Dr. Manish Kumar is the Executive Director of the Sustainable Bharat Foundation (SBF). He is an environmental scientist, public policy researcher, and development practitioner with over a decade of experience at the intersection of climate change, public policy, sustainable finance, climate adaptation, air quality, and just energy transition. He earned his Ph.D. in Environment Management and has worked with globally reputed institutions, including Stockholm University, Sweden, as a Post- Doctoral Researcher and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany, as a Visiting Scientist. His research foundations were built at Banaras Hindu University and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-BHU), where he contributed to advanced environmental studies emphasizing the air quality over the Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Dr. Kumar has worked extensively on climate-vulnerability assessments, sustainable livelihood models, sub-national climate resilience planning, energy transition, and policy design for extremely climate-vulnerable regions of India. His work spans both academic rigour and real-world development practice, with a strong orientation toward improving community resilience, promoting sustainable agriculture, and enhancing climate-informed governance systems.

As the Executive Director of SBF, he provides strategic leadership across all programs, research functions, partnerships, and institutional development. He guides the organization’s vision to integrate scientific research, community engagement, and policy innovation into actionable pathways for a more resilient and equitable India.

Deeply committed to social service, Dr. Kumar aims to bridge climate science and grassroots development through evidence-driven, inclusive, and people-centric solutions.