Shubhi Kesarwani

Co-founder

Co-founder of Abhipsa Foundation (GuruJal)

Shubhi Kesarwani is the co-founder of Abhipsa Foundation (GuruJal)[1], an Indian non-profit working on environment and water & sanitation from Gurugram.

Shubhi Kesarwani is an Indian water security practitioner and the co-founder and chief executive of GuruJal, an organisation in Gurugram, Haryana, that works on groundwater restoration, pond rejuvenation, rainwater harvesting and water governance. GuruJal began in January 2019 as a special purpose vehicle for the Gurugram district administration, sponsored by Hero MotoCorp and the Raman Kant Munjal Foundation, and became autonomous in July 2023.

Early life and education

Kesarwani studied for a Master of Professional Studies in Sustainability Management at Columbia University in New York, enrolling in the spring of 2021 and completing the programme in 2022. She was president of Columbia's Indian Student Association and an India regional co-chair for the School of Professional Studies.

Career

Kesarwani founded GuruJal in 2019 as a public-private partnership intended to address water scarcity, seasonal flooding and desertification in Gurugram district through water governance rather than engineering alone. She served as its programme director and, after the organisation became autonomous, as co-founder and chief executive; Fawzia Tarannum is co-founder and strategic head. GuruJal works across technology, policy, governance, communications and financing, and by the early 2020s had rejuvenated eleven ponds in the district and worked with more than thirty-five corporate partners.

She has spoken publicly on mainstreaming decentralised wastewater treatment and rainwater harvesting in Gurugram, including in material prepared for the Centre for Science and Environment.[2][3][4][5]

Abhipsa Foundation (GuruJal)

Abhipsa Foundation runs GuruJal, an integrated water management initiative in Gurugram, Haryana, working with the district administration, corporates and communities to tackle water scarcity, groundwater depletion and flooding. Its projects include pond rejuvenation, traditional well revival, wastewater treatment pilots and the WeForWater green-jobs programme.

Abhipsa Foundation (GuruJal) reports the following, on its own site:

In FY 2024-25, GuruJal reached 5 cities pan-India, running 30+ programmes with 100+ partners and 100% audited financials (Annual Report 2024-25 year highlights).
Under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan in Gurugram (2019), GuruJal sealed 200+ borewells and set up the district's Water Complaint Call Centre.