Lt Gen Shokin Chauhan, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM (Retd)
Former Director General, Assam Rifles and Former Chairman, Ceasefire Monitoring Group
Lt Gen Shokin Chauhan, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM (Retd)
Lt Gen Shokin Chauhan, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM (Retd) is a highly decorated General Officer of the Indian Army who had the distinction of being the Director General of Assam Rifles, India’s oldest and largest Para Military Force (2016 – 2018). In August 2018, post his retirement from the Army, Gen Chauhan took over as Chairman of the Cease Fire Monitoring Group (CFMG). In this position, his role was to ensure that ground rules as per the ceasefire agreements were followed by various groups in the North East in order that a durable peace could prevail. He had a major role in reinvigorating the peace process and was able to develop considerable rapport with leadership of groups that had signed peace accords with the Government. In the recent past, he was, in a major way, responsible for extending the lapsed Peace Accord with Naga groups.
Earlier in his military career, Gen Chauhan commanded the 2/11 Gorkha Rifles battalion in Doda-Kishtawar in Jammu and Kashmir and was the Defence Attaché of India in Kathmandu, Nepal. On repatriation to India, he commanded 70 Infantry Brigade located in Balpura, Shopian. His extended area of responsibility included restive Pulwama and Kulgam Districts also also. He later moved this the Brigade Headquarters to Kiari in Eastern Ladakh.
After a brief tenure as the Senior Instructor at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Gen Chauhan was nominated to the prestigious National Defence College (NDC). Post his NDC course, he commanded 8 Mountain Division at Kumbhathang that was responsible for the entire Western Ladakh. From 2015-2016, 1 Corps, the elite strike corps of the Indian army, deployed in over 8 states and 25 cities and was responsible for operations on our Western borders.
During his tenure as DGAR as well as Chairman CFMG, Gen Chauhan has extended his personal support and mentorship to Sunbird Trust. Given his most distinguished Army Service and his incisive knowledge of the North East as well as his personal engagement and rapport with overground militant groups, Gen Chauhan will be of immense help in advising Sunbird Trust in its primary task of building bridges of Peace and Friendship.
Luis Miranda
Dot Connector
Luis Miranda
C Balagopal
ex-IAS, Entrepreneur and Author
C Balagopal
C Balagopal studied Economics at Loyola College, Madras from Madras University and joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1977 and worked in various posts in Manipur and Kerala. He resigned from the IAS in 1983, to set up a company using knowhow developed at SCTIMST, Trivandrum with the support of the National Research & Development Corporation and KSIDC to manufacture indigenously developed biomedical devices for the first time in the country. This came to be known as Terumo Penpol Ltd. and is today one of the biggest manufacturers and exporters of hi-tech blood bag systems in the world. He sold his stake in the company to Terumo Corp. of Japan in 2012 and retired from active business.
Balagopal is today involved in mentoring and investing in startup ventures, community development activities and writing. He is a Charter member and first President of TiE Kerala. He is a member of Ethics Committee of Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, member of the Board of Directors of India’s first medical devices incubator TIMed set up by SCTIMST, member of the Technology Development Council of SCTIMST, and an independent director on the Board of the Federal Bank Ltd.
He is the founder of ANAHA Trust, set up to support social entrepreneurship in the fields of primary education and public health with a focus on rural areas. Projects supported by the Anaha Trust are currently under implementation in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Manipur.
He has won many awards and accolades which includes National R&D Award for successful commercialization of Indigenous Technology by Ministry of Science & Technology, Outstanding Entrepreneurship award from KSIDC, Management Leadership Award of Trivandrum Management Association and National Exports Awards every year from 1994-95 onwards.
He has written three books about his experiences as an IAS officer in Manipur and Kerala. The first book is “On A Clear Day You Can See India” published by Harper Collins in 2013, and the second book is “The View From Kollam: A Day In The Life Of A Sub-Collector” published by the same publisher in 2015. The third book ‘Maveli and Markets’ was published by D C Books. He is working on other books on subjects as diverse as governance, public services, and entrepreneurship. These books are intended as study material for administrative training institutes, as well as motivational material for young people interested in joining the government service. He is active on Facebook and writes a page on subjects such as community development, contemporary affairs, politics and governance, public health, education, and related subjects. He writes a regular column in Destination Kerala on contemporary issues.
