nurturing harmony and wellbeing for oneself and all.
true change begins with inner awareness. When individuals cultivate awareness, compassion and engagement,
their transformation ripples outward, shaping relationships, workplaces, and communities with greater understanding and care.
their transformation ripples outward, shaping relationships, workplaces, and communities with greater understanding and care.
On an individual level, these traits help a person regulate emotions, make thoughtful decisions, and engage meaningfully with others.
On the institutional level, when embedded into culture, leadership, and systems, the same traits shape ethical practices, strengthen team dynamics and support long-term sustainability and trust.
we carry the responsibility to steward these frameworks with fidelity to their origins and responsiveness to India’s realities.
Our aim is to build an Infrastructure of Care across education and allied sectors.
We will train and support a growing network of educators, facilitators, and leaders to embed compassion, emotional regulation, and ethical clarity in their daily practice.
Through immersive programs, peer-led Communities of Practice, and mentorship, we will enable certified instructors to lead change in classrooms, schools, and institutions.
By offering thoughtful, research-backed tools and insights we seek to reframe how care and compassion show up in leadership and learning, making them foundational - not optional - in how we learn, lead, and live.
We understand how to adapt contemplative practice to the textures of under-resourced Indian classrooms, institutions, and grassroot communities.
Reshma Piramal
Reshma Piramal is the Practice Lead for The Karuna Practice. She headed SEE Learning India, a collaboration between Max India Foundation and Emory University, for 6 years. The SEE Learning Program® is Emory University’s K-12 initiative that promotes Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning for educators and students. Reshma is dedicated to cultivating compassionate, resilient cultures in schools and among leaders, by supporting teachers, community custodians and decision-makers through reflective training and practice. She is an Emory University certified Senior CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training) Instructor, and a Developmental Speech and Language Therapist by training, with a Master’s degree from City University, London. Her area of interest is children at risk of reading failure. Reshma also served as Co-Chair of UNESCO MGIEP’s Global Working Committee for SEL
Neha Bhatia
Neha brings over 15 years of experience across the corporate and non-profit sectors, with a deep passion for promoting wellbeing through inner transformation in both children and adults. With her background in Training & Development and Executive Search she thrives on engaging with people and facilitating meaningful group experiences.
She currently co-leads two key initiatives in India: Social, Emotional and Ethical (SEE) Learning and CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training). Neha is a certified Senior CBCT® Instructor through Emory University and previously served as Co-Chair of UNESCO MGIEP’s Global Collective Working Group on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).
Neha holds a Postgraduate Degree in Commerce (Business Management) from the University of Mumbai. When not working, she enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, constantly exploring and refining her baking and culinary skills.
Sharanya
Passionate about building a more compassionate and equitable world, Sharanya Joshi is a development sector professional with experience in education, sustainability, and strategic communications. She is a certified SEE Learning® Level 1 facilitator.
Her educational background includes Masters' in Sustainable Development Practice from TERI University, Sociology from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and certification in English Language Training to Adults from Cambridge.
Tara Singh Vachani
Ms. Tara Singh Vachani is the Executive Chairperson of Antara Senior Care and Vice-Chairperson of Max India Limited. As founder of Antara Senior Care, her vision was to give a new dimension to the senior care space in India.
Today, Antara Senior Care encompasses five verticals – Residences for Seniors, Care Homes, Care at Home, MedCare Products and AGEasy by Antara.
Tara is also the Managing Trustee of Max India Foundation, a role she is extremely passionate about. Max India Foundation currently focuses on supporting partners doing work in the space of Foundational Learning and runs a program on Social Emotional Ethical (SEE) learning in collaboration with Emory University.
Furthermore, Tara holds positions of influence on various boards and organizations. She is a Trustee on the National Board of Teach for India, where she serves as the Chairperson for their Delhi Regional Board. Tara contributes as a Governing Council Member of The Vedica Scholars Program for Women, an innovative MBA program tailored for women. She dedicates her time as a mentor for KARM Fellowship, enabling young women from less-privileged backgrounds to pursue their educational and professional aspirations. She is also the founding member of GivingPi.
Her achievements are widely recognised. Tara was named a member of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in 2020 and featured as one of the '40 under 40' leaders in The Economic Times in 2018.
Swati Apte
Swati Apte, founder of The Arts Quotient, is a leadership advisor with over two decades of experience guiding organizations – in both the private and social sector - through complex change. She integrates strategic insight, operational expertise, an immersive engagement with creativity and a deep understanding of human development in her work. Her focus is to help leaders navigate ambiguity, lead with clarity and conviction and build high-performance cultures and organisations.
She started her career at Mckinsey & Co in New York and has since worked across industries—including financial services, pharma and the social sector. Swati holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MA from Oxford University. She is on the advisory board of Educate Girls, World Monuments Fund. Swati contributes to large-scale learning initiatives such as the Aspire Institute, helping young people globally transition into the workforce. She is also a classical Odissi dancer.
Dr Lobsang Tenzin Negi
Lobsang Tenzin Negi is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University, formerly the Emory-Tibet Partnership. Prof. Negi is also a Teaching Professor in Emory University's Department of Religion and the founder and spiritual director of Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc., in Atlanta, GA.
