PCGT Trustees
All people who have rich experience in governance / public life.
Shri D. Sivanandhan joined the Indian Police Service in 1976 and prior to that he worked as
Professor of Economics in the University of Madras for three years.
In the state of Maharashtra he retired as the Director General of Police in 2011, and prior to
that he worked as Commissioner of Police of Mumbai, Thane and Nagpur cities for six years.
He worked in the IB for six years and in the crime branch of Mumbai city police for another six years.
He also worked as Dy. IGP of Nagpur Ŕange for three years and as Joint Director CBI (West zone) for three years.
He also worked as SP of two districts and DCP of Pune city twice.
After retirement, he worked as member in the Naresh Chandra special task force NSCS
(PMO) for one year and three years as Strategic Security Advisor to RBI.
Now he runs an NGO called Mumbai Roti Bank feeding the poor and hungry !
J. F. Ribeiro graduated in Commerce and Law from Mumbai University.
He joined the Indian Police Service in 1953 and rose to be the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, from February 1982 to May 1985.
Later he served in quick succession as Director General, Central Reserve Police Force, Director General of Police-Gujarat, Special Secretary to the Government of India's Home Ministry, Director General of Police – Punjab and finally Advisor to the Governor of Punjab.
Besides other awards, he is the recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 1987. Post Retirement, he was appointed as Ambassador to Romania where he served for four years from 1989 to 1993. The then Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee had asked him to be Governor of Jammu & Kashmir but he declined because of his involvement in social work in his native city of Mumbai.
He heads the Mohalla Ekta Committee, which seeks to bring about communal harmony between the diverse communities in the city of Mumbai.
Dr. R. K. Anand, consulting child specialist, is a founder Trustee of the Public Concern For Governance Trust. The Trust was founded for good governance; for fighting corruption and communalism and for inculcating ethics and values amongst the citizens.
Winner of the Best Speaker Award of Nazareth Speaker’s Academy, Mumbai, Dr. Anand is being regularly invited to speak to professors from different colleges in Maharashtra on ethics and values.
A symbol of national integration, Dr. Anand was born in Punjab, studied in Bihar, married in Kerala and settled in Maharashtra. His latest passion is to communicate to others the importance of fighting corruption and communalism and to seek the secret of finding happiness by following ethics and values in our personal and professional life.
Adv. Abha Singh passed her LLB from University of Mumbai and M.PHIL in Child Rights from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
A former bureaucrat (for 20 years) and a High Court lawyer, Abha Singh is a renowned social activist and passionate to the cause of women’s rights and gender equality.
She has received the Mumbai Mayor’s Award, the Government Citizen Karmaveer Puraskaar by Confederation of NGOs, New Delhi and many more notable awards.
She has pursued Human Rights Causes in Bombay High Court, voices concerns through PILs.
She has founded the NGO Ransammar Foundation dedicated to promoting social justice, women empowerment and transparency.
She is a legal and Human Rights Expert and has pioneered the functioning of solar panels to power post offices and has harnessed solar energy in places where electricity is scarce.
Ana Saldanha is by profession an interior architect, with her own practice of 25 years. She believes that people can make a difference in life, whatever their profession.
She is a strong stand for inclusion and secularism and committed to inspiring young people to be responsible citizens.
She works actively in the Youth For Governance vertical of PCGT on projects that give college students a platform to develop their leadership skills.
She has been a long time volunteer at various NGOs.
Mr. Gulam A. Vahanvaty, an IIM Calcutta graduate, joined Tata Administrative Services (TAS) in 1970.
Later in 1974, he left TAS and joined the family business of scrap processing and ship breaking.
He has now diversified into other businesses including running a highly regarded Arts & Crafts Gallery.
He is an active Rotarian and is a member of the Rotary Club of Bombay. He was elected Rotary District Governor in 2002-03, and has since then held increasingly important assignments both in Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.
Currently, he serves as Trustee on the International Board of The Rotary Foundation – the only Indian among the 15 Trustees.
He is also a member of the Governing Board of Mumbai First and a member of Mohalla Committee Movement Trust, which is committed to foster communal harmony.
Mr. Mahesh Zagade, a retired IAS Officer, was former Principal Secretary to the Government of Maharashtra.
He attended various short term and long term training programs in public administration in India and abroad including a short term course on Leadership and Change Management at London.
He is the recipient of various International and National Awards.
He held various distinguished positions like Divisional Commissioner, Nashik; Transport Commissioner, Maharashtra; Commissioner FDA and Food Safety, Maharashtra; Municipal Commissioner, Pune Municipal Corporation; Director General Maharashtra Energy Development Agency Pune, and many more.
Mr. Chandran is former Chairman & Managing Director of BASF, heading the group
companies in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Srilanka. He was also the Chairman of
Ciba India Limited, Cyanaid India Ltd and Pushpa Polymers before these companies
merged into BASF India Ltd.
