Our Team

Rakesh Dubbudu

Rakesh closely watched the ‘Jan Satyagraha’ in 2012 and the courage and conviction of the man who led it inspired him to make ‘ engagement and not confrontation’ his core principle. Rakesh is an Open Data evangelist and experienced transparency (RTI) campaigner in India who won the US State Department Fellowship in 2014. Rakesh graduated from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal. He has immense knowledge and experience in understanding government policy & data. He is a fearless leader with an empirical world view. Rakesh is the editorial lead and the idea machine at FACTLY.

Shashi Kiran Deshetti

Shashi was always intrigued by the public good that technology can do. This is what prompted him to explore various data/information tool ideas. He graduated with a masters in computer science and has extensive experience in software project management. He is the in house data scientist and guru who oversees rolling out product prototypes and developing technology infrastructure.The products in development at Factly are open source and can be found at Factly’s Github page. Shashi is technology lead at FACTLY.

Tejeswi Pratima Dodda

As a young school girl, Tejeswi worked as a door to door campaigner for the Pulse Polio Immunization campaign that influenced her deeply & shaped her thoughts about the relationship between information and theory of change. She was formerly with NDTV as a journalist & recipient of the CNN Young Journalist Award – Asia for her investigative reporting in 2007. She is also the recipient of the AAUW International Fellowship for commitment to women & girls.She is passionate about public information & its role in making communities engaged and self-sufficient. Tejeswi is the communication lead at FACTLY.

Manoj Manduva

Manoj believes that social change can happen through engagement and engagement needs good design to have sustainable functionality. He graduated from the National Institute of Design and specializes in information and interaction design. He has extensive experience & passion for data visualization and user experience. He is keen to use creative energies for advancement of societies through bridging the gap between knowledge and understanding. Manoj is the creative eye of FACTLY.

Staff

Bharath Guniganti (Lead – Operations)

A Software Engineer turned Entrepreneur, Bharath is passionate about teaching, politics and social change. He believes data driven inferences will lead everyone to make better choices and has potential to offer solutions to various problems, which made him associate with Factly ever since its inception. He is a Google certified trainer on Debunking – Fake News and leads projects at Factly.

Uday Erothu (Team leader – Graphic Design)

“Observing everything around us makes our design simple, better and elegant”, is what Uday believes in and brings to the table at Factly as its inhouse Graphic Designer. Uday won ‘Best Infographic Award’ for his illustration on ‘Prenatal Care and Pregnancy’ in 2017. Uday loves music and looks for new conversations and experiences.

Surya Kandukuri (Data Analyst)

Surya is an IT professional who completed his Business Analytics course from ISB, Hyderabad. He works on mining insights and creating data tools from the data in the public domain and collaborates with the Government of Telangana to make their public data open source. Sometimes he feels trapped in the rectangular box of excel sheets and sometimes dances in it. He is very interested in philosophy, languages, poetry, art, photography, and music.

Aila Bandagi Kandlakunta (Research Associate)

Aila Bandagi is a social scientist by training and specializes in Urban Development and Gender Studies. Her work at Factly entails fact checking articles related to government claims.She believes, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says ‘The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.’ She is an activist, loves to explore cities and dance.

Jyothi Jeeru (Graphic Designer)

Jyoti Jeeru graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University. She was awarded the Prime Minister’s Merit scholarship for her education. She likes to spend her time by creating illustrations and designing characters. She is passionate about creating art and aspires to be a professional artist.

Sai Santosh Vangala (Research Associate)

Sai Santosh is an engineer by education and a liberal by conviction. He is a Sudoku junkie and meditates through solving the Rubik’s Cube. He is passionate about public policy and advocates for social justice.