Ikya Kondapolu

Ikya Kondapolu is an education and development practitioner from India whose grassroots work has focused on expanding educational access for underprivileged girls in rural communities. She holds a Master’s degree in Sustainability and Social Innovation from HEC Paris and has previously worked at the OECD, focusing on international development policy and examining how aid and global cooperation can tackle poverty and inequalities worldwide.

She is currently a Project Manager at the Learning Planet Institute in Paris, where she coordinates the LearningPlanet Festival—an annual event that brings together hundreds of thousands of participants from over 190 countries to reimagine education in the 21st century. Alongside her work in France, she remains actively engaged in India’s education sector, mentoring and providing upskilling programs for unemployed youth through the Freedom Employability Agency in Delhi, and supporting minority women and youth in pursuing higher education opportunities abroad through the Project EduAccess initiative. She is also an active member of the Global Shapers Community, contributing to youth-led local action in Paris.

Her research and intellectual interests span development economics, international cooperation, feminist and postcolonial theory, higher education, intersectionality, economic policymaking, modern Indian history, and geopolitics, with a particular focus on comparative perspectives that situate India and South Asia within broader global debates. Ikya is an alumna of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.