LBS students join the fight against poverty in India

A group of 28 Class of 2026 London Business School (LBS) Graduate Masters students recently came together through ‘Project Aasha’ to help Head Held High (HHH) in its work to transform the lives of young people, empower women and support marginalised communities in rural India so that they can realise their full potential.

Project Aasha, which means ‘hope’, is a student-run Social Impact Initiative, exclusively run by LBS’s Masters in Management (MiM)/Global Masters in Management (GMiM), Masters in Financial Analysis (MFA) and Masters in Analytics and Management (MAM) students, and proudly supported by the LBS Experiential Learning team who help bridge social innovation with business strategy. Now in its ninth year, the Project was founded by two MiM2018 students and is committed to delivering real impact for social entrepreneurs fighting against poverty.

This year, the Project was co-led by Anushree Sharma (MFA2026) and Rishi Ghiraiya (MiM2026), ably supported by Operations Lead Derinsu Ekici (MiM2026) and Marketing Lead Sanika Attarde (MiM2026). Four teams drew on students’ consulting skills to tackle four different projects, bridging social innovation with business strategy to help create lasting impact for the communities served by HHH.

Project 1 focussed on donor management and improving long-term donor retention. Over eleven weeks, Julia Knauz (Team Lead; MiM), Shivani Polsani (MFA), Yatika (MFA), Veronica Lai (MiM), Hongxi Hu (MiM) and Lulu Xiong (GMiM) built a corporate donor management strategy for HHH from the ground up. After analysing the existing donor base and segmenting it into five behavioural personas, they mapped a six-stage donor journey and identified concrete gaps at each stage, delivering tracker tools, a satisfaction form, and a monitoring and evaluation framework. Alongside their proposal for a data classification framework to centralise and standardise HHH's donor data, the team’s strategic recommendations have given HHH an actionable blueprint for managing ~30 anchor corporate donors with more structure, consistency, and institutional memory.

Project 2 saw Pranav Srikar (Team Lead; MAM), Nishika Kogta (MFA), Flora Fang (MAM), Anna Reshidko (MiM) and Sanskruti Soni (MiM) build a Youth Aspiration Index from more than 2,000 youth survey responses. Using statistical methods, the team defined the index purpose, refined aspiration categories and benchmarked the index against global standards. A parallel employer survey revealed that 44% of employer-cited mismatches with youth are behavioural rather than skills-based, pointing to a fundamental gap in how skilling programmes are designed.

Project 3 was focussed on a Women's Entrepreneurship Programme. Rhutuja Lokhande (Team Lead; MiM), Saloni Chaudhary (MAM), Malaika Mathew (MiM), Ami Vithalani (MiM), Snega Suresh (MiM), An Tran (MiM) and Jeanne Delsart (MiM) conducted a full strategic review of HHH's Antarprerana programme, which supports first-generation rural women entrepreneurs across 19+ states through training, mentorship, market access, financing linkages, and digital adoption. After identifying five structural bottlenecks, they developed five prioritised recommendations, including securing anchor buyers before training begins and treating the household as the unit of intervention, as well as a seven-stage future-state programme roadmap.

Project 4 looked at Crowdfunding Strategy.Team Lead Panshul Jetwani (MiM), alongside team members Ariel Loo (MiM), Sabina Dragan(MiM), Atharva Karkhanis (MiM), Harrison Kim (MiM) and Aryan Agarwal (GMiM), designed a full crowdfunding strategy for HHH's Make India Capable programme, which takes rural youths aged 15–29 through a 6-8-month journey from foundational literacy to wage employment. Four donor personas were developed from five research sources, and a two-pathway donation model was designed to serve both first-time and higher-capacity givers.

Commenting on the success of this year’s Project, Anushree and Rishi said:

“This year saw the highest interest among students since Project Aasha was founded, and was the most diverse in terms of cross-programme collaboration and global nationalities represented. We would be nowhere without the projects and teams that came before us, however. Over 200 LBS students have taken part in projects since 2018, supporting 22 social enterprises nationwide in India in their efforts to improve lives through increased access to education, health and better livelihoods. Over 12,000 people have been empowered so far, which is a remarkable achievement.

“Not forgetting the knowledge and skills that LBS students themselves take away from the experience: a deepened understanding of real-world practices; teamwork and collaboration; global perspective; and a sharpened ability to deliver advice that is both evidence-based and immediately actionable.”