Youth Advisory Council
Collaborating with emerging young policymakers and building sustainable projects are vital components of our goal to build a stronger tomorrow. Meet the members of our 2025-26 Youth Advisory Council:
Anoushka Tandon
Anoushka Tandon is a Grade 11 student at Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai, deeply passionate about STEM and using technology to solve real-world problems at the intersection of innovation and public policy. She has been pursuing robotics for over five years, leading and winning several national and international competitions. Alongside her passion for science and technology, Anoushka is an avid debater and Model UN enthusiast with a deep interest in international relations and global governance. A musician at heart, Anoushka also enjoys singing, playing the piano and composing her own musical pieces.
Freya Shah
Freya Shah is a Grade 11 IBDP student at Chatrabhuj Narsee School, Mumbai. She is keenly interested in the intersection of economics and psychology. Freya is also curious about the effects of educational inequality on the economy and the potential of gamified learning. This inspired her to design a bilingual board game to support students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in engaging with basic concepts of economics. With a passion for community service and public speaking, Freya is currently the Secretary of a youth service club, The Interact Club of Mumbai Western Elite. She also founded her school’s MUN and Debate Club and leads her school’s in-house podcast. Freya hopes to pursue economics and management studies with a specialisation in behavioural economics at the undergraduate level.
Sadhika Parthiban
Sadhika Parthiban is a 12th grade student at North Park Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario. Sadhika’s interests span business, and social impact where she applies both analytical and artistic thinking to real-world social impact initiatives. She was selected in 2024 as one of 25 participants for InnovaPolis’s Young SDG Leaders Program. Her proposal to address global sustainability challenges placed her in the top ten, allowing her advance to the policy drafting stage where she authored a policy report. Sadhika’s strongest area of involvement has been with the Save Soil global movement, an environmental campaign supported by the UN and the World Economic Forum. Over the past two years, she has delivered awareness presentations to more than 2,000 students in Canada, the United States and the UAE to educate youth on soil degradation and sustainable land management.
Samaira Jain
Samaira Jain is a 11th grade student at Sanskriti School. She is currently studying a combination of English, Mathematics, Economics, Psychology and Political Science. Samaira is passionate about educating other young people about active citizenship. As a 2025-26 Youth Advisory Council member for InnovaPolis, Samaira is currently working on encouraging high school students to become positive changemakers. In terms of academics, she has a strong passion for psychology and economics and has published two research papers in these fields. Samaira is also an enthusiastic and accomplished athlete, currently serving as the Vice Sports Captain at Sanskriti School.
Svara Kasliwal
Svara Kasliwal is a student from Mumbai, India with a deep interest in economics, entrepreneurship, and psychology. She is the founder of Siddhi Girls, a project dedicated to empowering young girls through mentorship, access to resources, and confidence-building programs that help them recognize and realize their full potential. In addition to her leadership experience as her school’s Head Girl, Svara has actively led initiatives that make education, civic engagement, and social innovation more accessible and relevant for her peers. She is passionate about creating opportunities where young people can engage meaningfully with complex ideas and contribute to solutions in their communities. As a member of the InnovaPolis’s Youth Advisory Council, Svara hopes to bring fresh, creative perspectives that amplify youth voices and help shape inclusive, forward-thinking urban communities for the next generation.
Vedant Kachhawa
Vedant Kachhawa is a high school senior at GEMS Modern Academy, Dubai. Currently in his second year at TKS, an elite program with a highly selective 10–13% acceptance rate from over 42,000 global applicants, Vedant was selected for the Activate program as one of only 200 from the first-year Innovate cohort. He has been awarded 10,000+ AED in scholarships. Vedant is a Yale Young Global Scholars ‘25 alumnus, accepted from 13,000+ applicants for the Solving Global Challenges track. He was also accepted into Harvard’s Undergraduate Venture Tech Summer Program ‘25. Vedant has founded multiple ventures including ZynithAI (an AI-powered education platform) and I Wish UAE (a social impact platform for the UAE community). Vedant brings a blend of strategic thinking, entrepreneurship and technical fluency to the Youth Advisory Council, driven by his belief that young people should shape the systems that affect their futures.
Veruschka Pandey
Veruschka Pandey is a WHO Youth Ambassador for Non-Communicable Diseases in India, poet, avid ebator, and youth policy innovator. She is dedicated to bridging scientific research with systemic reform. As founder of Project Suryanayak, Veruschka led one of India’s largest CPR initiatives by training over 100,000 individuals and embedding life-saving education into state policy. She was also a Principal Investigator of India’s first youth-led Type 1 Diabetes policy study, working to shape recommendations now adopted by the Indian government. A biomedical researcher exploring mesenchymal stem-cell secretomes for autoimmune therapy, Veruschka believes that science must translate into social change. Through poetry, she also gives voice to public health inequities, blending empathy with evidence. Veruschka aspires to become a scientist and entrepreneur, transforming discovery into accessible, human-centered solutions.
Nandika Singh
Nandika Singh is currently a Grade 10 student at The Shri Ram School Moulsari. She is driven by a deep love for all things science (especially biology) and an even deeper belief that knowledge should heal and serve. Nandika founded Dough for Good, a youth-led initiative that turns baking into a means of change, raising over ₹600,000 Indian rupees to support education in under-resourced schools and homeless shelters. Nandika currently serves as Head of Events at the Student Internet Governance Forum (SIGF). She is passionate about creating spaces for young people from all over the world to engage meaningfully with digital governance. Through InnovaPolis’s Governance, Public Policy & Leadership 2.1 Fellowship, Nandika authored a research paper on the Ayushman Bharat Program in Jharkhand to explore how public health systems can be accessible to those who need it the most. As a certified Indian Sign Language educator, Nandika is also passionate about making communication more inclusive and human-oriented. She hopes to build a future where science, policy and compassion meet for a better world.
Sarrah Arsiwalla
Sarrah Arsiwalla is a Grade 11 student enrolled in the IBDP programme at B.D. Somani International School. She is currently studying Economics, Psychology and English at higher level. Sarrah is deeply passionate about law, particularly in the areas of women’s rights and educational equality. She strives to expand access to education for underprivileged girls in India through her initiative, Project Girl Meets World. Sarrah recently completed a legal internship focused on litigation and commercial law, where she gained hands-on experience in case research and drafting legal documents. This enot only reinforced her passion for the legal field but also broadened her interests to include policy-making and policy analysis. Sarrah hopes to pursue a career in law to combine her passion for advocacy and her intrinsic sense of justice for everyone in the world.