» 2020 Grant Recipients

Roshni Nadar Malhotra

Roshni Nadar Malhotra is the CEO of the $10 billion HCL Corporation and is responsible for providing strategic guidance to the organization. She is also the Chairperson of HCL Technologies, a leading global technology organization with a market capitalization of $32 billion, and the Chairperson of its CSR Board Committee.
Roshni is a Trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation. Since its inception, the Shiv Nadar Foundation has invested over $900 million in nation building institutions and driving transformational leadership. Roshni is also the Chairperson and driving force behind Vidya Gyan, a leadership academy for the economically underprivileged, meritorious, rural students of Uttar Pradesh, and has been working towards nurturing future leaders from rural India who can be catalysts of change for their communities, villages and the nation at large.
Passionate about wildlife and conservation, Roshni established The Habitats Trust in 2018. The Foundation aims to work towards protecting India’s natural habitats and its indigenous species with the core mission of creating and conserving sustainable ecosystems through strategic partnerships and collaborations with all stakeholders, at every level.
Roshni is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the MIT School of Engineering, USA. She also serves on the board of directors of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and is an independent director on the board of HDFC Asset Management Company.
In recognition of her outstanding work both in business and in philanthropy, Roshni has received Several honors and accolades. Some of these include being featured in ‘The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women’ list compiled and released by Forbes, in 2020 for the fourth consecutive year. In 2020, Forbes also featured her among the ‘25 Most Powerful Businesswomen in Asia’. Roshni was conferred with Lewis Institute Community Changemaker Award by Babson College in 2017 and was recognized by Horasis, an internationally renowned think tank, as the ‘Indian Business Leader of the Year 2019. She is an alumnus of the Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL, 2014-19), a unique and diverse community of the world’s most outstanding, next-generation leaders, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.
Roshni holds an undergraduate degree in Communications from Northwestern University and a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. At Kellogg, she was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award.
Roshni is married to Shikhar Malhotra and they have two sons

Shikhar Malhotra

Shikhar Malhotra is the Director and Board Member of HCL Corporation, the holdco for HCL’s operating companies. HCL has a distinguished lineage as one of India’s original technology garage start-ups, founded by Shiv Nadar. He is also on the board of HCL Technologies, a $10 Billion global technology firm with over 159,000 professionals operating from 50 countries.
Shikhar serves as the Vice Chairman & CEO of HCL Healthcare, one of India’s largest corporate health solutions firms, providing end-to-end healthcare solutions with a vision to make corporate India a healthier place. Today, HCL Healthcare is delivering personalized, sustainable and managed care health solutions to organizations across sectors including technology and banking. It has eight world-class corporate health centers across the country serving over 70,000 families.
As a Trustee, Shikhar plays multiple roles at the Shiv Nadar Foundation including shaping its vision of nation building through ransformational leadership. Shikhar is the founding CEO of Shiv Nadar Schools (established in 2012), having led them to become one of the most coveted schools in the National Capital Region of Delhi, and consistently recognized among the top schools in the country. The Shiv Nadar Schools are known to push the benchmarks in education to impart critical life lessons and making students future ready for a complex global environment.
In September 2018, Shikhar took over the role of the Pro Chancellor of Shiv Nadar University, India’s youngest university chosen as an Institution of Eminence by the Government of India. Today, SNU is one of the only eight private universities in the country acknowledged for being on an accelerated path to emerge as a world-class research-based, multidisciplinary institution.
Passionate about wildlife and conservation, Shikhar co-founded The Habitats Trust in 2018 with his wife Roshni Nadar Malhotra. The Trust is empowering on-ground conservationists to achieve its vision of securing India’s natural habitats and their indigenous species.
Shikhar comes from an entrepreneurial family, raised in Kuwait. His early lessons as an entrepreneur were learnt at his family business and were later sharpened at Babson College in the US, with a specialization in entrepreneurship.
Shikhar is passionate about sports and football in particular. He is married to Roshni Nadar Malhotra and they have two sons.

