Mahak Agrawal

In under eight months, I was appointed Head of India. I will let the work speak for itself on the details, but the direction is clear, and the partnerships being built are ones I am proud of.

I am now building a team and expanding our portfolio in India. Our work now includes policy engagement at the national level, public-private partnerships, and a longer-term vision for how solar can reshape public rail transport across India.

The India portfolio is being built at a moment… Show more

In under eight months, I was appointed Head of India. I will let the work speak for itself on the details, but the direction is clear, and the partnerships being built are ones I am proud of.

I am now building a team and expanding our portfolio in India. Our work now includes policy engagement at the national level, public-private partnerships, and a longer-term vision for how solar can reshape public rail transport across India.

The India portfolio is being built at a moment when the conversation about renewable energy in public transport is finally moving from aspiration to infrastructure. Being inside that shift, rather than writing about it from the outside, is a different kind of education entirely.

The bigger picture has not changed: making solar meet steel, policy, and people, and creating a real pathway for cleaner, smarter public transport across India. Show less

When the world advised my boss not to hire a woman, and certainly not someone without an engineering degree, to build the India portfolio from scratch, he did just that. Well, both he and I (who opted for LinkedIn's "Easy Apply" option) were a little surprised. But sometimes the stars do align, and destiny has a funny way of proving the sceptics wrong.

I set up the India portfolio from nothing, building the bridge between solar energy and rail infrastructure across key transit corridors… Show more

When the world advised my boss not to hire a woman, and certainly not someone without an engineering degree, to build the India portfolio from scratch, he did just that. Well, both he and I (who opted for LinkedIn's "Easy Apply" option) were a little surprised. But sometimes the stars do align, and destiny has a funny way of proving the sceptics wrong.

I set up the India portfolio from nothing, building the bridge between solar energy and rail infrastructure across key transit corridors in one of the world's largest and most complex railway networks. Day to day, that has meant forging partnerships across ministries, think tanks, family offices, and the private sector, designing policy engagement strategies, and quietly re-learning the engineering I once abandoned at eighteen.

From solar panel placement to energy yield optimisation, I have had to get genuinely comfortable with watts and kilowatt-hours alongside stakeholder maps and policy briefs. It has been equal parts humbling and energising. Show less

Promoted to Director (Global Campaigns) within a year, which felt like a quiet vindication of the sceptic who had once side-eyed the entire concept of advocacy and campaigns.

I led the organisation's largest mobilisation to date, coordinating campaigns for COP28 Dubai and Climate Emergency Day, engaging international leaders including Mayor Sadiq Khan, and managing a global volunteer team of over 200 people across time zones and languages.

Then, as has become something of a… Show more

Promoted to Director (Global Campaigns) within a year, which felt like a quiet vindication of the sceptic who had once side-eyed the entire concept of advocacy and campaigns.

I led the organisation's largest mobilisation to date, coordinating campaigns for COP28 Dubai and Climate Emergency Day, engaging international leaders including Mayor Sadiq Khan, and managing a global volunteer team of over 200 people across time zones and languages.

Then, as has become something of a pattern in the climate sector, the money moved. Climate philanthropy in the United States began questioning what it funded and what returns it expected, and budgets that had once felt stable quietly disappeared. I did not leave the job. The job, in the way that jobs sometimes do in this sector, left the funding landscape first.

It was a good reminder that even the most urgent work is not immune to how capitalism guides the mechanics of the world. Show less

Coming from India, where non-marketing campaigns have long been associated with candlelight marches, tree huggers blocking pavements with placards or civic disruptions nobody asked for, I was deeply sceptical of the whole idea. And yet, when visa timelines and work permit realities narrowed my options in New York, I found myself saying yes to a campaigns role at Climate Clock.

My very first campaign involved H.R.H. King Charles III. I will let that sink in for a moment.

It turned… Show more

Coming from India, where non-marketing campaigns have long been associated with candlelight marches, tree huggers blocking pavements with placards or civic disruptions nobody asked for, I was deeply sceptical of the whole idea. And yet, when visa timelines and work permit realities narrowed my options in New York, I found myself saying yes to a campaigns role at Climate Clock.

My very first campaign involved H.R.H. King Charles III. I will let that sink in for a moment.

It turned out that campaigns, done well, are not noise. They are narrative. And Climate Clock, as one of the world's most recognised climate urgency platforms, understood that better than most.

Over the first year, I led global campaign coordination across 40+ countries, mobilising regional partners for UN Climate Weeks and Climate Emergency Day, and expanding the organisation's footprint across Central, East and Southeast Asia through partnerships with creative industries, youth networks, and NGOs. Show less

Invited back as a Subject Matter Expert on the Ministry's official roster, the engagement deepened beyond NIDM to include the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, which is where the work became particularly interesting.

I led work on ESG reporting for corporate carbon management, scrutinised net-zero targets of non-state actors, and developed a policy paper on the use of underground spaces for a sustainable urban future in India, a thread that connected neatly with my… Show more

Invited back as a Subject Matter Expert on the Ministry's official roster, the engagement deepened beyond NIDM to include the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, which is where the work became particularly interesting.

