energy
The problem, in India’s terms: Connection is largely solved; reliability, cost and productive use are not. Imported LPG leaves households exposed. Plants beside villages put emissions into the air neighbours breathe, and untreated waste fouls their water.
Vision
Reach millions of rural and underserved Indians by 2030, with clean, secure energy that pays back.
Mission
Mobilise the IIT ecosystem to enable scaling of clean, secure and affordable energy, and its productive use, across rural and underserved India.
Leaders
Indrajit Chatterjee
Indrajit is the Chairman Emeritus of the Energy Council and Global Co-convenor of WGF Chapters.
Indrajit has over 45 years of experience in strategy planning, manufacturing management, engineering projects, and design. Proven credentials in leading business units (FMCG/multinationals) in India. Indrajit Chatterjee is a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur (Batch of 1970). He has done many executive management programs which include a course on IoT from Massachusetts Institute of Technology- Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA, on Manufacturing from University of Warwick, UK, and many others from IIMs. A visionary all through, he got personally inspired by Late Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and started giving back to the country. He spends his time focussing on education and rural development areas. He has conceived an intelligent village concept.
Dr. Rahul Walawalkar
Dr. Rahul Walawalkar is the Chairman of the WHEELS Energy Council and the Founder & President of NetZero Energy Transition Association (NETRA).
Dr. Rahul is a globally recognized thought leader in transformative energy solutions, with over two decades of pioneering work across energy storage, renewables, demand response, electric mobility, and green hydrogen technologies. He is the Founder and President of the NetZero Energy Transition Association (NETRA), a global platform dedicated to accelerating the commercialization and scale-up of net-zero technologies. Under his leadership, NETRA fosters collaboration among industry leaders, policymakers, researchers, and investors to bridge the gap between innovation and mass deployment.
Dr. Walawalkar previously founded the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) in 2012 and served in various leadership roles until 2025. He has significantly shaped energy policy dialogues across the US, India, and international forums through advisory roles with organizations including the US Department of Energy, World Bank, IRENA, NITI Aayog, and CERC. He currently serves on the Central Advisory Committee of CERC and the NITI Aayog Energy Sector Monitoring Committee, continuing to influence high-impact policy and regulatory reforms.
A firm believer in building institutions for long-term impact, Dr. Walawalkar also contributes through board roles at the Council of Energy Efficiency Companies in India (2000-01), US Energy Storage Association (2009–15), Global Energy Storage Alliance (2014-20), NAATBATT (2022–25), CES Foundation (2020-25), and WHEELS Global Foundation (2024-till date). He is an angel investor in more than 15 companies and a mentor to numerous cleantech startups globally.
His recognitions include the IESA Industry Excellence Award (2024), Global Young Entrepreneur Excellence Award (2020), and the Herbert Toor Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research (2006) from Carnegie Mellon University, where he completed his PhD in Engineering & Public Policy. He completed B.E. Electrical from Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli.
Raghuraman. C.
Raghu is a first-generation social entrepreneur and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) -Roorkee ( 1982) and the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta (1984). He is the Co-Chair for the Energy Council at WHEELS.
He launched E-Hands Energy (www.ehandsenergy.in) in 2010 as an energy access social impact venture.
E-Hands Energy has an installed capacity of almost 3 MWp of decentralized clean energy systems using micro wind turbine & solar PV, with over 1000 installations across 800 Indian towns/villages across 21 States of India, including 32 microgrids. The venture strives to deliver reliable clean energy at an affordable cost to First Time Electricity Users (FTUs), particularly in the remote, off-road, and off-network terrains of the Himalayas, in addition to solar powering educational institutions, healthcare facilities and financial institutions in rural India. E-Hands Energy pioneered the technology of decentralized small wind turbine – solar PV hybrid system way back in 2011 and has won several awards in India and abroad for these innovations around hybrid systems.
Dr. Suresh Reddy
Anoop Singhal
Anoop Singal is an experienced software development professional building large-scale, high traffic web and mobile applications for various business processes and consumers.
He has expertise in server-side and cross-platform mobile application development and has demonstrated capacity to lead all stages of systems development efforts, including architecture, design, development, testing, and support.
Nitin Akhade
Nitin Akhade is the Mapping, Development and deployment of emerging technologies for enhancing rural economic development; exploring market linkages/channels for efficient delivery of goods and services related to agricultural goods, dairy and other livelihoods; smart micro/campus grids for tele- Education, tele- medicine; facilitating investment opportunities for innovative technologies (fin tech, agri solutions, PAYG); electrical mobility mapping and opportunities for rural development.
Dr. Manisha Rane
Dr. Manisha Rane’s research and development portfolio includes development/investigation of: highly anisotropic magnetic materials for recording application; ceramics corrosion in highly alkaline coal gasification environment; high temperature thermochemistry of piezoelectric and magnetic material; high efficiency luminescent phosphor materials for LED lighting; and radiation hard ceramic scintillator material for medical devices.
Her experience in clean alternative power includes: energy generation (thin film solar cells); energy conversion (solid oxide and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells); transmission (high temperature superconducting cables); and energy storage devices (electrical and electrochemical devices). She managed the energy storage research group at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and brought in $550,000 in research funding during 2010-2014.
