Mr. Romesh Thapar was a prominent journalist and political commentator. He was the founder and editor of the monthly journal Seminar, published from New Delhi, India. Seminar has been a small but sharp intellectual space for 50 years.
He was a close friend and confidante of Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh of Khetri and was appointed as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 31st January 1987 as well as the Executor of his last Will dated 30th October 1985. He served as the Chairman of the Trust till his demise in September 1987.
Lady Olga Manning was the wife of Brigadier General Sir William Henry Manning who was honored by the British Government with the Order of the Bath (C.B.), Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire (K.B.E), Knight Grand Cross, Order of St. Michael and St. George (G.C.M.G.). Their Daughter Lady Rowena Margaret Manning was married to Lord Francis John Baring, 5th Baron of Northbrook and they are the parents of Lord Francis Thomas Baring, 6th Baron of Northbrook (Lord Northbrook) who is the current Trustee of Khetri Trust.
Lady Olga Manning became Trustee of Khetri Trust with effect from 31st January 1987 as per the last will of the founder Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh. She was associated with the Trust until her death in September 1993.
Mr. Danial Latifi was a senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India. He was a grandson of Badruddin Tyabji, one of the early presidents of the Indian National Congress. Latifi was involved in a line of cases concerning minority rights, focusing on the scope of Article 30 of the Constitution relating to institutions established or run bylinguistic or religious minorities. Among Latifis later cases was the well-known Shah Banos case (AIR1985 SC 945). A man of austere habits, Latifis interests encompassed literature, linguistics, military science and, in recent years, computers.
He was the legal counsel who authored the last Will of Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh of Khetri forming Khetri Trust as a testamentary Trust after the demise of Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh. He became Trustee on the demise of the testator and was a Trustee till 25th February 1987.
Mr. Parmeshwar Prasad was by profession a company secretary and joined the services of Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh as his Manager. He nominated him as Trustee of Khetri Trust in his last Will of 30th October 1985 and became Trustee on the demise of Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh on 28th January 1987. Showing immense loyalty to his past employer, he selflessly served the Trust with great diligence and dedication till his death in 2003.
Mr. Bhaskar Mitter is a qualified Barrister at Law from London and in his illustrious career, has served as the Chairman of Andrew Yule Group, CESC Ltd., and BOC Ltd. He has been Director of Graphite India Limited, Reserve Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Unit Trust of India and ICICI Limited. He also served as the President of Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India.
He was appointed as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 8th April 1987 and remained member of the Board of Khetri Trust till 1st December 1987.
Mr. Narottam Sahgal was born in Lahore, undivided India on November 18, 1918. His early education was at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla. He joined Trinity Hall, Cambridge in the 1930s and graduated with a double first in law. Despite being called to the Bar in England he turned down the option of becoming a Barrister so that he could return to India to join the Indian Civil Service.Heretired in 1975 as a permanent secretary to the Govt. of India.
He was appointed as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 3rd May 1987 and remained member of the Board till 15th April 1992.
Dr. Romila Thapar is a celebrated Indian historian who has won numerous awards and honors for her work. She has been Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris. She was elected General President of the Indian History Congress in 1983 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1999. In January 2005, she declined the Padma Bhushan awarded by the Indian Government.
She was appointed as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 20th October 1987. She has been Chairperson of the Board of Khetri Trust till 30th September 2008. Dr. Thapar has also been the longest serving Trustee and conscientiously served the Trust for 21 years.
Mr. Tejbir Singh is a renowned photographer and comes from an illustrious family of Delhi. He was the great grandson of Sardar Sujan Singh after whom the Sujan Singh Park in Delhi was named. He is also the nephew of the famous writer Sardar Kushwant Singh. Mr. Tejbir Singh is the Editor of the Seminar Magazine, which aims to gather the facts and ideas of this age and to help thinking people arrive at a certain degree of cohesion and clarity in facing the problems of economics, of politics, of culture. Seminar was born in Bombay in September 1959.
Mr. Tejbir Singh was invited to join as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 30th October 1993 and was appointed the Managing Trustee in 2003 after the demise of Mr. Parmeshwar Prasad. He was member of the Board for 15 years till 24th August 2008.
Mr. Vikram Lal has been the Chairman and Managing Director of Eicher Motors, one of the largest Indian commercial vehicle manufacturer based in New Delhi, India. He retired from the Chairmanship of the Eicher Group in 1997, and has since then been involved in a number of philanthropic organizations. He is the president of Common Cause, a public interest organization, CEO of the Shroff Charity Eye Hospital in Delhi, and the Goodearth Education Foundation, which runs over 70 balwadis and schools in Alwar district.
He was appointed as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 8th July 2003 and was a Trustee till 18thFebruary 2007.
HH Gajsingh II is an international celebrity, many books, publications and films have been made on and about him. He has served as Indian High Commissioner in the West Indies, concurrently accredited to Trinidad & Tabago, Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, St. Lucia St. Vincent & Commissioner to Antigua, St. Kitts, Montsarrat, Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos Islands. He has also been Member of Parliament and served in the Rajya Sabha.
