In-Person Event

Building Resilient Futures: Data Skilling for Climate and Health 

Thursday, February 20, 2025
9:00am – 5:00pm IST

Ashoka University
National Capital Region P.O.,
Plot no. 2, Rajiv Gandhi Education City,
Rai, Sonipat, Haryana 131029

About the Event

Rising temperatures, extreme weather, vector-borne diseases, and food insecurity—these escalating consequences of the climate crisis threaten public health across continents and communities. Data and AI hold the power to tackle intersectional climate and health challenges, but only if those most impacted are part of the solutions.

With generous support from Wellcome in 2022, data.org launched two Data Capacity Accelerators in Africa and India to drive purpose-driven data capacity at the intersection of climate and health. In partnership with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, J-PAL South Asia, and a network of leading higher education partners including Ashoka University, BITS Pilani, and IIIT Delhi, this program provides localized data training and experiential learning opportunities to accelerate sustainable and equitable change.

On Thursday, February 20, meet the Capacity Accelerator Network (CAN) partners, trainers, social impact organizations, and emerging data talent across Africa and India. Hosted by India Data Capacity Accelerator partner, Ashoka University, this event will bring cross-sector leaders together to share learnings, impact, and inspiration from two successful Data Capacity Accelerators. At this convening, you will engage directly with data for social impact educators and students, hear concrete examples of the impact of data solutions to address climate’s impact on health, learn about the benefits of fellowship programs, and connect with the larger ecosystem building a healthier and more resilient future.

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India CAN Event 2025

Speakers

Abhishek Singh

Additional Secretary

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India

Shri Abhishek Singh is a career civil servant with 29 years of experience of governance & policy formulation. He specializes in the use of Technology for improving Governance.  He currently serves as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, with responsibilities of Artificial Intelligence & Emerging…

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Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi

Associate Head of the School for Interdisciplinary Research and Entrepreneurship

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani)

Prof. Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi is currently an Associate Head of the School for Interdisciplinary Research and Entrepreneurship (SIRE) at BITS, Pilani’s, Goa campus. Dr. Chaturvedi specialises in Climate Change related issues. He has contributed to more than fifty peer reviewed journal articles and three books in this area. He is…

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Mohammad Sarfarazul Ambiya

Chief Data Scientist

Khushi Baby

Mohammad Sarfarazul Ambiya is an M.Tech graduate in Electronics and Communication from VTU University. He currently serves as the Chief Data Scientist at Khushi Baby, Technical Advisor at the data.org’s India Capacity Accelerator Network for JPAL South Asia, Academic Mentor at MIT Great Learning, Geospatial Scientist at Omdena and Data…

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Poornima Prabhakaran

Director of the Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends

Ashoka University

Dr. Poornima Prabhakaran is the Director of the Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends (CHART) at the Trivedi School of Biosciences and former Director, Centre for Environmental Health at the Public Health Foundation of India.  After graduating from Bangalore Medical College, she pursued her Master’s in Epidemiology at the…

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Gaurav Godhwani

Co-founder and Executive Director

CivicDataLab

Gaurav Godhwani is co-founder and executive director at CivicDataLab – a research lab focused to strengthen data for public good and enhance civic engagements in India & other Asian countries. He works to leverage the open-source movement to enable citizens to engage better in public reforms. He has been instrumental…

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Jayprakash Nayak

Analyst

Socratus Foundation for Collective Wisdom

Jayprakash Nayak is an Analyst at Socratus Foundation for Collective Wisdom, where he is leveraging data to co-create the People’s Climate Atlas of Odisha. He combines geospatial analysis with community inputs to inform hyperlocal climate strategies. Jayprakash graduated from the first cohort of the Postgraduate Diploma in Data Science for…

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Shagun Sabarwal

Regional Director for Asia

Co-Impact

Shagun Sabarwal is the Regional Director for Asia at Co-impact. She leads Co-Impact’s program strategy and grant making in Asia. Shagun is an experienced social policy and development leader with demonstrated experience building partnerships for achieving the use of evidence in policy and supporting programs for gender equality. Shagun is…

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Cormekki Whitley, Ph.D.

