Lijo Chacko

Synergy Educational and Charitable Trust

Lijo joined the Indian Naval Academy in 1991 and has operated 6 attack submarines in various capacities. He was also part of the team which constructed India’s first indigenous nuclear-propelled submarine. On becoming a Commander, he headed the Submarines’ Division in the Naval Dockyard, Mumbai and then coordinated the simultaneous construction of all Scorpene submarines at the Mazagon Dock Ltd.

In addition to living in and out of the underwater world, Lijo is involved with social work in more than 25 different organizations. His support includes mentoring, advising, a trustee, or as an external consultancy.

He is involved with Go2C (Government to Citizen Changemakers) where he is providing low cost housing (starting with Wayanad which has a large tribal community population), nutrition assessment of students in schools, introduce vocational classes in senior secondary schools and converting a government run college into a centre of excellence.

He is a trustee at Gurupuraskar Foundation which works to enhance the capabilities of government school teachers in about 5000 schools in Karnataka. He is involved with Adarsh Trust and Hear2Read where he is helping the visually impaired. He is part of the core team of LILA Foundation for Translocal Initiatives which is a cultural trust based in Delhi. He supports Estah, a social entrepreneurship initiative in the agricultural sector working to increase the incomes of farmers by moving towards organic farming. He is an advisor to Citizens for Public Leadership, a forum where we hope to encourage conscientious political activity among the youth.

He is helping Talent Beyond Boundaries in providing rehabilitation opportunities to refugees, primarily Syrians in Beirut and Jordan.

He is available on Linked here and his Twitter handle is @lijoschacko. Here is his Blog.