Delhi’s Nitij Singh and Ajay Etikala opt for AnantU’s Fellowship for Climate Action
New Delhi: Anant National University launched a first-of-its-kind Fellowship for Climate Action. While it is good that more people than ever before are aware of climate change, the Fellowship for Climate Action will shift the focus from the unprecedented level of climate anxiety we see around us today to offering thousands of people ways to be part of the solution to mitigate climate change.
The long-term mission of the Fellowship is to create a community – offline and online – of climate change trailblazers who work together and cross-pollinate each other’s work with ideas and expertise across sectors, regions, and generations.
“Our endeavour is to include as many people who wish to be part of the solution to climate change. The Fellowship for Climate Action is designed such that those who can dedicate a year of their life, whether they are working advanced professionals, entrepreneurs, or young climate activists, can all benefit from it,” says Dr.Anunaya Chaubey, Provost of Anant National University.
The Fellowship for Climate Action is a one-year immersive programme based on a mentor-mentee framework that then feeds into a unique online education platform to counter climate change. The fellowship cohort each year will include two types of fellows. One, those who demonstrate a sustained interest, outstanding transferable skills, and some work in countering climate change. Second, those who are advanced professionals, well established in their domain, and wish to leverage their skills and experience towards solutions for climate change. Fellows who are advanced professionals will need to complete only 3 of the total 6 terms of the Fellowship. This will allow them the flexibility to continue to work alongside. 75% of the Fellowship classes will be held at locations where solutions for climate change are being implemented and at locations that are hard hit by climate change. All fellows will also work closely with a mentor, chosen from an illustrious board of mentors who are supporting the Fellowship.
The online platform of the Fellowship has accepted students from the world over to follow courses online, for which the content will be gathered from the courses being taught to the fellows as well as by curating talks by the mentors. Online students will work with the fellows to co-create solutions.
The Fellowship is led by Dr. Miniya Chatterji, an award-winning sustainability expert. Miniya is CEO of Sustain Labs Paris, a company that transforms large companies into becoming sustainable. She was Chief Sustainability Officer at Jindal Steel & Power after working at the World Economic Forum in Geneva for several years, Goldman Sachs in London, and the office of the President of the French Republic Jacques Chirac in Paris. She has a PhD and Masters degree from Sciences Po Paris and was a doctoral research fellow at Harvard University and Columbia University.
“We believe that there are increasing numbers of individuals who are using their skills as a lawyer, engineer, policy specialist, finance expert, architect, or designer, to counter climate change and are desirous of doing more. The passion and skills of these individuals – in person and online – will be steered towards the most critical and urgent solutions to gain further success and scale,” says Miniya Chatterji.
Ajay is the Co-Founder, Organic Ubuntu – partnerships with NGOs, farmer collectives and train small farmers in adopting sustainable organic farming practices to reduce their input costs, improve their soil quality and to increase their incomes. Till now he has trained 500+ farmers. Runner-up, Global youth forum – Jakarta 2016 and received a grant and got selected for global changemakers youth summit – Zurich 2016. 5 years of work experience.
Nitij is the co-founder of Aslee, an apparel brand focused on building durable, ecologically responsible products to promote a sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle. He holds a Masters in Public Policy from Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Nitij has a total of 9 years of work experience and has worked in India, Norway and Nepal. For 1.5 years, he worked as Manager – Strategic Government Advisory in the healthcare division of Yes Bank in India. He has also held positions in the area of healthcare at the University of Oslo and at the German Development Cooperation in Nepal.