Chief Operating Officer

data.org

Cormekki Whitley is the Chief Operating Officer at data.org. As a member of the Executive team, Cormekki provides high-level fiscal oversight, oversees contract administration, and streamlines both in-house personnel and resource systems.

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Aditi Namdeo

Director – Strategic Initiatives

J-PAL South Asia

Aditi comes with extensive public-private partnerships, technology policy, innovation, and consulting experience of around two decades spread across the globe notably in Europe, the US, and Australia working at leadership positions with organizations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and PwC. As the Director – Strategic Initiatives, Aditi is…

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Raghu Dharmaraju

Chief Executive Officer

ARTPARK @ IISc

Raghu Dharmaraju, CEO of ARTPARK at IISc, has over two decades of experience in building and scaling innovations and institutions for impact. He is a Fellow of the Lancet Commission for Reimagining India’s Health Systems. ARTPARK, a double winner of the Global Grand Challenge for Catalyzing Equitable AI by BMGF,…

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TS

Tavpritesh Sethi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi)

Dr. Tavpritesh Sethi is a physician-scientist and Associate Professor of Computational Biology at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, India, and a fellow of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

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Agenda

TimeSessionsSpeakers
9:00am – 10:00amRegistration and networking
10:00am – 10:10amOpening RemarksSpeakers:
Partha Pratim Das, Ashoka University
Uyi Stewart, data.org
10:10am – 10:35amFrom India to the World: Data Capacity Building at ScaleSpeakers:
Shri Abhishek Singh, Ministry of Electronics & IT, Govt. of India

Moderator: Danil Mikhailov, data.org
10:35am – 10:50amIndia Data Capacity Accelerator Playbook LaunchSpeakers:
Aditi Namdeo, J-PAL SA
Partha Pratim Das, Ashoka University
Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi, BITS Pilani
Jaspreet Kaur, IIIT Delhi

Key Supporters:
Felipe Colón Gonzalez, Wellcome
Shri Abhishek Singh, Ministry of Electronics & IT, Govt. of India

Moderator: Perry Hewitt, data.org
10:50am – 10:55am Lightning Talk: Purpose-Driven Data Workforce SpotlightTBC, India CAN Fellow
10:55am – 11:30am Pioneering Interdisciplinary Data Training: Learnings at the Climate x Health NexusSpeakers:
Poornima Prabhakaran, Ashoka University
Tavpritesh Sethi, IIIT Delhi
Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi, BITS Pilani  

Moderator: Isabel Fletcher, Wellcome
11:30pm – 11:35amLightning Talk: Purpose-Driven Data Workforce SpotlightTBC, Africa CAN fellow
11:35am – 11:55amNetworking break
11:55am – 12:30pmDriving Systems Change and Funding Solutions for a Sustainable Future  Speakers:
Felipe Colón Gonzalez, Wellcome
Shagun Sabarwal, Co-Impact
Murugan Vasudevan, Veddis Foundation

Moderator: Cormekki Whitley, data.org
12:30pm – 12:35pmLightning Talk: Student SpotlightTBC, Ashoka Student
12:35pm – 1:10pmFueling the Future: India Data Capacity FellowshipsSpeakers:
Mohammad Sarfarazul Ambiya, Khushi Baby
Gaurav Godhwani, Civic Data Labs
TBC, India CAN fellow

Moderator: Aditi Namdeo, J-PAL SA
1:10pm – 2:10pmLunch
2:10pm – 2:45pmDriving Data Maturity to Unlock the Power of the Data for Social Impact WorkforceSpeakers:
Raghu Dharmaraju, ARTPARK
Krishna Mishra, eKutir
Linet Kwamboka, The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data

Moderator: Hisham Mundol, Environmental Defense Fund
2:45pm – 2:50pmLightning Talk: Student SpotlightJayprakash Nayak, IIIT D Student
2:50pm – 3:00pmClosing RemarksSpeakers:
Shantanu Bhanja, Ashoka University,
Priyank Hirani, data.org
3:00pm – 5:00pmInsights on Display: Poster Gallery

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