Core Team Members
Ms Shruti Pandey is the Managing Director of Virinchi Development Services. Academically, she has been brilliant and after her graduate studies at Sophia Girls College, Ajmer, she acquired dual Masters’ Degree in “Gender and International Development” from the University of Warwick, UK and “Women’s Studies” from the Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow University, India. Ms Pandey is a Gender and Development specialist having more than 20 years of experience related to Gendered Research, Developing Communication package and training modules, imparting trainings, Project Planning & Management on issues related to Gender, Nutrition, Health, Livelihood and Education. She has a flair for teaching and has also worked as a Visiting Faculty at Patna University where she taught vocational courses related to Social Work, Women’s Studies and Women & Child Welfare at both the Undergraduate and Post Graduate levels. She has been nominated as the Technical Expert for designing the syllabus and developing the study materials for starting up a new course MA in Women’s Studies at Nalanda Open University, Patna. She has also drafted the Syllabus for M.A in Women’s Studies Course at Patna University and finally it got approved by UGC. Presently the MA in Women’s Studies is being coordinated by the Department of History, Patna University. (Honorary Contribution made to the University). Presently, it has been declared as Women Study Centre. Ms Pandey has also developed lecture handouts for students, designed training modules and supervised dissertations for various development courses at Patna University. She also supervised dissertations for various development courses at Patna University.
Dr Veena Pandey (MS Obs and Gynae, FICOG, Calposcopy and Family Planning Training-UK), Director of Virinchi Development Services, is Ex. State Health Education Officer (Govt. of Bihar) at State Health Education Bureau, Govt. of Bihar. Dr Pandey undertook Family planning and Colposcopy Training in U.K. She has worked in National Health Services (NHS) U.K for four and half years in various capacities. She also worked for 38 years under various capacities with Dept. of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of Bihar. She has got special interest in Adolescence and Reproductive Health, organizing health education programmes at schools and colleges. Her special interests are in Adolescent and Reproductive Health. She is a well known State Trainer for various training and reorientation programmes under National Rural Health Mission and is also actively involved as Resource Person in trainings at SIHFW, State Health Society Bihar, Regional Health Directorate, Bihar State AIDS Control Society, UNICEF, WHO, NIPI, ICDS, Dept. of Food & Nutrition and Govt. of India.
Mr Matish Kumar, one of the Directors of Virinchi Development Services, is an experienced project management, health, governance, training and development consultant, having more than 12 years of working experience. He has a Masters degree in Business Management (MBA – Rural Management) with a specialization in “Micro-Finance” and “Natural Resource Management” from Xavier Institute of Development Action and Studies, Jabalpur and has also acquired “Certificate in Research Methodology” from Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar, Gujrat. He has gained multi-sectoral skills and knowledge in the area of Livelihood, MGNREGA, RTE, RTI, Health, Reproductive and Child Health, Community Action including Community Based Planning & Monitoring, Water and Sanitation, Livelihood, Women Empowerment, Capacity Building and Advocacy while working with different Local, National, International NGOs and Government agencies like Pathfinder International, Bihar State Women Development Corporation, UNICEF, Population Foundation of India etc. at managerial and policy levels in the area of Health, Reproductive and Child Health, Community Action including Community Based Planning & Monitoring, Water and Sanitation, Livelihood, Women Empowerment, Capacity Building, Advocacy etc. He led the whole process of Community Based Planning & Monitoring (CBPM) programme under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Bihar since its conceptualisation and also facilitated the implementation of CBPM programme in the State. He brings in strong skills in Project Management, Participatory Learning and Action/Participatory Rural Appraisal (PLA/PRA), Participatory Monitoring, Community Action, Organizational Development, Governance, Advocacy and Research.
Dr. A. Thirumaal is a Homoeopathic graduate and Public Health postgraduate. He is the Senior Research & Documentation Expert in the Company. He has more than 10 years of experience of working in public health in various domains. He has worked with renowned institutions such as SRM School of Public Health, UNICEF, IIT Madras, Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology and Magic Bus India Foundation. His core strengths are quantitative data analysis, data mining, report writing, HR training, and project management.
Dr Nandini Roy has a varied working experience ranging from health research, project monitoring, and evaluation to capacity building in the area of maternal and child health, HIV and education. Proficient in qualitative research and handling analysis of quantitative data, MIS database, evaluating research projects, developing fact sheets and documentation. She has more than 20 years’ experience and has been associated with UNFPA, Care India, UNIFEM, Save the Children, Transport Corporation of India Foundation (TCIF), Family Health International 360, and government organizations International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai (Deemed University), Women Centred Health Project, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation; National Institute of Medical Statistics, ICMR; National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Mumbai; NICED, Kolkata; National AIDS Control Organization, Magic Bus India Foundation. Her skills are: a) Designing and executing qualitative and quantitative research protocols, b) monitoring/supervision/data triangulation and analysis, c) guide Teams to develop effective monitoring and evaluation plans and turn data into actionable plans, d) develop and share internal and external project performance metrics, e) preparation of training materials, guidelines, utility mapping of survey questionnaires and analysis of data, f) capacity building and technical support on planning, monitoring and reporting by district level programme coordinators, g) good documentation as well as presentation skills that facilitate in report-writing, preparation of research reports and presentations, h) has ability to liaison with various stakeholders including State Governments, institutions, NGOs.
Dr Jha has thirty eight years extensive professional experience in the field of social research, training and implementation of developmental projects and assignments of national and International clients. Worked at grassroots level in various districts of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh and also extensively worked on rural development and Panchayatiraj those include issues health, sanitation, water, livelihood, education, and poverty eradication in states of MP, Chhatisgarh, and AP. I was an ad hoc lecturer in the post graduate department of Sociology, Millat College Laheria Sarai darbhanga , Bihar for seven years. I have 20 years extensive experiences of teaching in Master of Business Administration (MBA). I have visited Catholic University, Leuven, Belgium, France, and Netherland.
Mr Mahip Kumar, Programme Manager of Virinchi Development Services, is a health management professional. He has done “PG Diploma in Health and Hospital Management” from Indian Institute of Health Management & Research, Jaipur, Rajasthan and having more than 08 years of working experience. He has more than 6 years of experience of handling different key projects on health and hospital management while working with Medical and Health Department, Govt. of Rajasthan. He also worked with different grass root level NGOs and brings in field experience on women empowerment, WASH, health and livelihood. His areas of expertise are health, project management, research, partnership management (i.e. Civil Societies & Community Based Organization), Monitoring & Evaluation, training and workshop, documentation and advocacy.
Apart from the above core team members, we also have a large pool of Empanelled Consultants, Researchers, Trainers, Resource Persons, Advisors and Staff who bring in many years of experience working with the Government, National and International Agencies and have expertise in a range of thematic areas including Education, Health & Nutrition, Gender, Livelihood, Governance and other related issues. They are engaged on assignment specific requirements.