Balagopal has been closely associated with Sunbird Trust since 2015. He has generously contributed to raising educational infrastructure including three computer laboratories, a skilling centre, school classrooms, a school hall and two village water tanks. These projects are benefitting hundreds of children and village inhabitants. He has spent time visiting the Sunbird Trust projects in the remotest parts of Manipur and is a respected mentor to our young team members.
Dr. Vivek Bhaktaram
M.D. F.A.C.C. Cardiologist
Dr. Vivek Bhaktaram, M.D. F.A.C.C.
In 1993, Vivek moved to the US and did a residency in Internal Medicine at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre before completing a Cardiology fellowship in 1999. He is board certified in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology and now practices at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital as an interventional cardiologist.
Dr Bhaktaram has been deeply involved with the activities of Sunbird Trust. He is married with three children. He enjoys gardening and loves to travel.
Jatin Lucky
Director, Cinematographer, and Producer
Jatin Lucky
Jatin Lucky is a seasoned director, cinematographer, and producer with over two decades of experience in various fields, including IT, sales, television production, and direction. His portfolio spans a wide range of television programming, including travel shows, reality shows, advertising, and more. He’s known for his creative vision and has contributed to numerous documentaries, corporate films, and TV programs. His work has been recognized with awards, such as the ITA award for Best Director of Reality in 2014 and 2016 for the show “Mission Sapne.” Jatin Lucky’s extensive experience and creative prowess make him a prominent figure in the industry.
Jatin has been an integral part of the Sunbird Trust family, having created beautiful videos like the Luminous video, 15th August Tidings and a few music videos.
Francis Lobo
Francis Lobo
Francis grew up in Bangalore, India and got his MBA from Loyola University in Chicago. He lives with his wife Roopa and their two children Samara and Ari in Dallas. He is an avid golfer and loves to travel. He also spends time working with multiple non-profits in India in the education space.
David Gandhi
David Gandhi
On visiting Manipur as a consultant in 2016, David was exposed to the agriculture and livelihood practices of the hill tribes and felt convinced about the need to understand and improve them. He decided to devote himself full time towards this end and took the extraordinary step of relocating his home to an extremely remote Aben village in Manipur. After thoroughly understanding the local context, the development history, and consulting with the farmers, David encouraged a few of them to experiment with Sloping Agriculture Land Technology (SALT) as a sustainable alternative to Jhum cultivation. The initial demonstrations were able to convince other farmers about the potential of SALT. As a result, SALT is slowly spreading to a number of villages in the area. Many institutions including Manipur State Rural Livelihoods Mission and Rongmei Naga Baptist Association are now implementing SALT in their operational areas.
David’s proposal ‘Developing an Alternative to Shifting Cultivation in North East India’ was entered for the annual global contest conducted by ClimateCoLab, which is a project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Centre for Collective Intelligence. The proposal was the winner of the 2018 Judges Choice Award and Popular Choice Award in the Agriculture and Land Use Category.
Both David and his wife Usha Gandhi along with the Aben village community share a close relationship with Sunbird Trust. While Sunbird Trust is supporting the education program through sponsorship and teaching assistance, it was decided to set up a SALT Demonstration Farm at Sunbird Trust’s partner Puichi Village in Noney district. Since then, David has trained two interns and the SALT Demo Farm at Puichi has been established and is being developed from March 2021.
Farmer Samir Bordoloi
Social Agripreneur
Farmer Samir Bordoloi
Samir’s works are dedicated towards involving the younger generation in growing their own food through conservation of the local food wisdom and sustainable natural resource management. An agricultural graduate from the Assam Agricultural University, he quit his corporate job in 2005 to establish the first Plant Health Clinic (SS Botanicals) in Jorhat. He was a pioneer private plant doctor in the region and started the concept of Agri Clinic & Agri Business Centre. His involvement with the rural young farmers through the services of the clinic led to formation of many village organizations like the Prakriti, Pathar and Seuj Chinta Integrated Marketing and Extension Group. The main objective of the organizations he formed is sustainable organic farming. Samir has formulated his own low-cost ecological farming practices. More than 10,000 farmers now work with him. He has travelled extensively to learn about traditional farming practices from grassroot farmers. With this, he came to the conclusion that his University agricultural knowledge was very theoretical. Based on the ITKs (Indigenous technical knowhows), he crystallized his model of ecological farming practices.
