Profile

Meeta Sengupta works at the cusp of policy and practice across the education and skills spectrum and enjoys sharing her gleanings via her writing for a wider audience. She has been an investment banker, a researcher, an editor, a teacher and school leader across continents. A keen observer of how economics, foreign policy and investments affect the policy and thence practice of education, she works with leaders to design interventions that improve the quality and process of education. Designing education processes to realise the potential of individual students is at the centre of her education philosophy.

Meeta has worked both as a policy observer, and at the coalface of education in various roles across countries. She has served as a governor of an aided school, part of the management committee of a residential school, managed an academic centre in an elite post graduate management school and led a business school supported by a community college. She has worked with children, teenagers, business school and PhD candidates and has also worked with those seeking to rebuild their lives via education.

Meeta W Sengupta is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar.

Currently, Meeta is the founder of the Centre for Education Strategy, a Delhi based think tank that builds bridges between policy and practice for educators, educationists and Institutions. She is a member of the FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) Skills Development Forum. She is the member Education Expert on the National Council of NISA (National Independent Schools Alliance) that represents over 6000 budget schools. Meeta is the founder of #EduIn, an online discussion that brings hundreds of participants together every month, in an organised discussion on key education issues. She regularly speaks at events – both as a keynote speaker and moderator and sometimes as a judge at research competitions.

She has catalysed several academic start – up units in her career including the India Centre at the London Business School, Commonwealth Business Council and the Richmond Business School. She has worked in a range of sectors including commercial banking(a short stint), investment banking, publishing(non commercial), education and skills development. She has strong research, teaching and leadership skills honed through many years of experience in academia, corporate, and multilateral organizations.

Meeta completed her MBA (PGDBM) from Indian Institute of Management, (Ahmedabad). She then led the operations team for Citibank Bombay’s financial institutions unit. She moved to debt trading and country research at ICICI Securities and led their foray into rural markets. She used her training with J.P. Morgan to bridge the knowledge divide between international money markets and rural money managers in India by leading a series of training seminars for the chairpersons of every Regional Rural Bank. On moving to London she created country forecasts for the Economist Intelligence Unit. Spotting a void in the IIM(A) curriculum, she bridged the gap between the trading desk and the classroom by teaching a second year elective in International Risk Management.

At the London Business School she single-handedly managed and researched for the India Centre which was designed to be a bridge to raise academic standards to international levels. She also authored papers in addition to mentoring and tutoring PhD and MBA candidates. At the Commonwealth Business Council she led the research and wrote papers and books on investment issues that were a key part of their successful membership drive across 58 countries.

The opportunity to foster a new business school was too good to resist and Meeta moved to the Richmond Business School where for the first time she led, taught and managed both academic and professional courses. In the process she obtained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education and Assessor and Verifier qualifications. This deep understanding of the full range of educational options has stood her in good stead in her advisory roles to investors, venture capitalists, publishers and educators.

Recently, she was also a Fellow at the Takshashila Institution where she taught the Education Policy course for the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy; and was Visiting Faculty at the International Management Institute, Delhi, where she taught International Business. Meeta Sengupta is also the educationist on the expert panel for ETI Dynamics, a socio-economic enterprise that catalyses PPP investments in emerging markets. She also serves as the Chairperson of the Delhi chapter of the Higher Education Forum and was Consulting Editor to Education World, India’s premier Human Development Magazine.

She also has a fortnightly column on Education at the Pioneer newspaper. (http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/author/meeta-sengupta). Meeta blogs professionally at the Times of India as EduCable, in Forbes India as linked here (http://forbesindia.com/blog/author/meeta-sengupta/)and has an occasional coaching blog at the Economic Times called the Corner Office (http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/CornerOffice) and personally as Aanteladda (www.aanteladda.wordpress.com). She also writes regular opinion editorials for the Mint, Indian Express etc.

A collection of her writings on Education can be accessed here (www.eduvichar.wordpress.com) and on socio-economics here at (www.meetawsengupta.wordpress.com).

In her spare time Meeta likes to write short stories for children, indulges in wordplay via poetry (not linking the sites) and likes to travel the world. She tweets as @meetasengupta and has been told that this is the fastest way to have a conversation with her, though emailing her at meetasengupta@gmail.com does often get a response.