Ved Arya is a graduate of IIT Kanpur (1979) and IIM Ahemdabad (1981). After spending a couple of years with TCS, Ved decided to give up his corporate career and devote his life to improving the life of people at the very bottom of the socio-economic ladder.

In 1997, He started an NGO, SRIJAN (Self-Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action,  with the aim of alleviating poverty in villages. The programs that SRIJAN has implemented include Bundelkhand Initiative for Water, Agriculture, and Livelihoods (BIWAL) SRIJAN has branches in 6 states and has impacted 125,000 rural poor families through reviving traditional water bodies, nano orchards (horticulture), and marketing of milk, custard apple and pomegranate.

While SRIJAN continues to focus on  development projects in six states, in 2018 Ved stepped away from actively running SRIJAN to start another initiative, the Buddha Fellowship Program/Buddha Institute. The Buddha Fellowship Program (BFP) aims to nurtures a network of 1000 social entrepreneurs that in turn uplifts the poor economically and restoring their dignity. BFP aims to impact 5 million people by 2030.

During the pandemic, Ved founded an NGO collaborative, called RCRC.  It has brought more than 80 NGOs that have collective outreach of 16 million people in 15 states of India. RCRC raised over 7 million USD for helping covid-affected population.Over 144,800 families benefitted from accessing entitlements under the government scheme called Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) and 4 million people were trained in covid appropriate behaviour.

In 1990, Ved was invited by the US government as Humbert Humphrey Fellow in 1990. During this Fellowship, he went to John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and worked at The World Bank.

Ved is a member of several policy making bodies. He is a member of several policy making bodies including the Advisory Committee, Promotion of Producers' Enterprises, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Ved was a member of the Technical Group on Social Stock Exchange set up by SEBI.

In 2020, IIT Kanpur conferred on him a Distinguished Alumnus Award.  

In 2018, Business Standard chose him to be Social Entrepreneur of the Yea.

Publications

Ved Arya and Tejinder S Bhogal. Human Resource Strategies to Build Pro-Poor Institutions. McGraw Hill Education. 2014. ISBN-13:978-93-392-1827-0.

Ved Arya and Shah, Dhruvi. The Book of Aspiration.  It is a collection of memoirs of ten carefully selected social leaders. Notion Press. December, 2020. 

His articles have been published by IFPRI, Washington and ODI, London. He has written for Hindustan Times, New Delhi, and India Development Review.