Samir is obsessed with educating small, marginal and tribal farmers not to waste their hard-earned money by getting trapped with agricultural products of corporatized industrial agriculture. He is working on retaining the younger generation of farmers with the occupation of their parents by making farming profitable by lowering the cost of cultivation and leveraging local resources. He started his programme Attracting Students to Agripreneurship Program (ASAP) and started teaching school children and college students to create a “Food Forest” of local crops. As an activity-based learning model, school children of many rural schools of Northeast India create their School Food Forest and learn his concept of “Nutrition to Livelihoods”. He pioneered the first Food Forest of North East India with his innovative model of growing local low volume and high value crops inside the forest. The Food Forest base is at his SPREAD NE Farm Learning Centre, Sonapur, Assam.
At SPREAD NE Farm Learning Centre at Sonapur where his Food Forest is based, Assam Samir trains young people through three days and five days farm Campings on zero budget ecological farming practices. With this, they transform to Green Commandos (Social Agripreneurs). Having started in 2017, as of June 2020 he has trained 426 Green Commandos at the Farm Learning Centre. Through the innovative market-led production programme called “Farm-Connect”, the Green Commandos in turn train farmers at the grassroots and then convince consumers in the cities to adopt these local farmers for their food. As a bridge between the farmers and the consumers, Green Commandos maintain themselves in a self-sustaining model. They endeavour to double small farmers’ income by introducing value addition services to farming like Farm & Food tourism, training and exposure visits.
Farmer Samir’s works have been recognized with a plethora of National and International awards. He was awarded the Pragati Puraskar for Organic farming in 2016 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and All India Agricultural Students Association (AIASA). In 2017, he was recognized by MANAGE, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, Govt. of India as the “Best Agripreneur of the Country”. In 2018, Assam Agricultural University honoured him with Krishak Ratna Award. In 2019, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) conferred him with the prestigious “Innovative Farmer Award of the Country”. That year, Farmer Samir Bordoloi was selected for the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship from South Asia.
Samir has authored two books on low cost ecological farming practices. He has published several noteworthy articles in national and international media. He is very active in Social media and his works can be followed in his Facebook pages “Samir Bordoloi” and “Spread NE”.
Samir has been closely associated with Sunbird Trust since 2016. Given his vast knowledge and experience in working with marginalized and tribal farmers, he is an obvious choice as adviser to Sunbird Trust for our livelihood and community engagement initiatives in our project areas.
Shaktidhar Langpoklakpam
Shaktidhar Langpoklakpam
Shaktidhar has also been closely advising Sunbird Trust since 2012 and is glad to be a part of the organization that he terms as a human engineering network. He has vast experience in the field of education and welfare at the grassroots and continues to contribute his expertise in building the lives of children and the community altogether. With his pre-eminent role amongst School Management professionals, Shaktidar advises Sunbird Trust on myriad issues connected with the running of the Trust’s partner schools.
Usha Gandhi
Usha Gandhi
At Aben, while her husband, an Agriculture professional helped local farmers gain knowledge of new practices, Usha became aware of the underserved children in Aben that lacked the basic facilities of a proper school. At the request of the village heads for their help in improving the functioning of the government-run Upper Primary School, she took up the task of mobilizing resources with the help of family and friends.
Supported by Sunbird team members posted at Aben, Usha was successful in bringing visual and other educational aids that saw visible improvements in the quality of education imparted to the children. She further curated a curriculum and teaching method that allowed 10 and 12 passed students to take up the role of a teacher when required. Usha and the community at Aben share a very close relationship that was further strengthened after Sunbird Trust’s intervention in the area through its full-time teaching program, sponsorship, and improving the infrastructure and curriculum in general.
Longni John Tao
Longni John Tao
John is the first chartered accountant from the district with professional experience of over 8 years. He has worked in Bangalore for more than five years in a leading audit and tax consulting firm like Deloitte. He left the metropolis to partner with organizations in North East India to help them achieve their desired outcomes from the growing market. John’s focus is to help start-ups and other small and medium-sized business owners in starting, managing, and growing their businesses. He focuses on compliance and profitability utilizing best practices and developing trust. He is also a founding director of M/s TSIIBE Foundation, a Section 8 Company registered under the Companies Act 2013.
As a son of the soil from the Senapati District of Manipur, John assists Sunbird in myriad outreach developmental activities in the District. He also advises the organization and its partner schools in financial compliance and audit requirements.
Striving to continuously improve the quality of his services, John believes in the power of being humane and is a strong proponent of giving back to society. He highly values an act done with utmost honesty and integrity and considers it as a prerequisite for success in all the areas of life and profession.
