Ruchi Kashyap is a systems leader and social entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience working alongside indigenous and marginalized communities across India. As Executive Trustee & CEO of Atmashakti Trust, she leads one of India’s largest community-led development initiatives, partnering with more than 2.8 million households across six states to strengthen local governance, regenerative livelihoods, women’s leadership, food systems, and climate resilience.

Her work focuses on building community-owned institutions that bridge grassroots wisdom with public policy, technology, and collaborative action. She is particularly interested in listening as infrastructure for democracy and is currently developing the Listening Architecture Toolkit (LAT) to strengthen participatory governance and citizen engagement.

Ruchi believes that the future of governance lies in combining indigenous knowledge, systems thinking, and collective leadership to create resilient communities.