Rushikesh Chavan

Rushikesh heads The Habitats Trust, and has over 20 years of experience in conservation of ecosystems and species. He has a post-graduation in environmental science, coupled with few professional courses from some of the top global universities. He has also been on several Government and Supreme Court committees for conservation.
He brings with him established expertise in sustainable ecosystems, species conservation, organisational stewardship, community development and awareness. He has extensive understanding of achieving ecological and social impact with expertise in strategy development, program design, program management, grants management, capacity development, coordination, evaluations, and collaborations for large complex projects and has led several major projects for sustainable habitats and endangered species. He conceptualised and developed an evidence based policy think tank called Conservation Behaviour, which is first of its kind in India. It combines conservation biology, ecology, economics, psychology, developmental science, and data analytics to provide policy actionables through discussion papers and advocacy.
Rushikesh has contributed to over 70 publications in scientific journals, book, magazines, newspapers, etc. and has also given numerous talks on National and International forums. He is also an advisor and mentor to National, International organisations and individuals. He is a mentor at the global WILD Coalition 2020.
In his last assignment, he was associated with Wildlife Conservation Trust in the capacity of a Senior Conservationist. He also brings with him professional experience with organisations like Bombay Natural History Society, Lavasa, Eco Value, and Aireff DeTox Incineration Ltd.
Rushikesh is born & brought up in Mumbai and is married to Ira Bajpai. He is a certified scuba diver, likes surfing and exploring marine environments, forests, and grasslands. He enjoys teaching in his spare time for which he was engaged as visiting faculty for the Master’s programme in Sustainable Development & Environmental Management at University of Mumbai. He loves art, music and theatre, and also enjoys sports.

Strategic Partnership Grant (INR 35 lakhs)

This flagship grant will primarily reach out to mid to large sized field workoriented organisations to create a two-way partnership for thecommon cause of conservation. This grant is directed towards the running costs of on-ground projects. The grant should enable the creation of a sustainable and replicable conservation model to address some of the key conservation issues in India.

Lesser-known Habitats Grant (INR 30 lakhs)

This first of its kind initiative aims to secure and regenerate the overlooked and unaddressed habitats of the country that are in urgent need of conservation attention. India is home to an array of lesser-known habitats like grasslands, deserts, mangroves, marine ecosystems and numerous more. Some lesser-known habitats also serve as important corridors between key wildlife landscapes and as havens for dispersal populations. Through the lesser-known habitats grant, we hope to support organisations working to securethese vital habitats and bring them into the limelight.

Lesser-known Species Grant (INR 25 lakhs)

Traditionally, a great deal of attention has been given to the "charismatic" species of the country such as tigers, lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos. While this is necessary, lesser-known species that are equally endangered and ecologically important, rarely come into the spotlight and are seldom afforded the same level of conservation attention. This unique grant aims to support conservationists and organisations working to secure a future for our lesser-known endangered species of fauna and flora.

Conservation Hero Grant (INR 15 lakhs)

Across the country there are grassroots conservationists working dedicatedly, with little to no support, to protect our threatened biodiversity. The work they do in their individual capacity has a meaningful impact on conservation in the country, but unfortunately, largely goes unrecognised. This grant aims to champion the work these conservation heroes and provide them a platform to expand their activities and garner further support for their activities.

First Level Screening and Shortlisting

Successfully submitted applications and projects will be screened for eligibility, relevance of answers and authenticity of information. A team of experts including sector specialists and external auditors evaluate the successful entrieson the following parameters:

Applicant Profile: Based on past performance and credentials, capacity to deliver, financial management, program management and other such criteria.
Project Profile: Based on statement of need, clarity of objectives, measurability of impact, innovation, strategy and approaches, replicability, stakeholder participation, scalability and sustainability.

At the end of the First Level Screening and Shortlisting round, 24 applications, six in each category, will move forward for Field Level Verification.

Field Level Verification

The Habitats Trust team will visit the proposed project locations and meet with the project teams and relevant stakeholders to verify if details provided by the applicant are true to fact, and to evaluate proposals in the context of the conservation need and on-ground realities.

Sub Jury Round

Project applications and Field Level Verification findings will be evaluated by the Sub-Jury of institution leaders, following which twelve shortlisted applicants, three in each category, will move forward to the final Jury Round.

The work of all the applicants shortlisted for the Jury Round is published in The Habitats Trust Grants compendium, as a tribute to their efforts and achievements. Disseminated widely by HCL, this provides national and international visibility the applicants.

Jury Round

The twelve short listed applicants, three in each category, will be invited to present their proposed projects in person to our Jury of eminent conservationists at the Jury Round. Recipients of The Habitats Trust Grants are announced at a Felicitation Event following the Jury Round.