Dilip Chakma
Dilip Chakma
On his graduation, Dilip went on to work with several human rights organisations and networks, including the Asian Centre for Human Rights, Indigenous Lawyers Network etc. He also had stints with international organizations like the TMC Asser Institute and the Justice and Peace Foundation at Hague, Netherlands.
Presently, Dilip runs a law, public policy and human rights practice at the Indigenous Rights Advocacy Centre (IRAC) while also working as an independent legal consultant on indigenous peoples’ rights. His areas of interest and expertise includes legal and policy advocacy on tribal and minority rights.
One of Sunbird Trust’s distinguished alumni, Dilip along with another alumnus, Dr Ben Khiangte is a member of Sunbird’s Advisory Committee.
Ankita Phalle
Ankita Phalle
Even before completing college, Ankita along with three others launched Mapping Journeys, a travel venture to create a community of travellers who learn from experiences and immerse themselves in local culture. Her desire to create an education system tailored for lesser privileged people led her to do the Teach For India Fellowship in a low-income school in Mumbai. Her immersive experience here taught her strategic problem-solving, building relations with external stakeholders, and creating strong classroom culture. In 2017, after completing of her Fellowship, Ankita joined Sunbird Trust as a Programme Manager. As one of the pioneer team members of the then-fledgling organisation, her task was to monitor and supervise the education of 2,100 students across 21 locations in three North Eastern States of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. With her TFI experience, she instituted new processes in the organisation’s programme and imprinted her personal stamp on the educational and organisational methodologies being followed in these far-flung communities. She once trekked 80kms to study the need of establishing a school in a cluster of remote villages. Through her intimate connection with local people, children at the school and the security officials, Ankita was able to quickly pick up nuances of the triggers of conflict including issues of identity, resources and culture.
Having worked for Sunbird’s Peace through Education initiative, Ankita was motivated to pursue and complete an MA in Peace and Conflict studies from the University of Manchester. Upon her return to India, she now works as a consultant with international NGOs. She continues to maintain a close connection with the team at Sunbird Trust.
Genavafa Behphat
Genavafa Behphat
Geny always had the wish to go back to her roots someday to work for the upliftment of the rural community in her area. After accumulating the experience of nine years in the NGO sector, she returned to her village and founded the organization Foundation for Empowerment and Inclusive Development in 2017. Here, she began providing support to the community through skill training and other developmental work.
Education had always been close to Geny’s heart, as she herself was not fortunate enough to access quality education as a child. To provide access to quality education to other under resourced children, she founded the school Dew Drop Academy in 2019 with her own money and with the support of her family.
Sunbird Trust has been partnering with Dew Drops Academy since 2020, as Geny takes the school to greater heights every year, and aims to bring a dynamic change to the lives of rural tribal children of not only her area but the entire State of Meghalaya.
Dr Benjamine Khiangte
Sunbird Trust Alumnus and MD (Med), DNB (Gastro), PGDGM (Geriatrics), CEBDM (Diabetes). Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist.
Dr Benjamine Khiangte
Born in an underprivileged agricultural family from Mizoram, Benjamine Khiangte sought the help of the Sunbird team in 2004 to complete his MBBS. With an interest free loan though the “Loan Scholarship Scheme” (then being run under the aegis of the Maria Seva Sangha), he graduated from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha.
In 2009, Ben secured admission into the prestigious and competitive Post Graduate (MD, Internal Medicine) course at his old college. During this time, the Sunbird team continued to support him. Completing his post-graduation in 2012, Ben practiced as a consultant Physician, Geriatrician and Diabetologist at Nazareth Hospital, Shillong. Married to Hmai (an Audiologist) and with two sons Nathan and Caleb, he has now completed his super specialty (DrNB in Gastroenterology) at Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Thiruvananthapuram. Currently, Dr. Ben is working in Aizawl, Mizoram as consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist.
Today, Ben not only supports other needy students from his village but also sponsors two other children in the Sunbird Sponsor a Child scheme. Dr. Ben Khiangte, a distinguished alumnus, is also on the Advisory Board of Sunbird Trust.
“I thank the Sunbird team for coming to my rescue at a critical time in my career. Their timely and sustained assistance helped me transcend my financial difficulties and complete my studies. Inspired by this initiative, I will remain an active and lifelong contributor in this noble endeavour.”