Sunaina Kumar

Sunaina Kumar is Director - CNED and Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. She previously served as Executive Director at Think20 India Secretariat under India’s G20 presidency. In 2024 she was awarded the Maitri Fellowship by the Government of Australia and was hosted by the Institute for Global Development at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Her research focuses on gender and development, with an emphasis on building partnerships and cooperation among countries of the Global South. Her work is grounded in advancing human security and inclusive economic growth.

She has been a journalist for over 15 years and worked as a senior editor with the Indian Express and Open Magazine, and contributed news features to The Guardian, BBC, Der Spiegel, Al Jazeera, Die Zeit, IndiaSpend, and Mint, among others. Her journalistic work has been supported by grants from the European Journalism Centre, Dart Center for Journalism at Columbia University, Robert Bosch Foundation and Svran-Apeejay Journalism Foundation.

She has been a fellow with the Media Ambassadors programme by Robert Bosch Foundation in Germany. She is a founding member of the Indo-German Media Network and has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Australia India Youth Dialogue, contributing to initiatives for building people-to-people ties between countries.