Avnita Bir

Mrs. Avnita Bir, Director Principal, R N Podar School, Mumbai, is an internationally known personality in the education sector. A graduate in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College and Post-Graduate in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, Mrs. Bir has worked in the field of Education for over four decades.

Bir has won awards including the EQFI India Education Awards 2008 for Excellence in Education from the Education Quality Foundation of India and Educational Leadership Award in 2011 by ICS. She has been a member on the board of education reforms committee of Kapil Sibal and later, had been appointed as a member of the governing body of CBSE India. She was featured in newspapers,magazines and bulletins conducted by news channels like NDTV which concentrated on education and other issues related to students. She has been selected for Kon Boon Hwee Scholars award (2013) for the inspirational mentorship she has offered.[13] Additionally she is one of 80 educators selected by Microsoft for their Mentor School program, which was held in Barcelona, Spain. FICCI FLO conferred on her the Outstanding Woman Achiever Award in the year of 2014 for her contributions in the field of education.[15] She was a presenter and a co-panelist, representing India at Google Education Symposium organised at Mountain View, California, November 2014.

At around the same time in 2016, acknowledging the pivotal role she played in the fields of Technology and Education, she was appointed a member in the advisory board of Google's Global.Edu, a global initiative to bring on-board various leaders, educators, teachers and students for transforming education. In 2023, she was conferred the Lokmani Lal lifetime excellence award by Maharshi Patanjali Vidya Mandir, an award to recognise and honour exceptional teachers from across the country.

She has co-authored two books on economics.