Over the past two decades, Prof. Negi has been a pioneer of compassion training programs for adults and children and he has contributed to the development and burgeoning of compassion science through his research initiatives and collaborations.
Through his center, Prof. Negi has developed and now oversees three programs, which are dedicated to expanding compassion and engaging in research. In 2004, Prof. Negi developed CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training), a secularized contemplative program based on Tibetan Buddhist mind training practices that deliberately and systematically works to cultivate compassion. He also oversees SEE Learning™ (Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning), a program that develops and implements curricula for kindergarten through university level education for the education of heart and mind. The third program of the center is the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, a program he developed, at the invitation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to develop and implement a comprehensive modern science curriculum specifically for Tibetan monastics.
Prof. Negi was born in Kinnaur, a remote Himalayan region adjoining Tibet. A former monk of 27 years, he began his monastic training at The Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamasala, India and continued his education at Drepung Loseling Monastery in south India, where in 1994 he received the Geshe Lharampa degree. Prof. Negi completed his Ph.D. at Emory University in 1999; his interdisciplinary dissertation centered on traditional Buddhist and contemporary Western approaches to emotions and their impact on wellness. His current research focuses on the complementarity of modern science and contemplative practice.
Sudarshan Suchi
A veteran leader in the development sector, Mr. Sudarshan is known for transformative contributions across civil society, academia, and the corporate world. His career, rooted in participatory development, reflects a deep commitment to empowering communities through inclusive, sustainable initiatives. Mr. Sudarshan’s journey includes pivotal roles in organisations like Reliance Foundation, Reliance Life Sciences, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), and, most recently, Save the Children India, where he served as CEO. Besides contributing to governance boards and academic councils of institutions, Mr Sudarshan has led initiatives from cooperative law reforms, to biodiesel, rural livelihood transformation and innovative CSR strategies. At Reliance Foundation, Mr. Sudarshan was instrumental in developing the BIJ (Bharat-India Jodo) rural transformation initiative. He is the Chief Development Officer at Reliance Foundation
Suparna Gupta
Suparna Gupta has been a child rights practitioner for the last two decades. She is the founder of Aangan, an Indian nonprofit that works on child rights; a Board Member at Dasra, Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard; and an Ashoka Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship.
Suparna has focused on models that build trust and dialogue between most-marginalized groups and local officials across the country, in order to address women and child safety - including trafficking and child marriage. Her writing on these themes has been published by India Development Review, NDTV, The Wire, and The Washington Post. Suparna holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Dr. Robert Roeser
Robert W. Roeser is the Bennett Pierce Professor of Caring and Compassion, and a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, in the College of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan (1996) and holds master’s degrees in religion and psychology (Holy Names College), developmental psychology and clinical social work (University of Michigan).He has held faculty appointments at Stanford University, Portland State University, and Penn State University.
In 2005 and 2016, Dr. Roeser was a United States Fulbright Scholar in India; and from 1999-2004 he was a William T. Grant Faculty Scholar. From 2006 to 2010, he served as the Senior Program Coordinator for the Mind and Life Institute and a coordinator for the Mind and Life Education Research Network (MLERN). Since, that time, Dr. Roeser has served in numerous roles with the Mind and Life Institute and currently is a member of its Research and Programs Council (RPC).
Dr. Roeser’s main research interests are in the areas of human motivation, identity and learning; adolescence and early adulthood, schooling as a central cultural context affecting students’ academic, social-emotional and identity development; and the implementation and impacts of mindfulness and compassion training programs on parent, teacher and student outcomes with respect to health and wellbeing, teaching and learning, and the creation of compassionate and equitable learning environments in schools. He also has a deep scholarly interest in indigenous Asian Indian psychologies and related forms of pedagogy and conducts developmental and educational research in India on efforts at holistic human development and holistic education based on these indigenous ideas.
His recent scholarly articles have focused on mindfulness in education, compassion in human development, and the need for new forms of holistic education to meet pressing global challenges.
Tara Singh Vachani
Ms. Tara Singh Vachani is the Executive Chairperson of Antara Senior Care and Vice-Chairperson of Max India Limited. As founder of Antara Senior Care, her vision was to give a new dimension to the senior care space in India.
Today, Antara Senior Care encompasses five verticals – Residences for Seniors, Care Homes, Care at Home, MedCare Products and AGEasy by Antara.
Tara is also the Managing Trustee of Max India Foundation, a role she is extremely passionate about. Max India Foundation currently focuses on supporting partners doing work in the space of Foundational Learning and runs a program on Social Emotional Ethical (SEE) learning in collaboration with Emory University.
Furthermore, Tara holds positions of influence on various boards and organizations. She is a Trustee on the National Board of Teach for India, where she serves as the Chairperson for their Delhi Regional Board. Tara contributes as a Governing Council Member of The Vedica Scholars Program for Women, an innovative MBA program tailored for women. She dedicates her time as a mentor for KARM Fellowship, enabling young women from less-privileged backgrounds to pursue their educational and professional aspirations. She is also the founding member of GivingPi.
