Ankitha Cheerakathil

Ankitha Cheerakathil is currently leading Institute H21’s strategy, partnerships and projects in India as Founder and Executive Director of Foundation for Community Consensus (FCC). She was a Research Consultant on urbanization and governance for the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI), University of Pennsylvania. She is an alumna of St. Stephen’s College (Delhi University) and the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po). She is currently an MPP candidate at the Max Bell School of Public Policy, McGill University. She is also a visiting faculty at Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU) in Gujarat, where she has designed and taught a public policy course on citizens’ participation. She is an assistant editor for an international team of academics compiling The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance (Routledge, 2022).

Foundation for Community Consensus (FCC), the Indian partner of Institute H21 was established in New Delhi in 2018 when Ankitha Cheerakathil envisioned expanding the Janecek Method in Asia – a continent home to the world’s most diverse communities, cultures and ethnic groups. FCC shares Institute H21’s values of seeking consensus in democratic societies and promoting active participation. The Indian team focuses on engaging youth in participatory governance with the help of the D21 – Janecek Method.