Dr. Ashok Das
Dr. Ashok Das has over fifteen years of entrepreneurial experience at SunMoksha in developing and deploying distributed renewable energy solutions, microgrids, IoT controllers, and cloud software for remote monitoring, control and management of the energy and water systems for the grassroots, off-grid, underserved, remote areas. He bootstrapped the company, developed cutting-edge technologies, deployed the solutions, developed business models, expanded the business, brought in investment. Diversified from smart microgrids for rural electrification to smart water management for agriculture. Developed models for sustainable livelihood, smart villages/communities. Received multiple national and international awards & recognition for the innovations and impacts.
He consulted to the World Bank, UNDP, ADB, UK-DFID, KfW, GiZ, IUCN, Climate Parliament, on microgrids, renewable energy, finance and policy development for climate change entrepreneurs and rural communities and has over a decade of experience in developing entrepreneurial ecosystem for clean technologies and social sectors through Private Fund Advisory Network (PFAN) and TiE.
Dr. Saket Sarraf
Dr. Saket Sarraf is passionate about issues related to sustainable development and built environment and has over 25 years of experience in India and the USA. He is the founder and Principal at ps Collective, a platform for advocacy, research, policy analysis, and consultancy. His current work focuses on policy research and decision support systems in areas of energy policy, efficiency, and sustainable development.
He has worked on assignments with Government agencies like the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, Government of India; Multilateral and bilateral projects like USAID ECO-III; Foundations and advocacy groups like The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP, USA), Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (India), ICLEI South Asia; Corporates like Schneider Electric (India) to name a few.
He spends a considerable about of time in research, teaching, and mentoring young minds and have been involved with CEPT University, Ahmedabad; American University of Sharjah, UAE; Nitte Institute of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal; and University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA.
Dr. Mangesh Tamhankar
Dr. Mangesh’s experience includes managing multiple Projects, Engineering Teams and Programs to ensure high quality product execution. Expertise in power analysis, innovative software tools development, projections, modeling, silicon validation, test and debug, regulatory compliance foundational work, data center energy efficiency strategic initiatives with focus on TCO, balancing hardware capacity with software utilization, customer training/workshops, support including OEM/ODM and other verticals, competitive analysis, University collaboration on solving real world problems using AI techniques. Experience with software development for embedded products. Previous experience includes data warehousing; data mining; solutions architect; electric and electric-hybrid vehicle control, management and performance analysis.
Shekhar Priyadarshee
Shekhar is the Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Consultant and Contractor. He graduated from IIT – KGP in 1972.
His experience includes working at Thyssen Krupp India Ltd as Senior General Manager and as President.
Dr. Rashi Gupta
Dr. Rashi Gupta is a founder, thought leader and dedicated innovator driving the transition to a sustainable energy future. With a deep expertise in lithium-ion battery technology and energy storage systems, she’s at the forefront of developing solutions that power our world efficiently and responsibly. Her work extends to the critical area of green hydrogen, exploring its vast potential to decarbonize industries and create a cleaner planet.
Additionally, she champions clean cooking initiatives, recognizing its vital role in improving lives and reducing environmental impact. As a passionate advocate for women in STEM, she actively mentors and inspires the next generation of female engineers and scientists, fostering a more inclusive and diverse field. Her research and development efforts focus on practical, scalable solutions, bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and real-world implementation. She is fondly known as “Batterywali of India”
Dr. Tirthankar Banerjee
Dr. Tirthankar is the founder & director at Perth, Australia-based Oztron Energy, focused on design and project management services for Renewable Energy Systems. Tirthankar is one of the most accomplished renewable industry thought leaders with a deep passion for renewable energy and grid support systems and Microgrids.
He has led renewable energy projects across many countries in South East Asia. Some of his specialties include smart mini-grids design and implementation, large PV and hybrid power plant design & implementation, grid connection at LV and MV level, MV design and protections, batteries and DC systems, and grid support systems.
Tirthankar received his B.Tech. in Electronics at IIT-Kharagpur in 1974, and a D.IISc in Electronics Design at the Indian Institute of Science in 1977.
Other Core Members
- Adarsh Das
- Amittosh K Pandey
- Anuj Hemant Xess
- Ashok Nagrath
- Atul Behari Bhatnagar
- D. Satyamoorthy
- Debi Prasad Dash
- Goutam Samanta
- Harish Hande
- Ishan Nadkarni
- Kishan Vasekar
- Dr. M. Vivekananthan
- Mahesh Vaidya
- Nibedita Panigrahy
- Dr. Partha Sarathi Das
- Pranesh Choudhary
- Dr. Prashant Pawar
- Puneet Aggarwal
- Rabin Roy
- Ravi Bhatia
- Dr. Ravindra Kempaiah
- Rupesh Badkhal
- Dr. Satish Kumar
- Dr. Subodh Mathur
- Dr. Sundar Kamath
- Dr. Sunil Acharya
- Surender Makhija
- Dr. Vijay Mohale
Board/India Exec Council Members
Deployment Updates
▶ WGF is happy to announce and congratulate Dr Rashi’s appointment as a Council Member at United Nations: Council of Engineers for Energy Transition (CEET). Read more..
