Bio

Apoorve Khandelwal is a Fellow and Team Lead for Sustainable Food Systems at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), with over 15 years of experience across food-system transformation and the bioeconomy. His work spans the transformation of India’s agricultural and food systems, the political economy shaping these transitions, the green economy and bioeconomy, and alternative pathways for India’s development.

His work on food-system transformation spans the system from production to consumption, including the value chains and institutions in between. He works on sustainable agricultural practices and systems, natural farming, agroecology, healthy soils, crop diversification, livestock and dairy, nutrition and dietary diversity, alternative proteins, and AFOLU pathways for India towards 2047 and 2070. This includes work on the policy, procurement and market conditions that shape sustainable production and consumption, as well as private-sector transition through coalitions. His work has also included building evidence on sustainable agriculture and working with national and state institutions, including NITI Aayog, to inform approaches and pathways to agricultural transformation.

A part of this work focuses on the political economy of agriculture and food systems — particularly how subsidies, incentives and institutional interests shape farmer choices and the direction of transition.

His work on the green economy and bioeconomy focuses on the economic opportunities emerging from the transition to more sustainable production systems. He works across food, feed, fibre and fuel, with a focus on sustainable sourcing, emerging green value chains, jobs and investment, and the market ecosystems needed to support new forms of economic activity. This includes exploring opportunities for local entrepreneurship and livelihood diversification as India’s green economy develops.

Alongside this, Apoorve works on alternative development pathways, exploring how India can move beyond a predominantly GDP-centric model of development and rethink what constitutes progress and prosperity. This work looks at alternative measures of progress, institutional and economic models, and the role of individuals, communities, government and markets in shaping India’s development trajectory towards 2047.

A systems-thinking approach underpins his work across these areas. He looks at how structures, incentives, information flows, feedback, institutions and system goals interact, and where changes can create leverage for wider transformation.

He is a member of the NITI Aayog expert panel on developing evidence-based climate actions for resilient, low-emission agri-food systems. He also serves on the Technical Committee on Agriculture, Food and Water Security for India’s Climate Finance Taxonomy at the Department of Economic Affairs. He is a member of the BRICS Business Council’s Agriculture Working Group – India Chapter, hosted by FICCI, and serves on two working groups of the ICFA Agriculture Policy Council on climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security.

Before joining CEEW, Apoorve was a Senior Strategy Consultant at NewForesight in the Netherlands, advising agro-food organisations across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. Before that, he spent seven years at Bharat Petroleum Corporation, where he built its Bio-renewables R&D function and contributed to national biofuel policy.

He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from IIT Delhi and an MBA from INSEAD, where he graduated on the Dean’s List. Since 2025, he has also been an adjunct faculty member at Rishihood University.