I am a serial academic social entrepreneur!
A firm called ‘Tecknowmetrix’ was created in France in 2004 on the basis of my publications on technology indicators and I was one of its co-founders. After its take off in 2006, I returned to full time academics.
After the tsunami of December 2004, I founded two non-profit action-research units ‘Association Un Ami’ and ‘Friend in Need Trust’, in France and India respectively that aim to improve sanitation coverage in rural India (www.friend-in-need.org). In recognition of this work, I was one of the laureates of the ‘Women of the Earth’ trophy in 2008 awarded by the Institut de France and the Yves Rocher Foundation. In 2015, I was selected as one of the 100 women achievers by the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development for my work on awareness creation and improvement of sanitation coverage in India.
In 2012, I co-founded non-profit – ‘Sti4change’, which applies innovative technologies and practices to improve the lives of communities at the bottom of the income pyramid, but left it after 3 years.
In 2017, I co-created “SITE4Society” in UNU-MERIT with Dr. Serdar Turkeli and Sueli Brodin, to generate dialogue and cooperation between students, researchers and other community stakeholders on pathways to attain the Sustainable Development Goals. After active five years, it was replaced by the institute wide initiative called Policy Action Lab in 2022.
In 2021, I co-created SITE4Sustainability Global Solutions, as a venture to support activities related to sustainability transitions.