Shweta Rawat
Chairperson, The Hans Foundation
Mrs Sweta Rawat’s family along with Manoj Bhargava, founded The Hans Foundation in 2009. She has played a key role in defining the goals and direction of the organization. Since its conception, The Hans Foundation, has funded social initiatives and projects in areas of healthcare, women empowerment, livelihood, disability, and education across India.
Describing The Hans Foundation’s vision, Ms. Rawat explains, “The foundation’s aim is to provide equal access to quality facilities for healthcare and education, and to provide a dignified livelihood to all people, regardless of age, gender, caste and religion. From mobile health clinics and hospitals, to drinking water purification at a village level, the foundation has taken a comprehensive approach to healthcare.”
In addition, Ms. Rawat has emphasized the importance of enhancing agriculture in impoverished communities, as it is a key element in both health as well as income generation. The foundation has also supported numerous large projects for education, from mid-day meals to computer training courses to full adoption of schools. Ms. Rawat stresses disability projects as a key part of The Hans Foundation’s efforts. Having taken on a highly diversified portfolio of projects, Ms. Rawat has ensured that The Hans Foundation reaches out to all marginalized communities in need of support.
Mrs Sweta Rawat has a B.A. in International Relations from American University in Washington DC and a M.A. in Human Rights and Politics from City University, UK.
Manoj Bhargava
Primary Funder, The Hans Foundation
Manoj Bhargava is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder and CEO of Living Essentials®. Born in Lucknow, India, Bhargava moved to the United States in 1967 at the age of 14. Bhargava grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Princeton University for one year before dropping out and focusing the remainder of his education on spiritual studies in India and the United States.
In 1990, Manoj founded a plastics company that he grew to $20 million in sales, which he sold to a private equity firm. With this money, he started a consumer products company, Living Essentials®, which became an overwhelming success with the introduction of 5-Hour ENERGY® in 2004. Bhargava has committed to giving away 99% of his $4 billion dollar net worth and signed the well-known Giving Pledge in 2012.
He now focuses most of his time on creating solutions at Stage 2 Innovations, his invention shop in Farmington Hills, Michigan, as well as supporting The Hans Foundation, one of the largest charitable organizations in India. Located just outside of Detroit, Stage 2 focuses on the areas of water filtration technology, and game-changing inventions to improve health/wellness.
Bhargava says, “My approach to things is: Let’s invent things that make a difference to peoples’ lives, and the inventions that really matter are the ones that will help the poorer half of the world. Let’s do stuff, not just talk about it.”
Shaan Bhargava
Founder, Shivansh Farming
Shaan is the Director of Special Projects at The Hans Foundation. Since its inception, Shaan has been running the day to day operations of Shivansh Farming, and researches solutions around the world to identify nearly-free, high impact solutions for small-plot farmers. Shaan graduated with a B.B.A. from Michigan State University in 2012, and joined The Hans Foundation shortly after.
