Community and Outreach
The community and outreach team brings together stakeholders to help WELL Labs scale science-based solutions for society and the environment
Our Work
Join Our Community
Publications
Team
Our Work
We amplify research insights and evidence-based best practices for social impact and innovation
Communicate effectively to bridge the gap between research and impact
Build communities of champions to scale science-based solutions
Disseminate evidence-based strategies and how they can be adapted to varying contexts and geographies
Showcase the achievements of our partners
Promote science communication in multiple languages for diverse audiences
Publications
GRE Clinics: Matchmaking in the Development Sector
Under the Green Rural Economy initiative, we started 'clinics' to bring together people who need support or a service, and people who can help them.
Beyond the Jargon: 10 Key Takeaways from World Water Week 2023
WELL Labs Executive Director, Dr. Veena Srinivasan, led sessions on water and agriculture at World Water Week 2023, an annual event on global water issues organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute. She sums up 10 key insights from this year's event in this blog post.
We Need More Agricultural R&D: Dr Ashok Gulati at WELL Labs Launch
Leading agricultural economist Dr. Ashok Gulati spoke about water use in agriculture and the need for innovative policies at the launch of WELL Labs, a new environmental research centre at IFMR.
Coconut Chips to Wild Honey: When Consumers Demand, Food Producers Supply
The goodie bag we put together as part of our launch event in New Delhi is filled with examples of future food consumption pathways that might provide win-wins for people and the planet
People and Culture: Our Ways of Working and What We Are Looking for in WELL Labs Candidates
We spent time thinking about how we should function and what we should prioritise to hold ourselves to high standards of performance, professionalism, integrity and accountability.
Why We Started WELL Labs and What We Hope to Achieve
In collaboration with Krea University and other centres at IFMR, WELL Labs will address the grand challenges of our changing times, pertaining to land and water.
Community Building for Jaltol: Our Learnings at the UN Geospatial Congress
One stand out in our 2022 calendar was the United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress held in Hyderabad in October.
Five Lessons We Learned As An Ecosystem Builder
Ecosystem builders connect, empower, and collaborate with others to lift up the whole community to achieve its potential.
Valuing Non-Profits and Making Social Stock Exchange Work
Published in The Hindu BusinessLine
The Ease of Doing Sustainability
No one wants to destroy the planet. People just want to avoid getting sick or spreading disease more than they want to save the planet.
Team
Anjana Balakrishnan
Read More
Anjana Balakrishnan leads the Community and Outreach team at WELL Labs.
Anjana is an online communications and community specialist. Over the last 11 years, she has led content management projects and online/offline community engagement programs.
She has worked with non-profits like the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Ashoka Innovators for the Public and Janaagraha to streamline their content, communication and community engagement strategies.
She is also a published author and her first book is a fictionalised biography called ‘The Dog We Stole’ (Dec 2020). Her short stories have been published as part of anthologies. Her children’s stories are part of Cambridge English curriculum. She’s reviewed fiction for The News Minute and Deccan Herald. She was a grantee at Gender Bender 2019. Anjana holds a Master’s in Communication from Manipal University where she specialised in Print and New Media.
When not at work, she is a minion to her two dogs—Echo and Pathu.
Aparna Nambiar
Read More
Aparna is a Design Consultant at WELL Labs.
With a background in architecture, she started her career and training under Gayathri & Namith Architects, Bengaluru, and worked as a Junior Architect at Restore Design, Benagluru. She worked on interior design projects for several residential, hospitality and retail projects in South India. This time of detail-oriented design amplified her long-time love for the visual arts and in 2020, she found her calling in graphic design.
Aparna primarily works on motion design projects (animation) and other graphic design projects that involve making illustrations, infographics and other communication-related creatives.
In her free time, she likes taking on creative passion projects, learning new languages and watching anime.
Ananya Revanna
Read More
Ananya Revanna is a Communications Associate at WELL Labs.
