Pritha Dutt

Pritha Dutt is a management and development sector professional with over 25 years of diversified work experience. She has expertise in setting up people processes for building and scaling up organizations, skilling and training , managing organization change and helping organizations to scale up social impact. She is Board Director, Empower Pragati ( an NSDC Partner Company ) looking after CSR Operations, Training , Organization Development Marketing and Placement. Empower Pragati , a social enterprise is one of the top 3 performers in skill development for vulnerable youth in the country. We have skilled over 2 lac youth since 2010. She is also Board Member and Director, Empower Foundation , a Section 25 Company ( under the Companies Act, India) . Empower Foundation designs and implements innovative programs for marginalized , illiterate , and at risk communities that empower , educate and enable them to take action. She has spearheaded the launch of Kiran ( a education cum awareness series on topics such as financial inclusion , sexual harassment , domestic violence and rights ) & Badlav ( a program to build functional literacy) . The Empower Foundation is certified under Section 12A & 80G of the Income Tax Act. Pritha also holds the position of CEO for ASTP( Association of Skill Training Providers) a society formed to advocate and push for policy and action to make youth in our country employable. She was earlier Co-Founder & Director, Phicus Social Solutions , an enterprise working to build scale and sustainability in social projects . While at Phicus she helped corporate and not for profits in designing and executing programs for social impact and efficiency . She also helped conceptualize Aritra a program to build capability for professionals in the development sector. In between Pritha also set up a small firm ( Smart Hobby Ideas Pvt Ltd) to conduct hobbies and recreation activities for adults . Pritha holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics and Political Science ( Allahabad University) , a Postgraduate Honors Diploma in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI, Jamshedpur and a Masters in Developmental Studies from IGNOU. She has nearly 17 years experience in Human Resources holding senior positions in large corporates and multinationals both in India and abroad before she hung up her corporate boots to plunge into the Development Sector in 2005. She has held positions as President , Capacity Building Division for Feedback Ventures Pvt Ltd, one of the largest integrated infrastructure consulting companies in the country . She worked in setting up and managed Projects in large scale R&R( Resettlement & Rehabilitation) programs. She has worked earlier as Project Director,Asia Pacific ( HR) with ICI Inc( currently AKZO NOBEL) at Singapore, Sr .Vice President, Management Development with Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd and GM –HR with EIH Hotels ( Oberoi Hotels & Resorts) . She has been a visiting faculty with IMT, Ghaziabad for several years , with IIM Bangalore & IIM Vizag for a term and with MDI Gurgaon on on-going basis.. Pritha is keenly interested in CSR and issues for development and is associated with social causes and NGO’s. She has served on the Board of Sampradan ( Indian Centre for Philanthrophy) and the Delhi Chapter of the National HRD Network where she was instrumental in setting up ‘Beyond Business’ an initiative under the HRD Network to provide capacity building support to NGO’s by linking members and corporate employees to volunteer time and share expertise. Pritha is a recipient of the British Chevening Young Manager’s Award for scholarship to Leeds University, UK for the year 1997. She did a Summer Course on Art Appreciation & Conflict Archaeology from Cambridge University in 2014. She is also an amateur theatre artist and regularly acts in plays staged by the Hindi Theatre Group, Yavanika.