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The Delegation Team

 
A current Environmental Engineering scholar at Delhi College of Engineering, Ankur Garg chose to walk along less travelled lanes to explore the often missed out ways to seemingly complex issues. Taking the zeal of bringing about a change forward, he chose to do collaborative research with established experts in the field and came up with a few sustainable solutions to the real danger we face today in form of climate change. He is working as a research fellow at IIT Delhi on Air Quality modeling. Apart from being a researcher, he is a trained kathak dancer and wants to use dance to spread the message of climate change.
 
Having represented India at various international conferences, Ankur is fascinated by the discourse on the clash of economic and environmental interests. To further explore this clash and to contribute to the cause of sustainable development with his knowledge and abilities, he is excited to be a part of the Agents of Change program to address India’s and world's top concern in moving towards a truly sustainable economy.
 
 
 
 
IYCN co-founder Deepa Gupta enjoys working towards mobilizing Indian youth to take action against climate change. In the past, she has been the Indian Coordinator for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), the peak youth body on climate change in Australia, setting up AYCC’s faith climate campaign.
 
She worked with PriceWaterhouse Coopers in the Business Assurance and Climate Change practices. She has also been a driver of climate change integration in tertiary institutions, working closely with her university to purchase clean energy and integrate sustainability in education, institutional practice and R&D. She was a youth representative for climate change and delivered presentations to peak tertiary education bodies.
 
Deepa is currently a studying bachelor of business at UTS. Of Indian background and having grown up in Australia, she envisions the two countries working closer together, especially in terms of clean tech transfer, financial and humanitarian support in the face of climate change.
 
 
 
 
Working in the early years of the US Climate Movement, Caroline Howe graduated from Yale University in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering in 2007. She has worked on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development projects in Central America, West Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, and is now living in India, where she has been working since 2007. Her focal areas are energy efficiency technology and policy (especially green buildings), institutional and urban sustainability, climate change education and building an international youth network. She attended CoP11 with one of the first large-scale international youth delegations and is looking forward to being a part of the CoP14 in Poland with the Indian Youth Climate Network's Agents of Change.
 
 
 
 
Ruchi Jain did her schooling from two J- Krishnamurti schools and is a graduate of political science from St Xaviers College. She is currently pursuing masters in Economics from Mumbai University and is working as a Marketing Executive with Sula. She has had the opportunity to represent India in ‘The Bayer Youth Envoy Environment Program, 2007’ in partnership with UNEP, at Leverkusen, Germany and also participated in a one year Rotary Youth International Program to France. Her work with sustainable development includes, working towards sustainable agriculture in rural areas, and environmental justice in urban centers, forests and tribal areas.
 
She has also worked in the Chembur Children’s Home, Mumbai on spreading environmental awareness, garden development and waste management. On the renewable energy front, she has done research on the application of carbon credits for the wind mill (500 kW WEG) set up by Aroma Organics Ltd. Currently, she is in the process of implementing a vermi-compost community program in her locality.
 
 
 
 
Chaitanya Kumar hails from a middle class family in Hyderabad. He describes his 22 years of life as “nothing less than a roller coaster ride.” Having schooled at DAV, he took up Computer Science Engineering at Vasavi College and has just graduated, having spent four years exploring interests in movies, music and climate change.
 
A prefect in school, an avid quizzer with several national competition wins to his credit, and a budding orator, he enjoys writing plays and lengthy prose. He was part of AIESEC for half a year. Chaitanya blogs regularly, runs a movie podcast and collects movies and music from across the world. He works with the magazine WOW Hyderabad as a freelance journalist and helps organize ‘Moving Images’, a city movie club. He is also involved in Hyderabad Unplug, a group trying to create awareness on climate change, and Helix, a young literary club.
 
 
 
 
Having schooled in Mumbai and Chennai, Avipsa Mahapatra graduated from Miranda House, Delhi in 2007. Her concern for sustainable development stems naturally from extensive time spent in these three metropolises. A paper presentation on waste water management during the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit led to an internship with UNESCO, which served as motivational ground for pursuing a Masters in Natural Resource Management at TERI University.
 
Active in dramatics, writing, presenting papers and public speaking, she is also a trained Kuchipudi dancer. In the course of her Masters, she has dealt with environmental issues on topics as wide-ranging as ‘potential of GIS in carbon sequestration’, ‘relationship between rituals and environmental regulation’, and ‘bioremediation of pollution.’ Avipsa has also been an intern at the Environment Management Centre, Mumbai, working on environmental implications of a carbon constrained world on business.
 
 
 
 
Currently pursuing an undergraduate Economics Honours degree from Sri Ram College of Commerce, Leela Raina also did an add-on course in Green Chemistry from Hindu College. Awarded the KPMG Foundation scholarship during her freshman year, she takes an active interest in dramatics, debating and fine arts and has founded a sustainable development society at Delhi University that works on climate change, microfinance, rural development and women’s empowerment.
 
In school, she led a Silver-winning team for an Asia-wide NASA design project. In summer 2008, she interned with the CDM department in IL&FS Ecosmart, she is also working with street children at an NGO in Chandigarh.
 
Leela loves to dance, sing and compete in field events. The Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2008, where she met Dr. Pachauri and other eminent leaders, served as fertile ground for inspiration. Last year she participated in the CAN International Equity Summit in Mahabalipuram and as an Agent of Change in the 2008 UNFCCC COP14. This year after her learning experience at the GTZ Summer school on Sustainable Innovations in India she will be involved with plantation programs under the Carbon Neutral Program in association with Carbon Minus and UNEP as their National Convener.
 
 
 
 
This past year, Kartikeya Singh conducted research on climate change and energy policy at the Centre for Science and Environment. Specifically, he analyzed barriers to successful management of rural renewable energy systems throughout the country – including solar, wind, micro-hydro, bio-gas, biomass gasification, and bio-diesel systems. His research interests have taken him around the world to the Caribbean, the United States, and eastern and southern nations of Africa.
 
A Bachelor in ecology and sustainable development, he is a graduate of Furman University. He was the sole Indian of the 22-member US youth delegation to the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Co-founder and an Executive Director of IYCN, he has launched the blog “What's with the Climate? Voices of a Subcontinent Grappling with Climate Change” as a means to connect the voices of climate change from across South Asia. Kartikeya plans on resuming his Masters in Environmental Management at Yale University in August 2009.