Mr. Chandran has been bestowed with the Bundesverdienstkreuz “The order of
Merit”, the highest civilian Award by the Federal Republic of Germany for his
contributions to Indo-German Relations and his trend setting role in Compliance and
Corporate Governance issues. He was the President of the Indo-German Chamber of
Commerce and has been its Management Committee member over two decades.
Business Today magazine had named him among the 100 most successful CEOs in the
country. He is currently an Independent Director on the Boards of BOSCH Limited,
HDFC Life Limited, Coromandel International Limited and HDFC Pension Company.
He is a post graduate in Chemistry (honours) from Mumbai University with
Management Education from University Business School, Chandigarh, Wharton
Business School, Pennsylvania, and A.O.T. S. Tokyo University.
Mr. Chandran has been a Crusader in the fight against corruption and is a founder
Chairman of SEEGOS – a social enterprise promoting ethics and fighting corruption.
He is an ardent supporter of PCGT and currently serves as a Trustee in the
organization.
He is the Founder Chairman in India of Alliance For Integrity (AFIn) Berlin based
multi-stake holder initiative promoting governance & International Best Business
Practices. He is currently the advisor to the Ethics and Governance Committee of
Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is involved with Nobel laureate
Dr. Mohamad Yunus in India and he is an advisory member board member of the
India Corporate Action Tank (a joint initiative of TATA trusts and YSB India).
Mr. Rajesh Desai is a Graduate in Chemistry from Bombay University and FCA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
He is at present on the boards of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Desven Consultant, Pinnacle Global Consultancy Services and works as the mentor and Advisor for the corporates.
He has over 35 years of rich experience in the field of finance & corporate management.
He served as a global CFO and Executive Director where he led Finance, Legal & Information Technology functions in Glenmark until 2017 and contributed significantly to the growth story by helping the company in the mergers, Global acquisitions, business restructuring, business integrations and strategic fundraising.
He also works as the trustee and advisor at various public trusts in the field of Education, sports and social services.
Rekha Shahani served as Principal of Kamla High School from 2003 to 2015 and a Teacher at the same school from 1990 to 2003.
She also represented as a Trustee of Sind Brahma Sikhya Samelan which runs Kamla High School & allied institutes.
During her stint as the Principal, she was instrumental in setting up various school link programmes.
She was successful in overseeing the longest partnership of an Indian school with the UK, of about 14 years.
As a result of these programmes, Kamla High School was awarded the ‘International School Award’ three times, for ‘Outstanding Development of the International Dimension in the Curriculum & Global Curriculum Award’ by the British Council in the years 2005-2008, 2009-2012 and 2014-2017.
She continues to work with the British Council as its ambassador for its Core Skills programme. Being a firm believer in ‘inclusion in education’, led her to admit students with disabilities and economic difficulties to her mainstream school.
She has served as a Trustee of ‘Initiatives of Change’ [IofC] for four years. At present she is the National Coordinator of ‘ETST - Education Today, Society Tomorrow’, the educational wing of IofC.
She is also serving as an elected member of Asia Pacific Coordination Group (APCG) of the IofC that works in developing nations towards the goals of facilitating education, leadership, peace, building trust and sustainability.
She represented India during the Kashmir peace talks with the Ambassadors of Pakistan through the "People to People’ dialogue. and volunteered with the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR) and travelled to Pakistan on programmes conducted by the CDR.
She is the Territory Head Mumbai of Early Childhood Association. Mrs. Rekha Shahani graduated from Jai Hind College after completing her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics and Commerce.
Thereafter was awarded a post graduate degree as a Master of Arts (MA) in Sociology from the University of Mumbai.
V. P. Raja, after obtaining two post graduate degrees in Physics from Delhi University and Columbia University (U.S.A) respectively, joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1974. While in service, he completed an M.A. in Rural Development Planning from the University of East Anglia (U.K). He further obtained an M.Phil. degree in Social Sciences from the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.
As an IAS officer of the Maharashtra Cadre, he has worked in various assignments at the District, State and Centre. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to administrative reforms, while working as Collector of Satara and as Transport Commissioner, Maharashtra, Mr. Raja was awarded the Distinguished Government Administrator Award. With the Government of India, he worked at the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Defence and at the Department of Atomic Energy.
He retired as Principal Advisor to the Department of Atomic Energy in September 2008. Thereafter he was Chairman of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for a period of five years till he attained the age of 65. Concurrently he was also Chairman of the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India for appraising of new projects for coal mining and thermal power projects from the point of view of their environmental impacts.
Mr. Raja continues to be actively involved in various issues of the energy sector. He has a passion for teaching, coaching and mentoring young students. He is a visiting faculty both at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, University of Mumbai and at the B.S.E Institute of the Bombay Stock Exchange, teaching courses centred on Statistics, Business Research & Quantitative Methods and Economics.
Past Trustees