HH Gajsingh II has been Chairman of Rajasthan State Tourism Development Corporation, Government of Rajasthan, and Recipient of the Hadrian Award, presented by the World Monument Fund and of the IATOS Hall of Fame Award. He is the founder of numerous well known philanthropic institutions & Charitable Trusts, among them being: For the education of Women: Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls Public School, Jodhpur and Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls Hostel, Desuri, Jalore. For Health Care: Rajdadiji Hospital, Managed by Apolo Hospitals Group, Jodhpur and the Head Injury Foundation. For Rural Development: HH Maharaja Hanuwant Singh Trust and Vanishing Herds Foundation. For Heritage, Culture and Art Conservation: Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur. For Rehabilitation of Army Widows and Personnel: Veerni & Sahyog Projects. HH Gaj Singh II is the Chief Patron and Chairman of: Mayo College Ajmer, Chopasni School Jodhpur, Chopsani Shiksha Samiti Jodhpur, Hanwant Educational Society Jodhpur, BJS Educational Society Jodhpur, Aravalli Management Institute Jodhpur, Jodhpur Nagrik Society (JODHANA). He has also held positions in Trusts, Associations and Philanthropic Organizations as Founder President of Indian Heritage Hotels Association Jodhpur, Convenor: Rajasthan Chapter of Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (INTACH), Trustee: Jaipur Virasat Foundation, Ambassador: Federation of International Polo, Member: Indian National Committee of the United World Colleges, Mumbai, Member National Tourism Advisory Council, Fellow: Paul Harris Rotary International.
He was appointed as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 8th July 2003 and became Chairman after the retirement of Dr. Romilla Thapar in 2008.
Mr. Prithvi Raj Singh did his schooling from Mayo College, Ajmer followed by B.A., LLB and M.B.A. He worked for a few years in a multi-national company in Calcutta before starting his own very successful business and a young age of 26 years became President of Kopyrite Ltd, which manufactured carbonless paper for the first time in India.
In later years, he committed himself to philanthropic work and became the Founder-Managing Trustee of Jal Bhagirathi Foundation along with Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur and Magsaysay awardee Shri Rajendra Singh. His visionary leadership and management skills have been primarily responsible for the incredible growth of the organization impacting more than 300,000 people suffering from drinking water distress. He fostered partnerships of JBF with international organizations such as UNDP, UNICEF, European Union, World Bank, USAID, Transparency International and others. He managed water projects in 500 villages covering 4,500 sq. kms. Prithvi Raj Singh rebuilt and restored the Bijolai Palace given to JBF by HH Maharaja Gaj Singh, as a Water Resource Center, which has now become a unique institution to promote community participation in water resource management and disseminate ˜best practices in community management and control of natural resources.
He is also the Founder-Managing Trustee of Jal Marudhara Foundation, an organization involved in creating availability of safe water and rural livelihoods. He is also Trustee of Jal Baradari a national forum founded by Shri Rajendra Singh and he is the Chairman of the Marwar Lok Vikas Manch. He is member of the Rajiv Gandhi Water Mission, Member of the Steering Committee of the European Union State Partnership Water Program and many other Government Committees on Water Resource Management.
Mr. Prithvi Raj Singh was appointed as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 24th August 2008 and is presently the Managing Trustee of the Trust.
Mr. Francis Thomas Baring, the 6th Baron of Northbrook, is a British Conservative politician and his great grandfather, Thomas Baring, Earl of Northbrook was the Viceroy of India from 1872 to 1876. Lord Northbrook took his seat in the House of Lords on the death of his father in 1990. He is now one of the ninety two hereditary peers who remain in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act of 1999.
The son of Francis John Baring, 5th Baron Northbrook and Rowena Margaret Manning (daughter of Lady Olga Manning), Lord Northbrook was educated at Winchester College and took a BA in History at Bristol University. He became a Trainee Chartered Accountant at Dixon Wilson & Co from 1976 to 1980. He then worked at Baring Brothers & Co as a Credit Analyst between 1981 and 1983. In 1983, he moved into the Asset Management side at Baring Investment Management as an Investment Analyst between 1983 and 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he was in the Private Client Department at Baring Investment Management. He then became a Senior Investment Manager at Taylor Young Investment from 1990 to 1993 and at Smith and Williamson Securities from 1993 to 1995. He was then the cofounder and Director of the award winning Mars Asset Management between 1996 and 2006. Now he is a founding Trustee of Fortune Forum which works extensively for Global Poverty, Global Health and Climate Change. Ex-President of the USA Bill Clinton and Al Gore, Nobel Prize Winner and Ex-Vice president of USA are among its patrons.
Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh of Khetri nominated Lord Northbrook in his Will as Trustee and Executor to substitute Lady Olga Manning in the event of her death. He was accordingly appointed as a Trustee on 30th October 1993 after the demise of Lady Olga Manning. He is the current Trustee and Executor of the Will of Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh.
Mr. Ajit Singh is the Additional Director General of Police in Rajasthan recognized for his honesty and diligence. He is presently heading the Anti Corruption Bureau in the Government of Rajasthan. During the course of his 30 year career in the Indian Police Service he has held many important and sensitive assignments. He has been awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry, the Presidents Police Medal for Distinguished Services and the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Services.
Mr. Ajit Singh was appointed as a Trustee of Khetri Trust on 24th August 2008.
