Every decade produces a handful of individuals who redefine what leadership, enterprise, governance, innovation, and purpose can look like. This edition of Founders to Watch brings together ten such changemakers from across India and the world, professionals whose work spans financial strategy, public governance, spiritual guidance, enterprise technology, sustainability, financial inclusion, executive coaching, rural empowerment, conscious living, and metabolic healthcare. Each of them has built something distinctive: a business, an institution, a framework, a movement, or a body of work that is contributing to the way people think, work, lead, and create change. What follows is a closer look at their journeys, their philosophies, and the impact they continue to create.

Sankaranarayanan Sathiavageeswaran | Managing Partner, Sathiavageeswaran S & Co., Chartered Accountants

Sankaranarayanan Sathiavageeswaran, B.Com, FCA, LLB, is a Chartered Accountant, law graduate and business and financial strategy consultant with 13+ years of professional experience across India and the UAE. He is Managing Partner at Sathiavageeswaran S & Co., Chartered Accountants, Partner at Iyer & Nair Chartered Accountants, and Founder of Opulence Accounting and Bookkeeping LLC, UAE. His work spans accounts review, management dashboards, financial reporting, project feasibility, due diligence, taxation, internal controls and selected audit assignments. A former faculty member in auditing, Also speaks on taxation, regulatory developments and business finance through professional forums and podcasts. He incorporates technology and AI-enabled workflows into financial review, reporting and decision-support processes.

Dr. Heera Lal Patel, IAS |  Secretary, National Integration Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh

Dr. Heera Lal Patel, IAS is a senior public administrator, governance practitioner, author, social entrepreneur, and changemaker with 30+ years of experience in public administration, rural development, sustainability, and citizen-centric governance. Currently serving as Secretary, National Integration Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh, he has championed innovative, community-led and low-cost approaches to developmental challenges. His holistic water conservation efforts in Banda helped increase the groundwater level by 1.34 metres. His work spans water conservation, education, agriculture, prison reforms, election management, climate action, and public-service innovation. A B.Tech. in Electronics Engineering and Ph.D. in Governance and Development, Dr. Patel mentors Model Gaon and is the co-author of the best-selling book Dynamic D.M.

Mr. Daksh Kakkar

Mr. Daksh Kakkar |  Evidential Psychic Medium & Akashic Records Practitioner (Psychic Medium Daksh)

Mr. Daksh Kakkar, professionally recognized as Psychic Medium Daksh, is an Evidential Psychic Medium and Akashic Records practitioner with 10+ years of experience in spiritual guidance and personal transformation. With a global community of 100K+ followers, built a strong digital presence around mediumship, akashic records, and soul-path guidance. A two-time TEDx speaker, Daksh has shared insights on consciousness, afterlife, spirituality, and unseen dimensions, while his work has been featured in reputed platforms including The Times of India and Pinkvilla. Utilizing mediumship, Akashic Records, Past Life patterns and structured soul-path sessions, helps individuals explore recurring patterns, ancestral influences, relationships, career concerns, and personal challenges, to provide clarity, self-reflection, karmic and ancestral patterns.

Mr. Sudheer Soman Nair

Mr. Sudheer Soman Nair  |  Founder, eresource ERP

Mr. Sudheer Soman Nair, Founder of eresource ERP, is driving the evolution of intelligent enterprise technology with a vision of “Made in India, built for the world.” He aims to transform ERP from a transaction-recording system into an intelligent platform that analyses data, detects anomalies, identifies trends, recommends KPIs, and supports smarter business decisions. Central to his philosophy is “One Business. One License. Unlimited Users.”, making enterprise technology more accessible and scalable. Sudheer envisions AI embedded across screens, workflows, reports, and business processes, helping organisations understand what happened, why it happened, and what should happen next. His ambition is to build the intelligent ERP of the future, where AI is inside ERP, not beside it.

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Dr. Niyas Maheen

Dr. Niyas Maheen | Managing Director, TESTRON GROUP

Dr. Niyas Maheen is a UAE-based global entrepreneur, engineer, sustainability professional, and Managing Director of TESTRON GROUP, a global provider of quality-control and material-testing solutions. An engineering graduate with an MBA and doctoral research in Sustainability, he combines technical expertise with business leadership to address evolving industrial and environmental challenges. With 12+ years of experience all over plastics, polymers, packaging, sustainability, and circular economy, he has developed international exposure across more than 20 countries. TESTRON GROUP provides testing and quality-assurance technologies for industries including plastics, packaging, construction, metals, textiles, and manufacturing. His work focuses on improving product quality, process efficiency, resource optimisation, and sustainable industrial practices across global markets.

