Hi, I'm Aarushi.I like to design systems that people can think and live inside of.
I'm an MBA candidate at MIT Sloan, learning more about the intersection of capital, technology and social impact, and figuring out how to work on it more intentionally.
I'm an architect by training, and I've spent the last few years across consulting and venture philanthropy at Dalberg Advisors and LGT Venture Philanthropy, on early childhood care, women's financial inclusion and youth entrepreneurship across India.
Growing up in India, I saw how many systems exist on paper but never reach the people they're meant for. I'm here to learn as much as I can and build products that help every person, in a way that's inclusive and sustainable.
I want to build systems that work for everyone, especially the people furthest from access, and to reach millions, not thousands.
+Four in ten children in India risk never reaching their full potential, and 40% are stunted by age five. Support for the first six years comes in fragments: health, nutrition, learning and caregiving are split across ministries, non-profits and funders, and no one owns the whole system.
I co-designed India's first collaborative for integrated nurturing care, and developed and ran the investment thesis for its $20M collective fund.
+India's inclusion story so far has been about access: 80% of adults now have a bank account. The next frontier is usage, and the gender gaps there go unseen because the data is scattered, rarely split by gender, and seldom analysed for root causes. If data is patchy, you can't formulate good policies.
I scoped indicators across India's financial ecosystem, analysing how root causes such as norms, literacy and infrastructure drive women's financial empowerment. From 300+ indicators, we built an MVP framework that tracks women's financial progress in India today.
+India spends about $2.5B a year on early childhood care for roughly 160 million children under six. Yet no single view of their status exists. Government and non-profit programmes run side by side, often duplicating each other, with no way to see which are working.
I built a district-level tracking tool that maps which interventions are active on the ground, scores each district's coverage against its needs, and shows where the gaps are.
+India needs to create nearly 8 million new jobs every year until 2030 just to keep pace with its growing workforce. Young people already make up 83% of India's unemployed, and two-thirds of them are educated. We aren't preparing our youth to be resilient, aspirational and ready to adapt to a changing workforce.
I worked with 6 government departments to design a state policy that makes entrepreneurship a core lever for workforce development, bringing vocational institutions, universities and skilling hubs together under one strategy.
I grew up in a household centred around food. One of my mother's biggest passions was to become a chef, but she gave up that dream to focus on raising children. In 2020, I started Taste Palate with her, a food media platform and consulting business spotlighting regional Indian cuisines, to give her a stage to showcase her incredible skills as a cook.
Food is how we connect as a family, and I think it's one of the best forms of cultural collaboration and expression. We've been featured in leading publications and work with key stakeholders, from government to some of India's biggest restaurant groups.