I led work on ESG reporting for corporate carbon management, scrutinised net-zero targets of non-state actors, and developed a policy paper on the use of underground spaces for a sustainable urban future in India, a thread that connected neatly with my parallel pro-bono work at ITACUS.

Nearly four years on from that first rejected application, the relationship with the team continues, now spanning multiple ministries and evolving in ways that a straightforward consultancy contract could never quite have anticipated.

Sometimes, the opportunities that do not work out on paper have a way of working out anyway. Show less

This one started with a rejection, or something close to it. I applied for a consultancy contract with the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), the technical arm of India's Ministry of Home Affairs. The work was interesting, the mission was clear, but the remuneration and I could not find common ground.

A year or two later, the head of the environment, climate and disaster risk division got back in touch. He had remembered the work I had submitted during the application… Show more

This one started with a rejection, or something close to it. I applied for a consultancy contract with the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), the technical arm of India's Ministry of Home Affairs. The work was interesting, the mission was clear, but the remuneration and I could not find common ground.

A year or two later, the head of the environment, climate and disaster risk division got back in touch. He had remembered the work I had submitted during the application process, noticed my work online and offline in the sector, and wanted me to contribute as an expert on a policy paper. I said yes, mostly out of curiosity.

One contribution led to another. Before long, I was a Consultant on the roster, providing strategic advice (when needed, and when I could, beyond my full-time job) to city and state administrators on disaster risk reduction, recovery, and response across one of the world's most complex urban landscapes.

Key contributions included leading the development of three out of five modules of the Peri-Urban Ecosystems and Urban Resilience Training Manual, influencing disaster management planning across 6,166 cities of India, and evaluating systemic improvements for sustainable development informing climate adaptive planning for 480+ million citizens.

To be clear: none of this was moonlighting. It was simply what happens when good work gets noticed and relationships are built on substance rather than contracts. Show less

Promoted to Senior Policy Officer within five months, which I will take.

The portfolio expanded considerably from there. With some internal restructuring, the carbon management project team was redistributed and I found myself also working across hydrogen research and net-zero commitments by non-state actors. The net-zero work was genuinely interesting. Hydrogen, if I am being straightforward, was not my calling. I learned a great deal from it anyway.

Key work included:

~… Show more

Promoted to Senior Policy Officer within five months, which I will take.

The portfolio expanded considerably from there. With some internal restructuring, the carbon management project team was redistributed and I found myself also working across hydrogen research and net-zero commitments by non-state actors. The net-zero work was genuinely interesting. Hydrogen, if I am being straightforward, was not my calling. I learned a great deal from it anyway.

Key work included:

~ Directing evaluations of multi-billion-dollar sustainability commitments by Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, and Amazon, assessing alignment with global net-zero targets.
~ Establishing and leading the India Energy Transition Programme, building research partnerships and actionable projects while being careful not to duplicate or compete with the excellent think tanks already doing this work across India.
~ Supporting the UN High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments, strengthening corporate accountability frameworks.
~ Co-authoring a report on Net-Zero Industrial Hubs in the United States focused on carbon capture and storage.

I left the Center in late 2022. The work was good, the mission was important, but the opportunities for salary growth and the shape of the portfolio were becoming increasingly uncertain in ways that did not align with where I needed to be professionally or personally. Sometimes the right decision is also the uncomfortable one. Show less

The offer actually came in June or July 2020, somewhere in the middle of a global lockdown, after a single online interview. But then, HR raised concerns about visa timelines and due process, as is typical. So while the decision was made in the summer, I was officially onboarded in January 2021, which is a very Columbia way of doing things.

The Center on Global Energy Policy is one of the leading independent energy research institutions in the world, and I joined to work on the Carbon… Show more

The offer actually came in June or July 2020, somewhere in the middle of a global lockdown, after a single online interview. But then, HR raised concerns about visa timelines and due process, as is typical. So while the decision was made in the summer, I was officially onboarded in January 2021, which is a very Columbia way of doing things.

The Center on Global Energy Policy is one of the leading independent energy research institutions in the world, and I joined to work on the Carbon Management Research Initiative, focused on creating commercial solutions for companies, government agencies, and policymakers across the United States. It was rigorous, detailed, and a genuine education in how energy policy actually moves, or does not move, through institutional and commercial systems.

Shortly after joining, I also began working alongside Dr Kaushik Deb on the India Programme, which felt like a natural extension of everything I cared about, and came with the not insignificant personal benefit of being closer to my parents in Delhi. They had barely survived the Delta wave of COVID in 2021, and that changed my calculus about a lot of things. Show less

Promoted to Programme Manager within ten months, which felt significant at the time and still does, even if the salary adjustment did not quite match the title change. There is a lesson in there about always getting things in writing, no matter how senior the person making the promise, no matter how much you trust the relationship. I learned that lesson here, the hard way, when a promised salary increase and bonus did not materialise in the way I had been assured they would. I have not made… Show more

Promoted to Programme Manager within ten months, which felt significant at the time and still does, even if the salary adjustment did not quite match the title change. There is a lesson in there about always getting things in writing, no matter how senior the person making the promise, no matter how much you trust the relationship. I learned that lesson here, the hard way, when a promised salary increase and bonus did not materialise in the way I had been assured they would. I have not made that mistake since. What I did get, in abundance, was experience.

