Manoj Kumar is a development economist who left a career in banking to become a social entrepreneur. He is the founding CEO of the Naandi Foundation, a large multisector non-profit in India focused on poverty reduction, with an emphasis on empowering girls, women and farmers. Over the last 25 years, the Foundation has impacted more than 10 million lives.
Manoj’s most significant legacy is the transformation of the once conflict-ridden Araku Valley, in India’s Eastern Ghats, into a global model for agro-ecological transformation. Under his leadership, 56 million trees were planted and raised by smallholder farming families, including coffee, which was developed into the globally recognised ARAKU Coffee brand, generating higher incomes for farmers. Manoj has also co-founded several other social enterprises, including Urban Farms Co, Naandi Water and Archipel India. He is now working to create “Good Food Gardens” for 100 million people.
Arakunomics, an economic model which Manoj co-authored, won the Rockefeller Foundation’s Food System Vision Prize in 2020. Manoj is also an Aspen Institute Fellow, McNulty Laureate and Robert S. McNamara Fellow. He was named by the Financial Times as one of 25 people to watch in India.