Shantanu’s Yuva Foundation was the youth engagement and training partner for MUDRA e-Rickshaw program, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under which thousands of cycle rickshaw pullers were upgraded to battery run rickshaws though Mudra loans.

Shantanu strongly feel that sports are an amazing medium to bring people together. While compiling PM Narendra Modi’s #ManKiBaat radio sessions in form of a book, he got to know about the FIFA under-17 football world cup being hosted by India in 2017. He got motivated by PM’s calling to take football to every town, every village and every street. Shantanu played one of the leading roles in organizing a football match, between Parliamentarians lead by Hon. Minister Babul Supriyo & MP Shri Manoj Tiwari vs Bollywood Eleven lead by Abhishek Bachan and Ranvir Kapoor, to promote FIFA under-17 football world cup.

Shantanu has an engineering degree from GB Pant University, Management education from XLRI, Jamshedpur and did his masters in policy and politics from Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex (United Kingdom). Before this, Shantanu has authored four books – Education Policy in India – Voice, Choice and Incentives (CCS), Compilation of Prime Minister’s Man Ki Baat (Kapot Books) and Uttar Pradesh, Vikas Ki Pratiksha Mein(Bloomsbury) and The Monk Who Became Chief Minister (Bloomsbury)

In addition to YUVA Foundation, Shantanu is on the board of many youth organizations, to guide them and enlighten them with a global vision and perspective. The most prominent among these organisations are Esteem Youth Foundation, I Connect India and Model Youth Parliament.

Catering to his longing for algorithms and programming, Shantanu did Diploma in Advance Computing from Center for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC), Hyderabad. CDAC is the same research institute, which has developed and designed the first super computer of India – PARAM.

After working for couple of years, Shantanu did his Post Graduate Certificate in Business Management from Xavier’s Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur.

At XLRI, Shantanu learnt the nuances of management, marketing, negotiation and decision making. He still recollects that how he was thrilled to learn game theory at XLRI. Shantanu says that he met some amazing set of professors, and learnt equally form the students.

After working in Information Technology and Business Consulting, over many years in India, Cyprus, Switzerland, Israel and Hungary, Shantanu heard his calling and left his corporate career for public life. To enrich his knowledge in the social & political themes, in the year 2008 Shantanu went to Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, United Kingdom, to do his Masters in Governance and Development. This is the same University of Sussex, which has been ranked number 1, for development studies, in the QS World University Rankings by Subject in year 2015. Harvard was ranked number 2 and Oxford and LSE ranked number 4 and 5 respectively in the same year. Currently Shantanu is also the Alumni Ambassador of IDS, University of Sussex in India.

From plateau of Hyderabad, Shantanu moved to the land of Punjab, to work for the Project Management Unit (PMU) of digital publication giant Quark. QuarkExpress is the same software which is being used to design and publish most of the newspapers and magazines in India and globally. In Quark, Shantanu moved from software development to project management. This is major shift for him as instead of a computer, now he started spending time with people. He was just 24 years old and he started working with the senior management team, development teams and client’s team of this global giant. There he started volunteering with local NGOs for teaching slum kids. This is time when he planned for his management degree from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

After Quark and XLRI, Shantanu completely moved to process management and consulting. He got the opportunity to work with Geometric Software in Pune, which is now part of HCL Technologies. Here Shantanu worked with internal teams, clients for the process improvement models like CMMI, 6-Sigma etc. There he developed fondness with the food and the lively city of Pune.

From Pune, Shantanu again move towards South of India. He joined Daimler Chrysler’s research center in Bengaluru. Shantanu thought owning a Mercedes Benz may take time, but atleast he got the opportunity to work with the company, early in his career. During the same time Shantanu got married, to his long time love, Swetha Rao Duggu a south Indian, and the story of Two States started. In Bengaluru Shantanu developed taste for art, theatre and plays. He kept on doing volunteer with local NGOs and civic bodies.

After Bengaluru, Shantanu opted for an overseas opportunity and joined Amdocs in Cyprus. Amdocs is head quartered in Israel and supports global telecom giants in their billing processes. In year 2005, this was the first overseas assignment for Shantanu and he quickly learnt the nuances of international work culture, regional cultural nuances, European monetary and taxation trends. Shantanu and Swetha still cherish that moment, when his office sent a Mercedes Benz for an airport pick up. Earlier he worked with Mercedes and now finally he sat in one. It was the same time, when Cyprus started efforts to move form Cyprian Pound to Euro, to fully integrate with European Union (EU). From Cyprus Shantanu travelled to Hungary, Dubai, Egypt & Israel, sometime for work and some for leisure. This made him to have a global approach for problems and widened his horizons and thinking process.

