Ramesh Ramanathan is co-founder of Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, a non-profit organisation focused on improving urban governance in India. In addition to Janaagraha, Ramesh has worked in the Indian microfinance sector for close to a decade, with a special focus on urban microfinance. He is Chairman of Janalakshmi, an urban microfinance institution in India.

Ramesh works closely with government on urban issues in a pro-bono capacity.  His current positions with government include being the National Technical Advisor, Government of India for the Jawarharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the largest urban initiative in the country’s history; member of the High Powered Empowered Committee to estimate urban infrastructure needs.

Prior to these social initiatives, Ramesh worked with Citibank in New York and London. When he left to begin his social activities in India, he was MD and Head, European Corporate Derivatives, and a member of the Global Markets Leadership Team, collectively running a business with an annual revenue of over $1 billion.

Ramesh has an MS in Physics from BITS Pilani, an MBA from Yale University, and a Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) degree from the Association of Investment Management & Research (AIMR).

Ramesh has co-authored a book titled, ‘Urban Poverty Alleviation in India’ & writes regularly about public governance issues in leading national publications.  He was nominated as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in 2007.

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