H.H Princess Asharaje Gaekwad

Princess hails from the Legendary Rana family of Nepal who ruled Nepal for 104 years. Her Great Grandfather was HH Maharaja Chander Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana was considered the most enlightened and benevolent Prime Minster of his time.
The Princess did her education from India and Nepal. She married into the Royal family of Baroda to Prince Sangramsinh Gaekwad, the son of HH Maharaja Pratapsinhrao Gaekwad.

• Princess is the Chairperson & Executive Director of several companies.
• She is interested in Women’s Welfare, Children’s Education, Sports & Culture.
• She has been the President of Women’s Cricket in Baroda.
• She is a Trustee in Gaekwad Sports Foundation as well as Princess Asharaje Gaekwad Animal Welfare Trust.
• The Gaekwad Art Foundation, a Charitable Trust was formed by Princess which strives to promote art in all forms and aims at being a voice for those who communicate through their amazing works of art. The Foundation has also helped young artists to showcase their works in the best art galleries whenever required.
• She has been actively involved in working for the Non-Resident Nepalese living in India, for the past 14 to 15 years and is the Chairperson of several foundations connected with the people of Nepal.
• She set up ‘Hope for Nepal Foundation’ which is a Charitable Organization for the welfare of the Nepalese people. The Foundation has done extensive relief work for all the 14 most devastated districts, as well as, orphanages, old age homes, handicapped people, schools, hospitals etc. during the 25th April, 2015 earthquake.
• She has also set up the Educational Trust to ensure that every child in Nepal is assured of getting free education in Nepal.
• Princess has graced and inaugurated many Art Exhibitions such as the “Maharaja Gala” at the Asian Arts Society in San Francisco as well the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in Richmond as the Chief Royal Dignitary.
• She has visited several countries to participate in Conferences including the ICC International Conference in Bangladesh and Asia-Pacific Business Forum in Colombo, Sri Lanka, by the UNESCAP as well as the 5th Global Baku Forum in Azerbaijan, Baku.
• She attended the 2nd WCH Humanitarian Summit in New York and the 7th World Confluence of Humanity, Power & Spirituality and also attended the Global Leadership Forum.
• She was conferred the award of “Asia’s Royal Woman of the Year”, at the 3rd Global Officials of Dignity (G.O.D). Awards held on August 7, 2015 at the United Nations Headquarters, New York.
• Shri Jaganandan Prakasheshwar & Panchayan Samrakshan Samiti of Nepal has honoured her for the recognition of the works done by her and bringing glory to the Rana family to which she belongs.
• She started the Rastrabadi Bikashsheel Abhiyan to interact with the people of Nepal to better understand and solve their problems.
• On 26th April, 2018 at the Women’s Economic Forum, Princess received the Award for “ Women of the Decade in Public Life & Philanthropy ”.
• Princess graced the occasion as Guest of Honour & Speaker at the
11th World Confluence on 21st December 2018, in Kolkata.

• Princess attended the Centenary Celebration at Sankarda, Vadodara, Gujarat and addressed the Kakaji Pappaji Shatabdi Mahotsav, at the Mahila Sammelan on 29th December, 2018.

• Doodle Indian Social Art and Idea Fest 2018 was inaugurated by Princess as Chief Guest on 14th December, 2018 wherein she congratulated Doodle for creating a platform for inspiring ideas which will make a huge difference to our planet and our society.

• Princess was the Chief Guest at the Shri Maharaj Sayaji Janma Mahotsav 2019 celeberations on 11th March, 2019 at Malegaon, Nasik.

• Princess will be initiating an upcoming event called “Beti Padao, Kyunke Beti Duniya Jeeta Saktihain”. This Project is basically to raise funds for Girl Child Education in India.

• In another upcoming event IdeaHive in Collaboration with NCPA will be trying to bring in support to the children in Dharavi to nuture them in the field of Performing Arts.

• Making India a hub and a global leader in specially abled product manufacturing and management, which is scheduled in the year 2020.

• Princess is also initiating an All India Cricket Association for the Blind which is still in the planning stage.

Princess Asharaje is also on the advisory board of IdeaHive Media Pvt Ltd; a young ‘Cause Driven Campaign Management’ agency based in India. The agency works towards creating campaigns on various social issues plaguing the nation leading to a positive impact on society through advocacy, behavioural changes in society and also bring support at grassroots. She has been working very closely with the team, mentoring them on various projects.
She launched a national initiative for the cause of water, called ‘Paani Ka Teeka’ movement.
She is also involved with the team on their next set of projects currently at development stage; including an initiative for the girl child, a fund raising project for Nepal, a project for the Indian Railways on spreading awareness on safety measures to bring down the accident ratio. Some of the other plans at IdeaHive, also include creating fund raising for various social causes and NGOs. Attempts at IdeaHive are aimed at bringing transformation at grassroots across the nation backed by a strong ideology to bring change in society.
Since the Weaving community has been going through a downward growth for sometime, IdeaHive are close to announcing a Project to support the weaving communities of India starting with 100 tribes in the first year of the project. The Campaign is going to be launched in the 3rd quarter of 2019, under the guidance of Princess Asharaje Gaekwad in collaboration with IdeaHive Media, a Company in which Princess is a member on the Advisory Board.