Management Team
Jayshree Vyas is one of the founders of IIMPS. She is the Managing Director of Shree Mahila Sewa Sahakari (SEWA) Bank in Ahmedabad. The SEWA Bank was founded in 1974 by 4,000 SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) members each contributing ten rupees. During her work at SEWA Bank spanning two decades, Jayshree has implemented various innovative programs aimed at providing access for selfemployed women to credit, secure savings, insurance and housing. She is also on board of Indian School of Microfinance for Women where she actively contributes to capacity building. Prior to her position with SEWA Bank, she was a financial analyst at the Central Bank of India, a commercial bank. Ms. Vyas has been a member of the WWB Board of Trustees since 1998.
Renana Jhabvala is one of the founders of IIMPS. She has been working with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) since 1977 and is currently SEWA’s National Coordinator as well as the Chairperson of SEWA Bank and SEWA Bharat. She is the Chair of the Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organizing (WIEGO) Steering Committee. She was a member of the Working Group on Rural Poverty Alleviation Programmes for the formulation of India's Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007). She has coauthored The Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty; Informal Economy Centrestage: New Structures of Employment, and The Unorganised Sector: Work Security and Social Protection, which she co-edited.
Gautam Bhardwaj is one of the founders of IIMPS. He also founded Invest India Economic Foundation in 1990. IIEF works in the areas of research and development, policy analysis and consulting, institutional capacity building and financial literacy. Since 1998, Gautam has been working as the consultant to the Indian Government for reviewing India's pension and social security programs and policies. He coauthored the OASIS Report which provided the basis for India's pension reform. Over the last few years, he has been actively involved in designing the legislative, policy, regulatory and institutional framework for India's new pension reform as a consultant to the Indian Ministry of Finance. He has lead a team engaged by the Indian government to implement this DC pension system for federal government employees. He also served as consultant to the Government of Nepal on pension reforms.
Vijay Mahajan is the chairman of BASIX, which comprises a group of financial services and technical assistance companies. BASIX was the first microfinance institution (MFI) in India, and among the first in the world, to attract commercial equity investments internationally and within India. Vijay was the co-founder and former executive director of PRADAN, an NGO engaged in promotion of rural livelihoods. In 1998, he cofounded Sa-Dhan ,the association of Indian MFIs. In 2001, he helped found the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society (APMAS), a capacitybuilding institution for the over half a million women’s selfhelp groups in the state. He is on also on board of Cashpor Financial Services, Cashpor Micro Credit, Sarvodaya Nano FInance Limited and NCDEX Spot Exchange Private LImited among others. He has published a book on the rural nonfarming sector in India and many articles on rural development and microfinance. He graduated from IIT, Delhi and studied management at IIM, Ahmedabad. He was a fellow at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Vijayalakshmi Das is the chief executive of Friends of Women's World Banking (FWWB). She works towards facilitating credit to small saving groups, NGO’s, Federations of SHG’s, Cooperatives and women’s groups belonging to the FWWB network. FWWB also helps to build the capacity of the promoters of such groups to help them manage the activity of providing financial services efficiently, to the poor. Vijayalakshmi is also on board of the Indian School of Microfinance for Women where she actively works towards capacity building needs of community based financial institutions and policymakers. One of the focus areas of the School is to build the managerial capabilities of the women leadership in the microfinance sector.
Imtaiyazur Rahman is the President and Chief Financial Officer at UTI AMC. He is also in-charge of the department of Administration & IT. As a nominee of UTI AMC, Rahman brings over 18 years of experience in Finance, Accounts, Taxation, Administration, IT, Operations, HR and Secretarial functions to the board of IIMPS. Prior to joining UTI, he has worked with Bells Controls Ltd., Leasing Finance India Ltd., Sumeet Machines Ltd. and UTI TSL. He has been with UTI AMC since 2003 as Company Secretary and is looking after the Investment Accounts, AMC-Accounts, Information Technology and Secretarial Functions of UTI Mutual Fund. He is a B.Sc. graduate with FICWA, FCS and CPA (USA).
A. Viswanathan recently retired as India's Central Provident Fund Commissioner under the Ministry of Labour and Employment – a position he held for over three years. As CEO of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) he was responsible for implementation of three of India's largest mandatory retirement and social security schemes – EPF, EPS and EDLI. These schemes have an AUM of over Rs.3.5 trillion and cover over 50 million individual subscribers and nearly 400,000 employers. He also served as the membersecretary of the EPF Board of Trustees and has significant experience in policy planning, legislative issues and advocacy. He was as India's key negotiator for totalisation agreements with several countries.
Ashish Aggarwal is a co-promoter of Invest India Micro Pension Services. He has played a key role in establishing IIMPS. Prior to IIMPS, Ashish was a key member of the IIEF pension policy consulting team and assisted the Indian Ministry of Finance and PFRDA on NPS implementation planning. In a previous role, Ashish has been a senior business journalist with Business Standard and BusinessWorld.
Dr. Kavim Bhatnagar is a career civil servant and is on a 5 year official deputation from the Government of Madhya Pradesh to IIEF since 2006. He is a key member of the IIEF pension policy team and has served as consultant to the Ministry of Finance and PFRDA in India as well as to the Government of Nepal on pension reforms and implementation issues. He has played a key role in encouraging State Governments to launch co-contributory pension schemes for the poor.