I analysed national urban policies across 162 countries for the OECD-UN-Habitat Global State of National Urban Policy Programme, shaping global roadmaps for low-carbon urban transitions. I led delivery of the €1.2 million EU-funded CRIC project in Indonesia, building institutional capacity for climate-resilient and inclusive urban development for over 150 million citizens. I co-chaired the ISOCARP Congress 2019 as the youngest co-chair in the organisation's history, which I did not fully appreciate at the time and appreciate considerably more in retrospect.

The visa constraints that came with working in the Netherlands on a non-EU passport added another layer of complexity that shaped decisions in ways that had nothing to do with professional ambition and everything to do with what was simply possible.

I left in December 2020 to pursue my second master's at Columbia, though my relationship with the Society did not end there and has continued in various forms since. Some places stay with you, even when the paperwork says otherwise. Show less

My first job outside India, and possibly the one that paid the least across my entire career, including by the standards of what I was earning in Delhi at the time. I say this not as a complaint but as context, because what ISOCARP lacked in remuneration it made up for in the sheer breadth of what it asked of me.

Navigating a new professional culture and the particular bureaucratic poetry of Dutch visa processes, all while learning what it actually means to work in a genuinely… Show more

My first job outside India, and possibly the one that paid the least across my entire career, including by the standards of what I was earning in Delhi at the time. I say this not as a complaint but as context, because what ISOCARP lacked in remuneration it made up for in the sheer breadth of what it asked of me.

Navigating a new professional culture and the particular bureaucratic poetry of Dutch visa processes, all while learning what it actually means to work in a genuinely international organisation, was a steep and largely unannounced learning curve.

In the first ten months, I established and expanded the South Asia network from 90 to over 560 active members, liaising with UN entities, city governments, and academia across the region. I also supported the production of the annual ISOCARP Review, which taught me more about editorial rigour, cultural diversities, navigating egos, and deadline management than any course ever could. Show less

When the School of Planning and Architecture was designated an Institution of National Importance by the Government of India in 2014, things shifted considerably. Suddenly, there were live project opportunities with multiple ministries flowing through the faculty, across urban planning, regional planning, and transport planning, and I was grateful to be in the right place at the right time with enough of a track record internally to be trusted with them.

This became my first real… Show more

When the School of Planning and Architecture was designated an Institution of National Importance by the Government of India in 2014, things shifted considerably. Suddenly, there were live project opportunities with multiple ministries flowing through the faculty, across urban planning, regional planning, and transport planning, and I was grateful to be in the right place at the right time with enough of a track record internally to be trusted with them.

This became my first real professional home, where I learned that good policy is as much about people as it is about data, sometimes more.

Key work included developing city development and climate action plans in collaboration with India's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, authoring two World Bank e-learning modules on sustainable land-use planning, designing and delivering capacity-building programmes for over 50 local governments to mainstream nature-based solutions and urban adaptation strategies, and evaluating greenhouse gas emissions to identify systemic opportunities for reducing sectoral (transport and waste) emissions across urban India through GIS and statistical modelling.

It was also, in hindsight, where I quietly decided that urban planning was not just something I had fallen into after abandoning medicine and engineering. It was something I actually wanted to do, and do well. Show less

This one started with a research paper. While studying at SPA Delhi, a visiting faculty member assigned the class a paper on India's Constitution and its five-year planning history: the logic behind it, the schemes it produced over decades, what was delivered, and the rather longer list of what did not. It was the kind of assignment that sounds dry until you are three days in and genuinely considering missed opportunities and implementation gaps in India's housing policies for the urban poor… Show more

This one started with a research paper. While studying at SPA Delhi, a visiting faculty member assigned the class a paper on India's Constitution and its five-year planning history: the logic behind it, the schemes it produced over decades, what was delivered, and the rather longer list of what did not. It was the kind of assignment that sounds dry until you are three days in and genuinely considering missed opportunities and implementation gaps in India's housing policies for the urban poor and rural areas.

Apparently, the paper I wrote made an impression. The same visiting faculty got in touch shortly after and asked if I would work with her on rural housing and disaster risk recovery projects in north-east India. I said yes without fully understanding what I was agreeing to.

At the time, working a job alongside college in India, part-time or otherwise, was neither particularly approved of nor especially heard of beyond the standard internship. I did it anyway, quietly with the approval of the Dean, and learned more from those projects than from most of my formal coursework.

Key work included research and fieldwork on rural housing recovery, disaster risk assessment in north-east India, and an early introduction to what it actually means to translate policy intent into something that reaches communities who have very little reason to trust that it will. Show less