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Shipra Dawar

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Shipra Dawar
Born (1988-08-16) August 16, 1988 (age 36)
Chandigarh
CitizenshipIndian
Alma materAustralian National University
Occupation(s)CEO and Founder
Organization(s)IWill Therapy, IWill GiTA, Bharat Bhagya Vidhata Forum

Shipra Dawar is an Indian entrepreneur and founder of ePsyClinic, an online mental health platform launched in 2015. She also introduced IWill GITA, a Hindi-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy platform in 2022, and co-founded the Bharat Bhagya Vidhata Forum in 2023. Dawar's work focuses on mental health accessibility and technological innovation.

Early life and education

Early life

Dawar was born in Chandigarh, India. Her father worked as a banker, a profession that required the family to relocate frequently across the country. Alongside his banking career, her father engaged in community service, particularly supporting women’s self-help groups. These experiences shaped Dawar's interest in social welfare, which is reflected in the workforce composition of her mental health portal, ePsyClinic, where women make up 80 percent of the team.

Education

In 2019, she attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for an on-campus certificate program in Scaling Ventures. Most recently, in 2022, she completed a Certificate Executive Program in Public Policy at the Indian School of Business.

Business career

Epsyclinic

Dawar founded ePsyClinic in 2015, inspired by her personal experiences with mental health challenges and a desire to address the significant gap in access to psychological services in India. During her time as a student in Australia, Dawar faced homesickness-related depression, which adversely affected her academic performance. A professor’s suggestion to seek counselling marked a turning point in her life. Initially hesitant due to the stigma surrounding mental health, she eventually sought professional help, which not only improved her well-being but also enabled her to excel academically.

Recognizing the widespread prevalence of mental health issues in India—where nearly 197.3 million people experience depression, anxiety, or stress-related problems—Dawar sought to create a solution that would make psychological services more accessible. ePsyClinic was launched as an online counselling platform, bringing therapy directly into the comfort of users' homes. The platform aimed to break the barriers of stigma, geography, and accessibility by connecting users with qualified mental health professionals through a secure digital interface.

IWill GITA

In 2022, Dawar introduced IWill GITA, a Hindi-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) platform, with initial funding from Microsoft. The platform aimed to provide mental health support for Hindi-speaking populations and underserved communities in India, focusing on individuals experiencing mild depression and anxiety. The development of IWill GITA utilized Microsoft's Azure Machine Learning suite to create conversational models capable of delivering therapeutic interactions within the framework of CBT.

The platform was designed with safeguards to ensure safety and reliability, addressing common challenges in AI implementation, such as providing responses grounded in evidence-based practices. During its pilot phase, the tool reached over 3,500 users and was scaled further through partnerships in India. In 2024, Microsoft renewed its funding to support the expansion of IWill GITA, with the goal of increasing access to mental health resources.

The project aligns with broader efforts to integrate technology into mental health care delivery, addressing the needs of over 615 million Hindi speakers in India. Efforts to scale the platform continue, with an emphasis on creating accessible solutions for individuals experiencing mental health challenges.

Bharat Bhagya Vidhata Forum

In 2023, Dawar co-founded Bharat Bhagya Vidhata Forum, a policy think tank focused on advancing transformative technologies. The organization aims to support the development of innovative technologies and contribute to policy frameworks that enhance India's role in the global technology landscape.

Awards and recognition

  1. Featured in Microsoft Azure AI's Women’s History Month
  2. Featured in Niti Ayog's top 6 Ideas for Thinking for Our Planet- 75 Ideas to Promote LiFE
  3. Fox Story India’s 40 Under 40 2023 List
  4. Member at G20's - B20 Digital Transformation Task Force

Media presence

  1. Ted Talk on How to overcome depression of failure
  2. Ted Talk on The Pain, The Change, The Perseverance. Let's Talk, Depression
  3. Microsoft's Imagine | Promises and practices of mental health and tech
  4. Microsoft's Addressing the mental health care gap with IWill

References

  1. ^ Dutt D'Cunha, Suparna (March 7, 2017). "This Online Clinic Is Helping Over 400 Indians Every Day Access Mental Health Care". pp. 1–2.
  2. ^ Tanase, Ioana (2024-05-08). "IWill GITA is leveraging Generative AI to expand mental healthcare". Microsoft Accessibility Blog. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  3. Public Policy Dialogues-Bridging Research and Practice. Bharti Institute of Public Policy. 2023-01-26. Retrieved 2025-01-03 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ MSFTEnable (2024-04-18). Addressing the mental health care gap with IWill. Retrieved 2025-01-02 – via YouTube.
  5. "Business Success Story: Shipra Dawars Inspirational Journey From Ambition To Achievement". Zee News. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  6. kar, ashok. Vol. 1 Issue 4 Weekly 1- 7 Jan 2024.
  7. ^ "Shipra Dawar (शिप्रा डावर) - Founder & CEO at ePsyClinic". The Org. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  8. Sagar, Rajesh; Dandona, Rakhi; Gururaj, Gopalkrishna; Dhaliwal, R S; Singh, Aditya; Ferrari, Alize; Dua, Tarun; Ganguli, Atreyi; Varghese, Mathew; Chakma, Joy K; Kumar, G Anil; Shaji, K S; Ambekar, Atul; Rangaswamy, Thara; Vijayakumar, Lakshmi (February 2020). "The burden of mental disorders across the states of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990–2017". The Lancet Psychiatry. 7 (2): 148–161. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30475-4. ISSN 2215-0366. Archived from the original on 2024-10-09.
  9. Tanase, Ioana (2023-01-10). "How AI is being used to improve mental health". Microsoft Accessibility Blog. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  10. ^ Sykes, Victoria (2024-03-29). "Microsoft Azure AI celebrates Women's History Month". Microsoft Azure Blog. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  11. "World Hindi Day 2024: History, significance, and leaders who took the language global". The Times of India. 2024-01-10. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  12. "Top 8 Women Entrepreneurs Bringing The Change: Women Entrepreneurship Day".
  13. "About Section".
  14. Thinking for Our Planet- 75 Ideas to Promote LiFE (PDF). Niti Ayog. 2023.
  15. India, Fox Story (2023-12-18). "Fox Story India's 40 Under 40 2023 - Fox Story India". Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  16. B20 INDIA 2023- Task Force on Digital Transformation (PDF). 2023.
  17. TEDx Talks (2019-07-09). How to overcome depression of failure. Retrieved 2025-01-02 – via YouTube.
  18. TEDx Talks (2018-06-13). The Pain, The Change, The Perseverance. Let's Talk, Depression. Retrieved 2025-01-02 – via YouTube.
  19. "Public Health Leadership", Introduction to Public Health: Promises and Practices, New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, January 2024, ISBN 978-0-8261-8614-0, retrieved 2025-01-02
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