Shekhar Mehta
President-elect 2020-21
Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar
West Bengal, India
Shekhar Mehta is only the 4th Indian in 115 years to be nominated as the President of Rotary International for the year 2021-22.
Shekhar Mehta was born in 1959 in Kolkata India. A keen academician, he graduated from St. Xavier’s College, and has the unique combination of Masters in Commerce, a qualified Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant and Company Secretary.
He heads the Skyline Group engaged in Real Estate Development in different parts of India, including the largest group housing in the state of Rajasthan.
He is member of many professional, cultural and charitable organizations. He has served as trustee of Shelter Box (UK) and he is a trustee of Operation Eyesight India, a Canada based organization.
Shekhar Mehta joined Rotary in 1985. He is a member of Rotary Calcutta Mahanagar.
- He served as District Governor in 1999-2000 and was elevated to the Board of Directors of Rotary International for 2011-2013.
He has been Chairman of
- Joint Partnership Committee of Rotary International
- Strategic Planning Committee of Rotary International
- Rotary India Literacy Mission
- Rotary Foundation India
- Rotary India Centennial Celebrations
- Rotary India Humanity Foundation
He served as Director on the Board of Rotary International from 2011 to 2013. While serving as Rotary International Director, he helped Rotary add 2 countries to its fold – Bhutan & Maldives.
Keenly dedicated to service, Shekhar Mehta has led many major service initiatives in India & South Asia. Some significant initiatives are:
- Constructing 500 homes for Tsunami survivors at Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
- Starting the Shelter Kit program in India which has served about 20 disasters distributing more than 15,000 Shelter Kits helping about 75,000 disaster victims.
- He started saving little hearts a pediatric Heart Surgery Program – through this he has got done more than 2,500 heart surgeries for children from across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal & African Countries. He also facilitated for the program to now become a National Program.
- Conceptualizing nationwide T-E-A-C-H a literacy program in India having reached out to more than 50,000 Schools and 15 million children. T-E-A-C-H is a holistic program on literacy. Rotary is working on the T-E-A-C-H Program with the Central Government and many State Governments. The program has been replicated in Nepal & Pakistan.
- He has helped take the E-learning Program to millions of children through the television channels of Government of India. He is the architect of the Rotary Total Literacy Program of India.
- He has been Instrumental in setting up more than 15 Eye Hospitals across India serving nearly 50,000 eye operations each year.
- He started a scholarship program called UDAAN for marginalized children. Over last 10 years 1,000 scholarships have been given by his club.
- Responding to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national call – He has helped set up 6000 rural toilets benefitting 30,000 people.
- Shekhar Mehta is spearheading an India-wide projects in collaboration with the Government of India, in the areas of Water, Sanitation, Literacy, Healthcare, Environment and Disaster Management. The result of these programs he professes will be “Rotary’s Role in Nation Building in India”. The Prime Minister of India and various cabinet Ministers have applauded these mega initiatives of Rotary in India.
Shekhar Mehta is a motivational speaker. He has spoken at hundreds of events nationally and internationally. His motivation skills are par excellence which has helped raise millions of dollars for The Rotary Foundation.
Shekhar Mehta is recipient of the highest awards of Rotary International & The Rotary Foundation,
(i) “Service Above Self Award”
(ii) “The Meritorious Service Award”
(iii) “The Distinguished Service Award”.
He will serve as the world leader of 1.2 million Rotarians in 200 countries and geographical areas in the year 2021-2022.
Shekhar Mehta is married to Rashi Mehta. She is a social worker and is a stage artist having performed in socially relevant plays across India. They have a son Chiraag married to Geeta, a daughter Geeta and a grandson Veer.
His guiding mantra in life is “Service is the rent that we pay for the space we occupy on this earth”.