Bharat K Kakkade

  • Vice President
  • BAIF Development Research Foundation
  • Maharashtra
  • Cohort 9

Bharat is the Vice President of BAIF, an Indian NGO working for rural livelihood through sustainable management of natural resources for last 45 years. He is also a member of Planning and Review Committee, National Institute of Hydrologyand Working Group on Water Mission, Department of Water Resources, Government of India. He is managing associate organizations of BAIF: Dhruva and Griserv (Gujarat), BIRD-Andhra Pradesh, BIRD-Karnataka, Dr. Manibhai Desai Management Training Center Pune and NRM division of BAIF Pune.

Some of his contributions include replicable projects on conjunctive use of water resources in the Deccan Trap which was recognized by United Nations and awarded by Government of Maharashtra. The project was assessed by UNEP as one of the top 10 successful environment protection projects in the world. He also worked on Ravine land reclamation with equitable ground water utilization in Kanpur (Rural), Uttar Pradesh; Innovative decentralized water resource development using farm pond network in Karnataka; drought-proofing approach in semi-arid region of Rajasthan; Integrating Drinking Water in Watershed Development, a trilateral project between India, South Africa and UK. He was Principle Investigator in the project of Sustainable Rural Livelihood in Backward districts of Maharashtra under World Bank supported National Agricultural Innovation Programme (NAIP) of ICAR which received TOI Social Impact Award in 2011.

He took major assignments as an External Evaluator (mid-term and final) and Program Development Consultant with ICEF, Plan International, Concern World Wide, SRTT, SDTT, IWMI and HUL. Bharat played an advisory role to Malanadu Development Society, Kerala; Krishi Gram Vikas Kendra (KGVK), Jharkhand of the corporate Usha Martin Group; Administration of Andaman and Nicobar and Government of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr. Kakkade was also a faculty of Civil Engineering at Government College of Engineering, Pune (1991-92) and Bharati Vidyapith Institute of Environment Education and Research (2000-05).

He has received prestigious Tejwani National Award for excellence in Research, Training and Development of Natural Resource for biennial 1996-97. He has published 2 watershed development manuals, 3 case study booklets, 2 research reports and 15 papers which were presented in the national and international workshops.