Her achievements are widely recognised. Tara was named a member of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in 2020 and featured as one of the '40 under 40' leaders in The Economic Times in 2018.
Swati Apte
Swati Apte, founder of The Arts Quotient, is a leadership advisor with over two decades of experience guiding organizations – in both the private and social sector - through complex change. She integrates strategic insight, operational expertise, an immersive engagement with creativity and a deep understanding of human development in her work. Her focus is to help leaders navigate ambiguity, lead with clarity and conviction and build high-performance cultures and organisations.
She started her career at Mckinsey & Co in New York and has since worked across industries—including financial services, pharma and the social sector. Swati holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MA from Oxford University. She is on the advisory board of Educate Girls, World Monuments Fund. Swati contributes to large-scale learning initiatives such as the Aspire Institute, helping young people globally transition into the workforce. She is also a classical Odissi dancer.
Dr Lobsang Tenzin Negi
Lobsang Tenzin Negi is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University, formerly the Emory-Tibet Partnership. Prof. Negi is also a Teaching Professor in Emory University's Department of Religion and the founder and spiritual director of Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc., in Atlanta, GA.
Over the past two decades, Prof. Negi has been a pioneer of compassion training programs for adults and children and he has contributed to the development and burgeoning of compassion science through his research initiatives and collaborations.
Through his center, Prof. Negi has developed and now oversees three programs, which are dedicated to expanding compassion and engaging in research. In 2004, Prof. Negi developed CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training), a secularized contemplative program based on Tibetan Buddhist mind training practices that deliberately and systematically works to cultivate compassion. He also oversees SEE Learning™ (Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning), a program that develops and implements curricula for kindergarten through university level education for the education of heart and mind. The third program of the center is the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, a program he developed, at the invitation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to develop and implement a comprehensive modern science curriculum specifically for Tibetan monastics.
Prof. Negi was born in Kinnaur, a remote Himalayan region adjoining Tibet. A former monk of 27 years, he began his monastic training at The Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamasala, India and continued his education at Drepung Loseling Monastery in south India, where in 1994 he received the Geshe Lharampa degree. Prof. Negi completed his Ph.D. at Emory University in 1999; his interdisciplinary dissertation centered on traditional Buddhist and contemporary Western approaches to emotions and their impact on wellness. His current research focuses on the complementarity of modern science and contemplative practice.
Sudarshan Suchi
A veteran leader in the development sector, Mr. Sudarshan is known for transformative contributions across civil society, academia, and the corporate world. His career, rooted in participatory development, reflects a deep commitment to empowering communities through inclusive, sustainable initiatives. Mr. Sudarshan’s journey includes pivotal roles in organisations like Reliance Foundation, Reliance Life Sciences, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), and, most recently, Save the Children India, where he served as CEO. Besides contributing to governance boards and academic councils of institutions, Mr Sudarshan has led initiatives from cooperative law reforms, to biodiesel, rural livelihood transformation and innovative CSR strategies. At Reliance Foundation, Mr. Sudarshan was instrumental in developing the BIJ (Bharat-India Jodo) rural transformation initiative. He is the Chief Development Officer at Reliance Foundation
Dr. Robert Roeser
Robert W. Roeser is the Bennett Pierce Professor of Caring and Compassion, and a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, in the College of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan (1996) and holds master’s degrees in religion and psychology (Holy Names College), developmental psychology and clinical social work (University of Michigan).He has held faculty appointments at Stanford University, Portland State University, and Penn State University.
In 2005 and 2016, Dr. Roeser was a United States Fulbright Scholar in India; and from 1999-2004 he was a William T. Grant Faculty Scholar. From 2006 to 2010, he served as the Senior Program Coordinator for the Mind and Life Institute and a coordinator for the Mind and Life Education Research Network (MLERN). Since, that time, Dr. Roeser has served in numerous roles with the Mind and Life Institute and currently is a member of its Research and Programs Council (RPC).
Dr. Roeser’s main research interests are in the areas of human motivation, identity and learning; adolescence and early adulthood, schooling as a central cultural context affecting students’ academic, social-emotional and identity development; and the implementation and impacts of mindfulness and compassion training programs on parent, teacher and student outcomes with respect to health and wellbeing, teaching and learning, and the creation of compassionate and equitable learning environments in schools. He also has a deep scholarly interest in indigenous Asian Indian psychologies and related forms of pedagogy and conducts developmental and educational research in India on efforts at holistic human development and holistic education based on these indigenous ideas.
His recent scholarly articles have focused on mindfulness in education, compassion in human development, and the need for new forms of holistic education to meet pressing global challenges.
Suparna Gupta
Suparna Gupta has been a child rights practitioner for the last two decades. She is the founder of Aangan, an Indian nonprofit that works on child rights; a Board Member at Dasra, Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard; and an Ashoka Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship.
Suparna has focused on models that build trust and dialogue between most-marginalized groups and local officials across the country, in order to address women and child safety - including trafficking and child marriage. Her writing on these themes has been published by India Development Review, NDTV, The Wire, and The Washington Post. Suparna holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Molestie Maximus
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