She is a journalist and social media manager who has, over seven years, worked with two print publications (Deccan Herald and The Hindu BusinessLine), an online news portal (The Federal) and an academic and research institute (Indian Institute for Human Settlements). In addition, she has worked on various freelance projects such as editing books and research papers, writing on wildlife conservation, and working as a production assistant for a Netflix documentary series.
Ananya believes in growing horizontally rather than vertically so she often finds herself in unexpected places and situations, like volunteering at an organic farm or a homestay in the middle of a tiger reserve. While she has a BA in Communication Studies, much of what Ananya has learnt comes from traveling and talking to people. She is a certified SCUBA diver, enjoys long walks in the rain and soaking up the afternoon sunlight.
Saad Ahmed
Read More
Saad is a Community Manager at WELL Labs. He has 10 years' experience as a media and communications professional in magazines, news websites, publishing, startups and development organisations.
His writings, photos and videos on literature, travel and ecology have featured in The Indian Express, The Wire, The Hindu, Outlook and VICE among other publications. He has worked as a researcher, production assistant and assistant cinematographer on documentaries for the BBC, NZZ and Globe Trekker.
Saad has a BA in Philosophy from St Stephen's College and an MA in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia. He has pursued courses in yoga teacher training in Madurai, mountaineering in Dirang and skiing in Gulmarg.
Ch. Lakshmi Pranuti
Read More
Pranuti is a Community Outreach Associate at WELL Labs.
Pranuti finished her B.Sc Hons Physics from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher learning and M.Sc Geoinformatics from Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune.
During post-graduation, Pranuti took up a summer internship at IIC Technologies, Hyderabad and another major internship at ATREE, Bengaluru. After graduating, she served in the UAV sector, before moving to the research field in 2018.
Pranuti is a GIS specialist by training but pivoted to community engagement when she realized the importance of interactions that go beyond remote sensing.
Apart from academic interests, Pranuti is also an avid traveler, trumpeter, biker and loves trekking and other outdoor activities.
Sarayu Neelakantan
Read More
Shashank is a Hydrologist with the Urban Water programme at WELL Labs.
He has more than five years of experience working on water resources across different terrains. Currently, he is working on water and wastewater issues in Bengaluru and its surroundings. He previously worked extensively on urban lakes of Bengaluru, which included hydrological modelling, maintaining the citizen lake dashboard and training volunteers for data collection.
Shashank completed his Master's in Environmental Studies from TERI University with a focus on water conservation and hydrology. Before joining the Urban Water programme, he worked on spring rejuvenation in the Himalayas with CHIRAG. He worked on geological surveying and community engagement.
Furthermore, he enjoys working on creation of participatory, crowdsourced databases and discovering new tech that can help improve citizen science engagement.
Kaavya Kumar
Read More
Kaavya is an Editorial Manager at WELL Labs.
She worked as a journalist for five years - as a reporter for The Hindu in Thiruvananthapuram and as an online news editor for the Hindustan Times in New Delhi - before reading for an MSc in Climate Change, Development and Policy at the Institute of Development Studies.
Prior to joining WELL Labs, Kaavya was part of the Word Lab at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements where she structured and edited academic articles, grey literature and other in-house publications drafted by IIHS researchers across teams. She also helped distil research into more accessible formats such as op-eds, data stories and photo essays.
As faculty for the IIHS Urban Fellows Programme, Kaavya also worked closely with students to shape their writing. She is also one of the instructors of a MOOC hosted on Coursera called, 'Writing and Disseminating Grey Literature'. She also anchored project work carried out under the Earth Journalism Network Asia-Pacific Media Grants 2020, which resulted in a climate change journalism handbook and a media review.
Meghna Majumdar
Read More
Meghna Majumdar is a Senior Content Specialist at WELL Labs.
Prior to joining WELL Labs, she was a journalist for nine years. Meghna has worked with print publications like The Hindu in Chennai and The Hitavada in Nagpur, as well as fledgeling hyperlocal news websites. She has interviewed rock bands, reviewed restaurants and written about urban biodiversity and citizen science projects.
As a writer as well as an editor, her craft has always focussed on setting complex phenomena to the right context, and making it easily comprehensible for non-expert readers.