The Organisers & Mentors

Yogesh Shastri

Member, Core Team

Trained as a mechanical engineer, Yogesh Shastri set that path aside early to ask a harder question — what does a genuinely meaningful life look like? That question took him into grassroots development work through the 1990s, where he contributed to watershed management and model-village efforts with the Deendayal Research Institute in the Chitrakoot region. By 2004–05, his search had settled on Madhyasth Darshan, and teaching it has occupied him ever since — twenty years now spent in value education. He is associated with the Manviya Shiksha Shodh Kendra in Parda, Buldhana, where he has run numerous Jeevan Vidya Shivirs. Within Anandi Kutumb Samruddha Gram, education and village development fall largely to him — his way of putting into practice the principle of shiksha se vyavastha, using value education as the lever that changes how a village functions.

Ummed Nahata

Member, Core Team

For Ummed Nahata, the guiding aspiration is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — the world as one family — and it was this aspiration that led him to found SHAPE Foundation. His conviction is straightforward: harmony and a prosperous, happy life for everyone are not distant goals to chase but conditions already present in the design of existence, waiting to be understood through value education. He has been part of the family business since 1980, and later built Evosys into a global IT enterprise that eventually merged with Mastek in 2020. In 2013, his path crossed with Coexistentialism, Madhyasth Darshan, a study he has carried forward ever since. Within Anandi Kutumb Samruddha Gram, this experience translates into vision-setting and resourcing — the same enterprise instincts that built Evosys now sustain the village initiative.

Dr. Sanket Thakur

Member, Core Team

Sanket Thakur's background is in plant biotechnology and agricultural science, built around a single aim: getting the benefits of agriculture and biotech directly into farmers' hands and helping agro-entrepreneurship take root. He completed his PhD in Plant Tissue Culture at the University of London, and has since worked as a scientist, chief scientist, and managing director across a range of research bodies and farmer-producer organizations — including years of work alongside tribal farmers spread across four districts of Chhattisgarh. That grounding in farmer-producer realities is what he brings to Anandi Kutumb Samruddha Gram, where he leads the Sustainable Production domain, working out models of production that are self-reliant, sustainable, and rooted in coexistence.

Naresh Baluni

Member, Core Team

Naresh Baluni approaches his work with a results-first mindset, paired with a genuine curiosity about human consciousness and how Madhyasth Darshan plays out in practice. Trained in psychology and having led an FMCG company as CEO, he found in Madhyasth Darshan what he describes as a reason and direction for living — a study that continues to occupy him closely. He is presently involved with Utsav.Earth, among other initiatives. His contribution to Anandi Kutumb Samruddha Gram centers on curriculum: shaping the psychology behind value-based education and self-regulation so it can be taught and practiced at the village level.