearly 90 speakers of high eminence each year, who narrate their life experiences in order to encourage the youth to take to politics as a way to serving the society.

These and other activities of Rahul Karad are a perfect blend of education and national spirit.

V. Chamundeswaranath

Mr.V.Chamundeswaranath is an indian former first-class cricketer who played for Andhra between 1978/79 &1992/92.Also a businessman,he is a co-owner of the Indian badminton league franchise Mumbai Masters

Bittu Sahgal

Bittu Sahgal, the Editor of Sanctuary Asia and the Founder of the Sanctuary Nature Foundation and the one million strong Kids for Tigers program, is one of India’s strongest and most eloquent voices for nature preservation, climate change mitigation and wildlife conservation. Born in 1947, he has made it his life’s mission to direct world leaders away from short-term development objectives that could compromise the ability of the nation to sustain its population of 1.3 billion people in the decades ahead. He believes that India’s ecological foundation is the bedrock on which the nation's economic foundation sits. He also believes that climate change poses the greatest ever threat to the stability of the Indian nation.

HH Pujya Swami Chidanand

Pujya Swamiji is the President and Spiritual Head of Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, one of India’s largest and most renowned spiritual institutions. Pujya Swamiji is also Founder/chairman of India Heritage Research Foundation (IHRF), an international, non-profit, humanitarian foundation. Pujya Swamiji is the Convenor of the Sarva Dharma Sansad (Parliament of Religions), Founder/Chairman, of Divine Shakti Foundation, General Secretary of Guru Sangamam, a Confederation of indigenous religions of India and the head of Global Pilgrimage Network – India. Pujya Swamiji is also the Founder of Ganga Action Parivar (GAP), a worldwide family of scientists, engineers, specialists, volunteers and devotees who are dedicated to working to make Mother Ganga’s waters not only nirmal (clean) but also aviral (free-flowing)

Ambassadors

SP Balasubramaniam

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam born 4 June 1946, is an Indian film playback singer, actor, music director, voice actor and film producer. He is mostly referred to as S. P. B. or Balu. He has won the Guinness World Record for recording the highest number of songs. He has garnered six National Film Awards for Best Male Playback Singer, and twenty five Nandi Awards for his works towards Telugu cinema.
He has recorded over 40,000 songs in various Indian languages. He has won National Film Awards across four languages, as well as a Bollywood Filmfare Award, five Filmfare Awards South, and numerous state awards from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. He is a recipient of civilian awards such as Padmashri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011) from the government of India. In 2016, he was honored with the inaugural Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the year at the 47th International Film Festival of India.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

Akkineni Nagarjuna is an Indian film actor, producer and television presenter who works primarily in theTelugu Cinema, and Television. He has acted in over ninety films as an actor in a lead, supporting and cameo roles, including Bollywood and Tamil films. He has received two National Film Awards, nine state Nandi Awards and three Filmfare Awards (South). Nagarjuna, with his wife Amala is the co-founder of Blue Cross of Hyderabad, a registered society recognized by the Animal Welfare Board of India. non-government organization (NGO) in Hyderabad, India, which works towards the welfare of animals and preservation of animal rights. He is also involved in some welfare programs undertaken by the MAA TV association, and serves as the brand ambassador for HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns In 2010, he starred in an HIV/AIDS animated software tutorial created by TeachAIDS, a nonprofit founded at Stanford University. Nagarjuna is keen in helping the underprivileged in getting safe water and advocate of safe water

Akkineni Amala

Amala Akkineni is an Indian film actress, Bharata Natyam dancer, and an animal welfare activist. She is best known for her works in Tamil cinema, and Telugu cinema. She has also starred in few Malayalam, Kannada, and bollywoodfilms. She has won two Filmfare Awards South, and a CineMAA Award. Amala is the Chairperson and Co-founder of Blue Cross of Hyderabad, a non-government organisation (NGO) in Hyderabad, India, which works towards the welfare of animals and preservation of animal rights in India. Amala is keen in helping the underprivileged in getting safe water and advocate of safe water

Tanikella Bharani

Tanikella Bharani born 14 July 1954 is an Indian film actor, screenwriter, dialogue writer, poet, theatre actor, playwright and director predominant in Telugu cinema. He has worked in more than 750 films (Including Tamil, Kannada and Hindi). He has garnered three Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Awards.