The Dharani Trust
Established in 1999, The Dharani Trust is the parent and administering organization of The Indian Institute of Geographical Studies (TIIGS). Dharani is a registered non-governmental, non-profit, apolitical charitable trust in Bangalore, India. (Reg. No.: 148:1999-2000)
Dharani is approved by the Government of India to receive foreign contributions.
Dharani works in the fields of research, education, and community service using Geography in often unorthodox and innovative ways.
Mission
1. Interdisciplinary research on contemporary issues.
2. Education that integrates subjects in the curriculum and field-based research by capacity-building for teachers and students.
3. Outreach activities by helping civil society, governmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in project design and data capacity-building.
Trustees
Dr. Chandra Shekhar Balachandran, Geographer, Bangalore (Founder & Chairman). Dr. Balachandran is a geographer with over 25 years of cumulative teaching experience in the U.S.A. and India, ranging from K-12 to post-graduate geography education. He has worked extensively with K-12 geography teachers in the U.S.A. and India. He is currently based in Bangalore. He is actively promoting innovative geography education in the K-12 levels by active engagement with teachers and students in different syllabi in Kannada and English. He spearheads the GeoVidyaa Geography Centre of Excellence, a partnership with Army Public School, Bangalore. He can be contacted at balachandran at tiigs dot org.
Ms. T. Vasanthakumari, AMIE. Montessorian, Bangalore. (Managing Trustee). Ms. Vasanthkumari is an engineer. She was the first woman who became Executive Engineer at the (then) Karnataka Electricity Board. Since retirement, she has focused on the Montessori system of education. With the firm and deep conviction that all children are capable learners if only adults listen to them, she has been running a Montessori-style after-school activities center (”Young Creators’ Den”) for over a decade where children discover the true joy of learning through exploration.
Mr. Kiran Subbaraman, BE. IT Specialist, IBM, Bangalore. (Trustee). Mr. Kiran Subbaraman is a software engineer by profession; IBM his employer. Kiran is interested in travel, mix of history and geography in a cultural context. He occasionally authors posts on his travel blog: http://indukiran.wordpress.com/, other-interests blog: http://subbaraman.wordpress.com/, and on twitter: http://twitter.com/kirsn
Mr. Jai Iyer, B.E., MBA. Independent Consultant. (Trustee). Mr. Jai Iyer heads Marketing and Product Strategy at Magic Lamp Software,a technology startup in Bangalore. A computer science engineer by profession and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B), Jai spent seven years with Sun Microsystems Inc before moving into his current role to work on, in his own words, the first of many ‘Big Idea(s) That’ll Change The World’™. He is also an exhibited cartoonist, part-time magician and a self-confessed Apple-junkie.