Chowhan Balaji Singh has over 35 years of experience working for business and social development sectors including 20 years in the field of Fund Raising and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), primarily focussed on disaster preparedness and response. He held senior positions in different International and National NGOs, and USAID formulating and driving disaster risk reduction strategies. He comes with a rich experience in project design and management. He has more than 15 years of experience in leading fundraising as well as evaluation of funding proposals for grantmaking and monitoring their implementation. Many of these efforts pertain to CSR initiatives of the India Today group. Balaji also consults with major INGOs on their fundraising initiatives at the institutional, corporate as well as individual levels.
As Disaster Management Specialist at USAID, he was part of a team that designed a collaborative program with the Government of India to strengthen disaster management capabilities in India. Since 2012, he has extensively worked in the area of Incident Command Systems (ICS) and Emergency Operations Centres (EOC) in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal and continues this engagement as South Asia Disaster Management Advisor for U.S. Forest International Programs. Balaji Singh, as a consultant, assists the World Bank in its disaster management initiatives in India and Bhutan. He supported World Bank in designing a South Asia EOC workshop in 2019. He was a trainer for numerous training and capacity-building initiatives for senior officers in South Asian countries as well as in Kurdistan.
Balaji has consulted extensively with UNDP, UNICEF, ADPC Bangkok, ECHO, and many INGOs such as Save the Children, Child Fund of India, and others and has extensive knowledge and hand on experience in the areas of project design, evaluating funding proposals, training, and capacity building, building disaster risk reduction frameworks, corporate social responsibility, networking and ability to work with government and non-government partners.
Before joining the social development sector in 1999, Balaji worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 15 years in the field of sales and marketing. Balaji obtained an honors degree in Sciences, a master’s in Social Development from the University of East Anglia (UK) in 1991, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Andrews University (USA) in 1994.
Balaji Singh Chauhan
Sri M
Sri M, the founder of The Satsang Foundation, is a member of the Steering Committee of the C20 India 2023. Sri M is a spiritual guide, social reformer, and educationist. He was born into a Muslim family on November 6, 1949, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. His transformational journey, from a young boy to a living yogi, is a fascinating story symbolized by single-minded discipline and dedication.