About Us

A scan of livelihood options available to marginalised communities reveals that there exists a major deficiency in employable skills among youth and women. In addition, poor access to credit further aggravates the problem for providing trainings for skill building.

As per NSDC, 36.6% of the population between the age of 15 and 29 is unemployed in India. Skill deficiency in India is a massive challenge to overcome. Unskilled workforce leads to low economic participation. The problem is to meet job suitability with the adequately competent workforce.

To eradicate this perennial problem, the Development Alternatives (DA) Group is constantly striving to create a sustainable and large scale impact in rural and semi urban communities, through its offshoot called TARA Academy (TA).

TARA Academy (TA), established in 2007, is an initiative of the Development Alternatives Group working towards bridging the gap of unskilled youth and providing employment. TA’s model is unique as it provides end-to-end services in the Livelihood Sector for candidates (end beneficiaries), with the emphasis on counselling and employment oriented training at a very nominal cost. It tries to meet the other administrative expenses either through CSR Funding or as ‘Employer-as-Payer’ model. The short, relevant and effective courses of TA, combined with hands-on experience, make our trainees job-ready. From its inception, TARA Academy has been successful in maintaining 70% placement/self –employment track record.

TA has built skills and capacities of over 45,000 people operating in 8 sectors:

Meet Our Team

DR. ASHOK KHOSLA

Dr. Ashok Khosla is the Chairperson of the Development Alternatives Group. Currently, he is also the President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Co-President of the Club of Rome, and Co-Chair of the UNEP International Resource Panel.

GEORGE C. VARUGHESE

George C. Varughese is the President - Enterprise Development, Development Alternatives Group, and has extensive experience in the area of Programme Planning & Management, Institutional Design, Regional Environmental Planning, Environment Impact Assessment and Natural Resource Management.

SHRASHTANT PATARA

Shrashtant Patara, Chief Executive Officer of TARA, is an architect by training. He has been associated with the Development Alternatives Group since 1988, providing research expertise, management capability and strategic direction to teams engaged in the promotion of sustainable technology and creation of green jobs.

DR. ARUN KUMAR

Dr. Arun Kumar is the President of Development Alternatives, and has extensive experience in the areas of technology design, system engineering, business development and research. His specialisation lies in the areas of renewable energy, technology design and development, systems engineering and business development, and general management.