Innovating for The Circular Economy

Rachna Arora is working as a team leader in the EU-Resource Efficiency project of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Bonn, Germany, and as a team leader on the GIZ Circular Economy solutions preventing Marine litter project. She has been working with GIZ for the last 14 years with relevant ministries and government departments towards environmental policy formulation and its implementation. She is a TEDx speaker on the circular economy.

She holds a doctorate degree in environmental chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. She was a member of the interdepartmental committee set up by NITI Aayog (policy Think Tank, GoI) on Resource Efficiency strategy, NITI Aayog's committee set up by the Ministry of Information Technology and Communication (MeitY), the GoI Circular Economy Action plan on e-waste, MNRE's Committee on Solar Panel Recycling, and the Ministry of Steel committee on scrap recycling. She is also a working group member of the FICCI Circular Economy Committee, supporting industry research and dialogues on the circular economy.

Dieter Mutz's professional background is in sanitary engineering, and he has more than 30 years of work experience with bi- and multilateral development organisations (GTZ, KfW, SECO, DEZA, UNIDO, the World Bank, IDB) with assignments in Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asian regions. His professional expertise lies in eco-efficient resource management and integrated solid waste and wastewater management.

His international experiences with resource efficiency and circular economy derive from his assignment as team leader for the EU-financed project called 'Resource Efficiency Initiative for India' (January 2017-December 2020) and as Director of the Indo-German Environment Partnership Programme (IGEP), jointly implemented by the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEFCC) and GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer International Zusammenarbeit), financed by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (August 2010-September 2015). This programme had a focus on sustainable urban and industrial development, land and resource management, as well as environmental protection and climate change mitigation.

In addition, since January 2016, Dieter holds a position as lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences, Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), an academic and research organisation he had already been affiliated with from 1999 until 2010. His academic focus lies on integrated waste and resource management in Europe and countries in transition.

Dieter holds a doctorate from the University of Karlsruhe where he studied Sanitary Engineering. He has had long-term assignments in Thailand, Nepal, and Ecuador as well as India.

Pavithra Mohanraj is the co-founder of Infinitive, a young advisory firm working to accelerate the adoption of the circular economy in India through communications, capacity building, business advisory, and ecosystem development projects. Infinitive has played a key role in shifting mindsets and shaping the evolving conversation around the circular economy in India.

Pavithra graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Science (with Merit). She has over a decade of experience leading projects in sustainability and Circular Economy across Singapore and India, and has worked with industry, as well as bilateral and multilateral agencies. Most recently, Pavithra has also completed a year-long stint at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a Consultant supporting projects under the Sustainable and Circular Textiles portfolio of the UNEP India Office.