Mr. Vishal Bhati

Mr. Vishal Bhati | Founder, Mahavira Finlease Limited

Mr. Vishal Bhati is the Founder and driving force behind Mahavira Finlease Limited, an RBI-registered NBFC established in 1996, with nearly 30 years of experience in financial services. Under his leadership, the company has focused on making credit more accessible through simple, convenient, and technology-enabled financial solutions. He has also spearheaded the growth of Credit4Sure, a digital lending platform designed to simplify the personal-loan journey through a paperless and transparent process. His vision goes beyond lending, he aims to build a financial ecosystem centred on trust, convenience, and responsible access to credit. With the help of technology and customer-focused solutions, Vishal continues to strengthen Credit4Sure’s presence in India’s evolving digital financial services landscape.

Ms. Pooja Dawra

Ms. Pooja Dawra | Executive Coach & Managing Partner, TPC Leadership India

Ms. Pooja Dawra is a globally experienced CXO and Executive Coach, Systemic Leadership Practitioner, and Managing Partner at TPC Leadership India. An ICF Master Certified Coach and EMCC Senior Practitioner, she brings 23+ years of experience partnering with CXOs, senior leaders and teams across Fortune 500 companies, global organisations and institutions in 30+ countries. Her work integrates Executive and Team Coaching, Systemic Thinking and Organisational Transformation. Recognised among the ‘Most Impactful Coaches’, Pooja has coached leaders at Amazon, United Nations, Expedia, PepsiCo, IBM, and Rolls-Royce. She is global faculty and mentor coach for international coach certification programmes and founded Sparkinfy Global Foundation to extend coaching’s transformative power to underserved communities.

Mr. Chetan Namdeoji Bangade

Mr. Chetan Namdeoji Bangade | Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, Swaseva Training & Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Chetan Namdeoji Bangade is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Swaseva Training & Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd., an organisation focused on motivating rural businesses through compliance, documentation, financial and business-support solutions. With professional experience across field operations, telecom and business management, Chetan brings a practical understanding of the challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs. His entrepreneurial journey took a defining turn in 2020, when a personal interaction highlighted how timely guidance on business documentation and government schemes could transform a small business. This experience inspired the foundation of Swaseva. Today, the organisation works to simplify business compliance and documentation for rural entrepreneurs at the same time creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for rural youth. Chetan’s vision is to build stronger, self-reliant rural business communities across India.

Mr. Anoop Shanker Madan

Mr. Anoop Shanker Madan | Founder, Kaliyuga Gurukul for Conscious Learning | MD, Simplicity Projects Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Anoop Shanker Madan is a third-generation entrepreneur, author, consciousness explorer, and Founder of Kaliyuga Gurukul for Conscious Learning. As Managing Director of Simplicity Projects Pvt. Ltd., he carries forward a business legacy in bulk material handling engineering over exploring questions of purpose, awareness, and human transformation. His work bridges entrepreneurship with ancient Indian wisdom, making spirituality and conscious living relevant to modern life. With the Kaliyuga Series, a 12-book journey, he explores awareness, choices, wisdom, responsibility, leadership, inner transformation, and self-realisation, drawing from the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, and Indian philosophy. His mission is to encourage individuals to move beyond information and achievement toward conscious choices, purposeful living, and inner growth.

Dr. Anoop Bhagat

Dr. Anoop Bhagat | Functional & Aesthetic Medicine Doctor |  President, ICIMN

Dr. Anoop Bhagat is emerging as one of India’s most influential voices in metabolic neuropsychiatry, a field reshaping how clinicians understand mental health. As President of ICIMN, leading a national movement that bridges metabolic science, brain health, and clinical practice, bringing cutting-edge research to the forefront of Indian medicine. A clinician, educator, author, and international conference organizer, Dr. Anoop is known for transforming complex metabolic concepts into clear, actionable frameworks that empower both doctors and patients. His work positions him as a pioneering force driving India toward a more integrative, future-ready model of healthcare. His vision continues to shape a new generation of healthcare leaders committed to innovation and holistic patient care.

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