From Cyprus Shantanu moved to Zurich, Switzerland through Wipro Consulting Services to handle the process consulting assignment at Credit Suisse bank. He had a salaried account in UBS bank, during his consulting days in Zurich. It’s noteworthy that during the black money movement lead by Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare, both Credit Suisse and UBS were in news providing safe heavens of black money hoarders. Shantanu worked closely with Asha for Zurich team, for brining hope through education. Till today Shantanu enjoys great pride and satisfaction to remember the Zurich days, when he was able to call his parents and parent’s in law for the first overseas tour of their life. He says this was his Shavan Kumar moment in life, which he will always cherish. At this time Shantanu was at the peak of his career – working for a leading global bank, earning dollar salary and roaming around the globe. But at this very moment, he got his Eureka moment, he heard his calling, left every thing, and decided to quit his lucrative corporate career. He went on to study political science in United Kingdom and then came back to India and worked in the social sector

After working in the urban slum clusters in various cities of India, Shantanu wanted to learn the rural governance structures. This longing for learning landed him in Lalitpur, one of the poorest districts in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh. He led the Integrated District Project of UNICEF, along with various NGO partners. This role gave Shantanu the opportunity to learn district, block, tehsil and village level governance. He says that what he learnt from pradhans (elected panchayat leaders) of Lalitpur, still helps in understanding the policy implementations challenges in the ground

After learning and understanding the urban and rural policy implementation nuances, Shantanu wanted to work at the policy formation and advocacy level and so he landed in Delhi. He started working with India’s leading think tank, Center for Civil Society (CCS).CCS is the only Indian think tank in the global top 100 ranking[1]. He worked on education policy, street vending issues, gaps in right to education act, skilling policy challenges and various other governance issues. Working with field level NGOs, Shantanu has developed soft corner for welfare economy models but at CCS he trained himself and convinced himself through the objective arguments of market-based economy. He now believes that Government has no Business to be in Business, which is also one of the key themes in PM Narendra Modi’s Moditva doctrine. Shantanu admits that CCS’s founder Parth Shah and other team members at CCS has helped him shape is rational economic thinking

While working in CCS, Shantanu founded YUVA Foundation to engage with youth on the issues of policy and politics. Over years Shantanu shaped YUVA as a platform for young social entrepreneurs to try out different ideas, intern with him on different social issues and mentored many model youth parliaments. In 2015, Yuva Foundation became the youth engagement and training partner for MUDRA e-Rickshaw program of Bhartiya Micro Credit, which was blessed and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under this initiative thousands of cycle rickshaw pullers were upgraded to battery run rickshaws though Mudra loans.

Born and brought up in the devbhoomi of Uttarakhand, Shantanu always had respect for Vedic traditions and Vedic sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda. Through the positive influence of his father, Shantanu is practicing yoga and different types of meditation techniques, since childhood. During the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, impressed by his commitment for the purpose, Baba Ramdev made Shantanu come onboard as a Communication Advisor to Baba Ramdev. In a TV interview with NDTV, Baba Ramdev took immense pride in telling to the world, that his digital communication is handled by Shantanu, alum of University of Sussex.

From Cyprus Shantanu moved to Zurich, Switzerland through Wipro Consulting Services to handle the process consulting assignment at Credit Suisse bank. He had a salaried account in UBS bank, during his consulting days in Zurich. It’s noteworthy that during the black money movement lead by Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare, both Credit Suisse and UBS were in news providing safe heavens of black money hoarders. Shantanu worked closely with Asha for Zurich team, for brining hope through education. Till today Shantanu enjoys great pride and satisfaction to remember the Zurich days, when he was able to call his parents and parent’s in law for the first overseas tour of their life. He says this was his Shavan Kumar moment in life, which he will always cherish. At this time Shantanu was at the peak of his career – working for a leading global bank, earning dollar salary and roaming around the globe. But at this very moment, he got his Eureka moment, he heard his calling, left every thing, and decided to quit his lucrative corporate career. He went on to study political science in United Kingdom and then came back to India and worked in the social sector