Ashwini is C40’s Green Ports and Shipping Manager (India), and works on transforming port cities to champion climate action, decarbonise maritime transport, and build cleaner, more resilient, future-ready port cities.
Ashwini is an experienced urban practitioner with over 18 years of experience in government relations, strategic communication, policy advocacy, sustainable urbanisation, climate resilience, and public-private partnerships. Before joining C40, she served as the Director of Operations and Programs at Mumbai First, a leading policy-influencing think tank, where she led flagship initiatives such as the BRICS Cities Conclave, international conferences on the climate crisis series, and multi-stakeholder dialogues on solid waste, wastewater management, air quality and metropolitan planning.
She has been pivotal in forging cross-sectoral collaborations across key state and local government agencies, corporations, academia, and international partners. She has successfully managed complex programs and projects with several regional and international organisations such as the European Union, NEERI, ORF, TERI, MMRDA, MCGM, MPCB, MbPT, UNEP, GIZ, ACCIONA, and the World Bank, to name a few. Through her perseverance, she played a critical role in getting Mumbai into the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) as a member city, enhancing its commitment to climate action and urban resilience and supported C40 Cities’ engagement in advancing efforts on climate adaptation, mitigation, and circular economy transitions.
As part of the India–EU Urban Partnership, for over 8 years, she led the EU–Mumbai Partnership initiatives, advancing capacity-building efforts through platforms such as the India–EU Urban Forum to foster knowledge exchange on metropolitan planning, climate finance, and urban resilience.
Her recent work includes the Communities of Practice (CoP) project, supported by GIZ and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), across five Indian cities, focusing on peer learning around circular economy, urban resilience, municipal finance, and digital interventions in SWM. She also contributed to the C40 x GCoM initiative on Waste Financing, aiming to develop innovative, scalable models for climate-smart waste systems in Indian cities.
Ashwini is committed to facilitating processes that build inclusive, resilient, and future-ready cities through a blend of strategic insight, collaborative leadership, clarity, and determination to achieve action-oriented outcomes.
Outside work, she is a passionate advocate for nature and the environment. She is often found trekking in the mountains or on her yoga mat. She’s also a proud foster mom to two orphaned elephants.