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Shantanu Bhagwat (born June 1966) is an Indian political activist working in the field of governance and systemic reforms in India. He was earlier part of the elite Indian Foreign Service (1991 batch) and served in the Embassy of India, Tokyo between 1993 - 1996. In 1998, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Scholarship to do an MBA from London Business School (LBS)[1]. He resigned from the Indian Foreign Service in 2000. He has been a Venture Capitalist since 2001 and is involved in various efforts in mentoring start-ups and sowing the seeds of entrepreneurship among youngsters in India. He has been focused almost full-time since 2008 on the cause of improving political systems and governance in India. He is one of the founding member of Freedom Team of India (FTI) [2] with Sanjeev Sabhlok [3] Notable ex-FTI activists include Somnath Bharti [4] and Prahlad Pandey [5], both now with Aam Aadmi Party. He writes blog on Times of India titled "Reclaiming India" [6] and maintains his own blog at ||Satyameva Jayate || [7]
Early Days & Education
[edit]Shantanu was born in Jabalpur to a middle class family. He grew up in several different states in India. He has a first class degree with distinction in Computer Science Engineering from SGSITS Indore (in 1989). Later he joined Indian Foreign Service (in 1991) securing AIR 31st in Union Public Service Commission(UPSC). In 1998 he received a full tuition scholarship from London Business School for an MBA degree which he completed with Dean's Honours.
Career
[edit]Professional
[edit]In a career spanning over two decades, Shantanu has worked across geographies and industries, including several years in Japan and in the UK. He is presently an Advisor to a US-based venture capital fund. Prior to that, he spent several years as a fast track career diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service working in New Delhi and Tokyo. He is personal investor in (and advisor to) several start ups in India including Myntra [8]. He worked with Anne Glover [9] and Hermann Hauser [10] at Amadeus Capital Partners in Europe.
Political Activism
[edit]Shantanu now devotes the major part of his time on political and systemic reform in India. He has been seriously involved in political activism since the last several years. In early 2014, he spent a couple of months working full time with Aam Admi Party (AAP) [11] in Indore (he has recently resigned) [centreright.in/2014/04/aap-an-inside-view-with-shantanu-bhagwat/] . He has been the part of Freedom Team India (FTI) [12] along with Sanjeev Sabhlok [13], Somnath Bharti [14] , Prahlad Pandey [15] and others. Shantanu is the author and publisher of one of the India's foremost blog on politics, history and culture, ||Satyameva Jayate|| at [16] . He also writes for Times of India Blog "Reclaiming India" [17]. He is the founder member of Indore-PAC [18] . He has been invited to speak at numerous institutions in India and abroad on the cause of political reform and "Youth and Politics", He has also conducted many outreach efforts as part of his activism. Recently he was invited as speaker at IBF (London Business School) [indiabusinessforum.net] and EFIL 2014 (London School of Economics) [www.lsesuindiasoc.com] . As a part of his outreach initiatives and efforts at increasing political awareness, he has held meeting, discussion and presentation at numerous forums, professional organization, Rotary clubs, Bar association as well as academic institutions including IITs, IIMs, LSE, LBS and Yale (USA).
Book
[edit]He has written a book "Saluting Our Heroes: The Param Virs of Bharat" biographies and memoirs of all the Jawaans who were awarded by Param Vir Chakra [19] .
Personal Life
[edit]Shantanu Bhagwat is married and has one daughter .