Kanika Verma leads the Sustainable Enterprise Domain of the Development Alternatives Group. She is also currently pursuing an M.Phil. with a specialisation in inclusive innovation at the University of Cape Town. As Associate Vice President, she provides strategic guidance, substantive expertise and management support to teams engaged in projects related to the development of delivery models for basic needs products, provision of support services to micro and small enterprise and initiatives to strengthen aggregation driven value chains. A major segment of her work is on enhancing livelihood security for women in underserved areas of India.
Her current areas of focus include piloting a social innovation platform (action and learning) to boost job growth for women and youth in India with support from “la Caixa” Banking foundation; co-leading the Asia Hub of Systems Play on fostering collaboration, experimentation, and learning with system innovators; scaling up micro-enterprise development in villages being provided electricity through solar micro-grids supported by Rockefeller Foundation; and developing clusters for traditional industries to make them profitable and productive through a mandate given by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise, Government of India’s flagship program - SFURTI.
She led a financial investment firm in the U.S.A. for seven years prior to joining Development Alternatives Group in 2011 to pursue her ambition of being a social entrepreneur.