Introduction
Rumana Sinha Sehgal, stands as a paragon of transformative global leadership an engineer, entrepreneur, strategist, innovator, and change-maker, whose illustrious career timeline spans over 25 years, marked by remarkable versatility across sectors and steadfast societal impact. She is a scholar alumna of the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, holding a Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Management. Armed with this academic distinction, her multifaceted professional journey is further fortified with a Master’s in International Relations and Public Policy and a Global C-Suite Certification in Defence Strategy and Innovation. Her professional trajectory encompassed pivotal roles at renowned Fortune 500 companies, including Oracle and ADP, where she amassed expansive experience spanning software engineering, quality assurance, manufacturing, Human Resources, IT, and ITES services, cultivating a rare blend of technical prowess, operational insight, and strategic foresight.
Early Life and Background
Rumana Sinha Sehgal is an engineer, entrepreneur, technologist and policy thinker, known for her work at the intersection of innovation, strategy, and social impact. She is also an accomplished artist, sculptor, writer, and poet. Born into a family of the Indian Armed Forces, she spent her formative years across multiple regions of India, shaped by an upbringing rooted in national service and exposure to the country’s cultural, linguistic, and social diversity.
Raised within the value system of the Indian Armed Forces, Ms Sinha internalised discipline, integrity, resilience, harmony, and service to country as foundational principles. These values manifested early in her life through sustained engagement in student leadership. Throughout her schooling, she consistently held positions of responsibility, including serving as School Captain , and represented her institutions across academic, cultural, sports and co-curricular platforms. She was recognised for her organisational acumen, assured stage presence, and her capacity to lead diverse student cohorts with composure and purpose.
Her schooling included Carmel Convent, New Delhi; Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 2, Air Force Academy, Dundigal; and Kendriya Vidyalaya Picket, Secunderabad. During her schooling years, she participated actively in national character-building programmes and was awarded the Rajya Puraskar ( State Award) in 1990 and the Rashrapati Puraskar in 1991 (President’s Award) Bharat Scouts and Guides – the organisation’s highest *national honours, in recognition of leadership, discipline, and commitment to service.
Sinha is a scholar alumna of Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, where she earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Management. During her undergraduate studies, she served for four consecutive years as President of the Mechanical and Manufacturing Forum, leading academic and technical initiatives and fostering collaborative engagement across engineering disciplines.
Career
Ms. Sinha’s professional trajectory encompassed pivotal roles at renowned Fortune 500 companies, including Oracle and ADP, where she amassed expansive experience spanning software engineering, quality assurance, manufacturing, Human Resources, IT, and ITES services, cultivating a rare blend of technical prowess, operational insight, and strategic foresight.
Ms. Rumana Sinha Sehgal founded Serendipity in2012, an organization that champions sustainability, propels green technology, inclusion, system thinking, and entrepreneurship while also orchestrating recyclable, tactile and experiential installations. She pioneers the kinetic energy green-tech system “Pravaah”, that converts footfall into power, integrating it into an intelligent, sustainable infrastructure. Within the ambit of Serendipity her advocacy extends across climate action, gender equality, education, accessible healthcare, inclusive art, Ed-tech and community service. Today, Serendipity finds its technological epicenter at T-Works, India’s largest prototyping center, where Ms.Sinha is actively innovating and converting inventions into manufacturable realities, furthering green technology and strengthening Serendipity’s innovation pipeline, accelerating the transformation of “Pravaah” and other sustainable technologies into tangible, deployable products.
Rumana Sinha Sehgal’s stewardship across India’s innovation ecosystem positions her as a polymath and a feted mentor. She serves as a Regional Mentor of Change & GEM of Mentor India both at Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog-Govt.of India, mentoring young minds throughout the innovation journey—from ideation to product development and also enriches the professional development of fellow mentors to fortify robust, high-impact ecosystems. Ms.Sinha is a certified Gold-Level Mentor at T-Hub, providing strategic & technological direction to startups in sustainability, social impact, healthcare, and defense sectors, advancing enterprises that are scalable, resilient, and socially responsible. At IIM Kozhikode (LIVE), she enables startups in business plan formulation, ideation, and sustainable growth strategies, ensuring that their ventures are impactful, viable, and future-ready. As a preeminent mentor at the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP):NITI Aayog-Govt.of India; in the domain of aerospace and defence, she provides comprehensive guidance to women-led startups—redefining business strategies, enhancing market readiness, challenging assumptions, and aligning growth with impact-oriented outcomes. At CDIIC, India’s first Defence Innovation ecosystem, she mentors Defence innovators across ideation, strategic guidance, project planning, and ecosystem enablement, strengthening pathways toward technological sovereignty. A notable mentor at the IIT Bombay’s E-Cell, Ms.Sinha nurtures startups and student entrepreneurs, analyzing business models, validating market fit, and ensuring actionable, investor-ready execution.
Ms.Sinha’s humanitarian influence is equally distinguished. She serves as Global Goodwill Ambassador for Yuvraj Singh Foundation (YouWeCan), advocating for cancer awareness.She also contributes to the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, where she coaches young girls at the grassroots level, supporting educational upliftment, capacity-building, and opportunities for academic and entrepreneurial growth, making a meaningful impact on gender equality and educational access. Ms.Sinha serves as Peace Ambassador (CPS) Sri Lanka, and as World Peace Messenger : World Peace Development Organization (WPDO), holding both appointments with distinction since 2019.
An illustrious TEDx speaker, Ms. Sinha is the recipient of the prestigious Rex Karmaveer Chakra Platinum Medal 2024 (Instd.by iCongo in partnership with the UN) preceded by the Gold Medal(2023), the Silver Medal(2019), and is a Rex Karmaveer Global Fellow. The highlight of her accolades also include Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2023) by Entrepreneur India, Women of Impact:Leadership Excellence Award (2025), International Influencer of the Year (2021) by Entrepreneur India, Decade of Excellence Award (2014) by Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs of India. She has been recently conferred with Dr. M. S. Swaminathan Green-Tech Excellence Award for Community Impact at the International Conference on Green Technology Policy and Finance 2025.
Through her entrepreneurial vision, vanguard innovation, and global mentorship, Rumana Sinha Sehgal continues to accelerate sustainable systems and green technologies; augment communities; bolster equitable and resilient enterprises, and galvanize transformative change across industries, society and the entrepreneurial milieu; enshrining her legacy as a catalyst for enduring global impact and as an Architect of Change!
