Our Leadership

Mr. Saikia is an engineering graduate and also a post graduate in Arts. He was a topper from Guwahati University. He served as an MD of AIIDC and Additional Director of Department of Industries, Govt. of Assam. He also served as GM of NEDFi on deputation. He is very dynamic and down to earth technocrat always thoughtful about development. Mr. Saikia is a dedicated professional and has association with young entrepreneurs of Assam and is an icon of young entrepreneurs. He is fully dedicated for economic development through enterprise creation. Mr. Saikia also served as Mission Director – National Mission o9n Food Processing. Participated in training in NISIET, NISBUD, College of Agricultural Banking, Harvard Business School and many more. A prolific writer too, published various books, compendiums etc through the department, popular amongst them are Padakshep (footstep), Bittar Anneswanot (In search of Finance), Swaniujon (Self employment), Resource Mapping 2012, etc. On 15th October, his new publication "Kiba Eta Koribo Pora Hole ..." (If I could do something) hit the book stand, 2nd edition took up within 12 days

Mr. Baruah is basically a Company Secretary (ACS) and he has also an MBA and LLB. His area of experience includes Civil Administration, Accounts, Company Secretarial Affairs, Human Resource Development, and overall administration, Business Development, Consultancy & Advisory and Micro Finance. Mr. Baruah is currently working as Executive Director of NEDFi. He has mentored many entrepreneurs in the region.

Dr. Das is a faculty member at Chhaygaon College, Kamrup Assam. She has grassroot understanding and experience in livelihood, Community Development , participatory decision making, development administration, civil society, land food and development

Mr. Borah is currently working as Ethical Sourcing Manager, India & Sri Lanka at Twinings. He is also a Ford fellow and has grassroot understanding and experience in livelihood, Community Development, participatory decision making, development administration, civil society, land food and development.

Dr. Kalita is a professor at IIT Guwahati with the Mechanical Engineering Department. To his credit he has got over 50 Publications. He has grassroot understanding and experience in livelihood, Community Development, participatory decision making, development administration, civil society, land food and development.

Biswanath Sinha is a social development specialist with over 27 years of diverse experience across strategy, partnership, grant making, program designing and scaling up, and policy formulation. His strengths lie in deep understanding of Indian social issues, on boarding different stakeholders and creating successful development models which have been scaled up by mainstream agencies creating larger social impact. He has worked with best of Indian non-profit organizations with different approaches: hardcore implementation to policy formulation. His professional commitment extends to undertaking research work which is well read in his domain fields. He played a pivotal role in shaping strategy and bringing in institutional partnership for achieving scale for Tata Trusts, India's oldest and largest private philanthropy, and principal shareholder of the Tata Group.

In Tata Trusts he has played a leadership role in thematic engagements in Rural Livelihoods, Natural Resources Management, Energy, Health Care, Disaster Management, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Promotion and Sports for Development. He has been a member of various Government committees for policy formulation. As founding member and governing board member of various nonprofit organizations, he has played a key leadership role in creating some high performing organizations in the nonprofit sector. He also played a key role in putting systems and ensuring compliances.

Since July 2022 he has been working as the Director, Policy and Technical Support of WaterAid India. Before that he worked in Tata Trusts, Mumbai for 17 years. Prior to Tata Trusts he worked in Sa-Dhan for 1 year; Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD), and PRADAN for 5 years each.

Mr. Das is Graduate from Assam Agricultural University, PG Diploma in Rural Development, and a Certified Expert in Microfinance from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management; He attended the middle management program of IIMA and also attended a program on Organized Farmers as partners in Agri Business in CDI, Wageningen University. Mr. Das also has got Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Law and Policy (PGDELP) from National Law University & WWF, a Post Graduate Diploma in Agriculture Extension Management (PGDAEM) from National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management and also got a Master Degree in International Cooperation and Humanitarian Action. He has also an Executive MBA from IIBM. He worked with RGVN and then with Sa-Dhan, New Delhi with its Standards sub-group. Then he worked with HDFC Bank in its Agri & Microfinance vertical under the Corporate Banking Group till his joining Grameen Sahara as the CEO. He is a Social Entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to solve some of the problems facing the communities. His interest is on community development, rural economy, Natural resource management, banking, micro-finance, and business management. Social Entrepreneurship and institutions building are the area of interest to address pressing social, environmental and economic problems. He has got extensive experience in institution building, social mobilization, system innovation, Facilitation, Process Mapping, systems improvement and Support. Has travelled different parts of the country and abroad. He also served/serves in Board of different organizations – Organization for Rural Improvement, CML Society, Centre of Excellence for Agri-and allied enterprise promotion, NEMFA, Diya Foundation, NE-RCRC, SeSTA, Sa-Dhan-New Delhi, KABIL-New Delhi and Arohan Trust, GSPCL, GDFPL etc. He also served as a member in the Steering Committee formed by Assam Government for the Assam Microfinance Incentive and Relief Scheme.

Mr. Das is a Post graduate and holds a degree in Business Administration with 12+ years of experience in community development. Mr. Das is a He started his A Self-directed, detail-oriented development professional with 13+ years of experience in community development. Mr. Das is a Post graduate and holds a degree in Business Administration. He started his career in Market Research and Sales of a prominent IT company of India and later he shifted to the development sector. He has been associated with Grameen Sahara for last 12 years and has served in various capacities with experience in program management, strategy development, partnership building and coordination in the field of microfinance, livelihood, Community Development, participatory decision making, development administration, civil society, land food and development. He was instrumental in promoting several community owned institutions which have been running successfully till date. He has strong grass root understanding as well as managerial experiences.